Paris (AFP)

The government intends to strengthen its bill against separatism, by sanctioning those who publish, especially online, personal information "endangering the lives of others", an announcement coming a week after the beheading of Samuel Paty.

At the end of a Defense Council of more than two hours on Friday at the Elysee Palace, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that two provisions would come to "complete" this text, which will be presented to the Council of Ministers on December 9 and which will be before Parliament by the end of the year.

There will first be "the possibility of sanctioning those who put personal information endangering the life of others online, such as a professor," said the Prime Minister, a week after the beheading in the middle of the street of the professor Samuel Paty in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.

Second measure: "strengthening the protection of civil servants and public officials by penalizing those who put pressure on them, as happened in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine against Mr. Paty and the principal of the college" , added Mr. Castex during a quick statement to the press at the Elysee Palace, not followed by questions from journalists contrary to what was expected.

"With the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin and the Keeper of the Seals Éric Dupont-Moretti, we are now working on an offense of endangering the life of others on the Internet, for those who publish private data, address, number This is what happened for example against Zineb El Rhazoui ", the former journalist of Charlie Hebdo threatened with death, specified the Minister Delegate in charge of Citizenship Marlène Schiappa in an interview with the Obs mis online Friday.

- "Counter-propaganda" -

The Prime Minister then went to Brussels, where he insisted on the urgency of a "much stronger regulation" of social networks at European level, after a meeting with the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and in Digital, Thierry Breton, who is due to present legislation on December 2 to better regulate platforms.

"Online hatred and its impunity endanger our democracies. They must unite and act: this is the first subject that I raised with" the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, a- He insists.

At the end of the Defense Council, Mr. Castex also underlined that "1,279 reports to the Pharos platform, a specialist service responsible for collecting illegal reports on the Internet, enabled 27 arrests".

"56 home visits" were made out of the 123 "decided" after the attack.

Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old history and geography teacher, was beheaded on October 16, ten days after showing his 4th year students caricatures of Muhammad during a free speech class.

He had been the target of social networks and online mobilization.

After his indictment on Wednesday in this case, Brahim Chnina, the parent of a student who had posted two videos calling for mobilization against the teacher, saw his request for release rejected on Friday.

In L'Obs, Ms. Schiappa also announces the creation of a "republican counter-discourse unit on social networks", placed under the authority of the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Crime and Radicalization, headed by the Prefect Christian Gravel.

"We are seeing the development of discourses of Islamists on the web, of systematic victimization, without anyone denying them. What we want to do is carry a discourse of counter-propaganda," she explains, referring to a "tipping point".

"This is not another attack. We need a speech against the ideology that precedes terrorism," insists Ms. Schiappa.

leb-jmt-jk-alm / dlm

© 2020 AFP