Sarkozy's false-flag E-G8 attracts withering scorn

Nicolas Sarkozy's false-flag E-G8 project has blown up in his face. The French leader convened a meeting of "digital thinkers" that was supposed to be a kind of levelheaded discussion of how to "civilize" the Internet — Sarkozian code for censor, surveil and control. But the very people he hoped to woo spotted his project's hidden agenda straight away. The E-G8 White Paper is sharply critical of the exercise, and a coalition of civil society groups used the occasion to call on world leaders to fight censorship and surveillance and establish Net Neutrality.

Internet governance and civil society groups issued a statement charging that the "e-G8 Forum is organized by large Industry with access given only to industry and government actors… Big businesses already have a disproportionately large influence on public policy processes. For governments to sanction a dedicated meeting with top G8 leaders and officials to plan the global agenda for Internet related policies is inappropriate."

The French Internet activists at La Quadrature du Net have been even tougher. Governments "have entered an alliance with some of these companies, united in the fear of the new capabilities afforded to individuals by the Internet and computers," said spokesperson Jérémie Zimmermann.

So when Sarkozy took the stage of the e-G8 this morning, suspicions about his true motives were already rampant. And he did little to dispel them.

France attempts to "civilize" the Internet; Internet fights back

(Image: François Revol)