France sought to keep a computer hack of frontrunner Emmanuel Macron’s campaign emails from influencing the outcome of the presidential election, with the electoral commission warning on Saturday that it may be a criminal offence to republish the data. Macron’s team said a “massive” hack had dumped emails, documents and campaign financing information online just before campaigning ended on Friday and France entered a quiet period, effectively forbidding politicians from commenting on the leak.
Polls have been predicting that Macron, a former investment banker and economy minister, is on course for a comfortable win over far-right leader Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s election, with the last surveys showing his lead widening to around 62 percent to 38.
…The election commission, which supervises the electoral process, warned social and traditional media not to publish the hacked emails lest they influence the vote outcome…
“On the eve of the most important election for our institutions, the commission calls on everyone present on internet sites and social networks, primarily the media, but also all citizens, to show responsibility and not to pass on this content, so as not to distort the sincerity of the ballot,” the commission said in a statement on Saturday.
“The commission stresses that publication or republication of these data…could be a criminal offence,” it said.
That’s right: withholding information from the voters because they can’t be trusted to be fair and discerning about what is relevant to their vote and what isn’t is to preserve “the sincerity of the ballot.” This is how they reason in countries without guaranteed freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. Florian Philippot, deputy leader of Le Pen’s National Front party, tweeted “Will Macronleaks teach us something that investigative journalism has deliberately kept silent?” Good question.
Asks Althouse,
“What if you knew there was one document, relevant to the decision, but unfair — because there’s no time for the candidate to respond, no time to get at what is true — one document, and no one was saying what was in it, only telling you not to look at it, but all you needed to do was click and you’d see it? Would you look?”
What? What spineless, toadying, future totalitarian boot-lick wouldn’t look? I’ll decide what information is reliable, thanks, not the government. Ann just described about 75% of the political news stories in the Age of the Democratic Operative News Media. The good news: in her blog poll, 94% said that they would look, because they would trust themselves.
I was pondering this story as I learned that actor comic Stephen Fry, the best Jeeves ever, was being “investigated” by Irish police for blasphemy after he called God an ‘utter maniac’ who is ‘mean-minded and stupid’ on television.
And this, my friends, is why I react with disdain when a commenter here, or a pundit, cites as a reason why the United States should have different policies, laws or traditions because “we’re the only Western country/First World nation that doesn’t have X.”
The kind of thinking and values illustrated by these two stories shows why the determination of what is “right” in other cultures is not authority of any kind to be used as persuasion that the United States should have a different approach than it does.
See: health care, capital punishment; gun control, contingent fees for lawyers, et al.
Ethics Alarms 
Your second to last paragraph pretty much summed up one time tested parenting statement when confronted by the child’s argument “that all the other kids are doing it”,
If everyone jumped off a cliff would you want to do it too?
It’s a good thing for Mr. Fry that the Bible supports his conjecture.
I like Stephen Fry’s work. So for those who haven’t seen his show with Hugh Laurie “A Bit of Fry and Laurie” you’re missing out, and you should watch it.
Oh, oh Jack. Typo found: “for blasphemy” twice! God is watching.
That typo is a crime in Ireland.
Fixed.
On the plus side, this isn’t working at all
m.slashdot.org/story/325895
Side question, is it ethical for them to be distributing the information anyway using this method (or any other)?
If the French are too stupid to protect themselves, they should be overrun and taken over. Natural consequences. Open borders in a free nation is an invitation to invasion, every time it has been tried
If the French are too stupid to protect themselves, they should be overrun and taken over.
Didn’t this happen in WW II?
French history repeats itself over and over. If it were not for the arrogant French, France would do just fine
I’m especially fond of the scene in Mars Attacks! when France tries to make a separate peace with the Martian invaders…
They did try to protect themselves. Unfortunely they learned the wrong lessons from WW1: Build the Maginot Line and use the tanks to support infantry!
I think the wrong lesson was “don’t watch a competitor nation build up a massive army over the period of a decade and pretend like they don’t plan on using it”
As much as I like to disdain the French, they did put up a remarkably good resistance considering the onslaught that came across the border. Yeah, the defense did end up melting away faster we’d like to admit…but then again, would OUR military preparations before WW2 have done much against the Wehrmacht?
Fair point.
We were not next door… and did not have a running dispute (centuries old) with a country that had every reason to want revenge. Apples and Oranges, Tex.
France has strong data privacy laws that apply to email data. Those laws do not exist in the US. It may be illegal to disseminate this data — but international data privacy is not my expertise.
International data privacy is, in this day and age (satellites, Wi-Fi, etc.), almost impossible to achieve. The absolute best computer security systems are stand-alones, which sort of defeats the purpose. Best way to approach it; if there’s something you don’t want universally known, don’t put it out there in any way.
Bingo. Unfortunately.
A better password than “password” is also a good idea…
No kidding. I had a buddy once, who used 1234 as his ATM pin.
…at least a thief would have to have had the card… email can be accessed from anywhere (kind of the point these days)
I have a fun internet quiz for you:
1) First teacher’s name
2) First pet’s name
3) First best friend’s name
4) Mother’s maiden name.
and just for giggles and on an unrelated topic, your bank account number please…
Thus taking care of:
A) Many passwords (Add ‘Birthday’ and you’d get MOST of them);
B) All security questions (Personally, I try to find the most arcane one I can, but most folks elect ‘easy to remember’), and;
C) All of your ready cash.
Wait wait wait wait…
The Irish have a government?
So the French establishment interfered with the French election…