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France bans ministers from WhatsApp, Signal; demands French alternatives. (www.politico.eu)

submitted 11 months ago by pylapp@programming.dev to c/privacy@programming.dev

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After the Tchap project based on Matrix, the French Prime Minister asks anyone in the gouvernement to use Olvid, the only app validated by the ANSSI, with metadata encryption and no centralised architecture nor contacts discovery. But only the front-ends are open source, not the back-end.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/france-requires-ministers-to-swap-whatsapp-signal-for-french-alternatives/

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[–] pkill@programming.dev 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah yeah all is great. But we often hear about 'corporate lobbying' and you've described things mostly carried out by individuals or nonprofits. Now I'm not saying that some corporate entities cannot convince politicians to do anything without bribing them. But the purpose of any private company is creating profits for the shareholders. If they fund a biased research or fabricate evidence to prove their point in talks with governmental bodies that can result in securing more profits, but do not hand money to any politician then is it corruption or lobbying? Or what if they offer their software in exchange for providing backdoors for the government? Or if they engage in price dumping to win a government tender just so that they can overcharge elsewhere?

[–] lysdexic@programming.dev 1 points 11 months ago

But we often hear about ‘corporate lobbying’ and you’ve described things mostly carried out by individuals or nonprofits.

No, I'm describing lobbying. The definition of lobbying doesn't depend on your market capitalization or revenue. A corporation does lobbying, just like unions do and industry representatives and community groups. If you have personal interests and want to raise awareness with stakeholders then you reach out to them.

I mean, Wikipedia's article on lobbying also refers to it as advocacy. From Wikipedia;

In politics, lobbying or advocacy, is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies, but also judges of the judiciary.

"Attempting to influence" is the operative principle.

And so is "lawfully". Which is not the same as the corruption you pinned on "Eastern countries".