French Police Wants To Ban Tor And Public WiFi

It has been several weeks since the terrorist attacks in Paris left 130 people dead and more than 300 injured, but it is still fresh in the minds of many around the world. So what can France do to help curb these attacks? According to a report from French newspaper Le Monde (via Motherboard), the French police have come up with some ideas of their own.

According to the internal document that Le Monde managed to get their hands on, it seems that the French police have proposed that the Tor network and public WiFi be banned, although the latter will only come into effect during a state of emergency, or at least that’s what the proposal is asking for.

For those unfamiliar with Tor, basically this is a network that helps users communicate with each other anonymously. While it has been linked to criminal activities in the past, the Tor network can also be used for good, like for journalists who are sourcing sensitive information and don’t want to be tracked doing it.

It is unclear if this proposal will go into effect and more importantly, how will France actually go about banning the network. China has successfully done so to a certain degree by blocking access nodes, but this isn’t 100% effective as there are workarounds, but what do you guys think? Will these proposals help during a state of emergency and curb the ability of terrorists to organize themselves online?

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: safety, Security, Tor