However, Matrix developers have confirmed that the app in question will be based on the federated chat Matrix protocol (a more modern XMPP/Jabber competitor) and, more specifically, on the Riot client, which uses this protocol.
Wonderful. Hopefully that means that the French gov’t will be helping to fund of Riot and/or Synapse. Heck, even if they make a competing client/server it’s still a win in my book. Open federated protocols are wonderful.
The French government is also funding the anonymous payment system GNU Taler. I wish I knew more about the free software/digital rights movement in France, but it makes me really happy.
Bernard Cazeneuve was the PM from the former (François Hollande) government, and even then he was called out by various state organizations (article in French, sorry).
Emmanuel Macron himself said something like this sometime, but he had to retract the next day. In general, in France like elsewhere, politicians don’t really understand that topic and listen to lobbies on both sides. Fortunately, in the case of Macron, the lobbies he listens to the most are pro-encryption.
Wonderful. Hopefully that means that the French gov’t will be helping to fund of Riot and/or Synapse. Heck, even if they make a competing client/server it’s still a win in my book. Open federated protocols are wonderful.
Le Minitel 2.0!
The French government is also funding the anonymous payment system GNU Taler. I wish I knew more about the free software/digital rights movement in France, but it makes me really happy.
Could Signal not be an alternative?
From what I have heard, Signal has been considered but there is an issue with some metadata going to the US.
By the sounds of it they are just hosting a matrix server and riot.
maybe they want to be able to customize their own clients or host their communications on their own servers
As long it’s not available for its citizens that is..
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/24/encryption-under-fire-in-europe-as-france-and-germany-call-for-decrypt-law/
Bernard Cazeneuve was the PM from the former (François Hollande) government, and even then he was called out by various state organizations (article in French, sorry).
Emmanuel Macron himself said something like this sometime, but he had to retract the next day. In general, in France like elsewhere, politicians don’t really understand that topic and listen to lobbies on both sides. Fortunately, in the case of Macron, the lobbies he listens to the most are pro-encryption.
With INRIA and INP in France, making so much progress on formal verification, I’d say this has a good chance of succeeding.
Why does the government have to drive this?