Digital technology is finally taking center stage in the presidential election!

So we’re going to make sure that the terms of the debate surrounding digital technology are properly defined, without ideology or prejudice.

We will also fight unrealistic, misleading or dangerous proposals for the innovation and technological advances our country needs.

Together with all the organizations representing the digital sector, we’re giving the candidates an appointment on March 9 at the Cirque d’Hiver to confront them with the entire digital ecosystem.

Here are the proposals already on the table…

VALERIE PECRESSE puts the spotlight on digital governance

• High Council for Economic and Digital Sovereignty, reporting to the Prime Minister, to authorize foreign investment in France on the basis of national strategic interests
• National cyber prosecutor’s office + common platform accessible to all law enforcement agencies To identify cyber threats and facilitate information exchange
• Creation of a digital coordinator (on the model of the intelligence coordinator) reporting to the President of the Republic.
• Dedicated digital budget
• Creation of a national digital school for the civil service
• Act to create European software and digital infrastructure quotas
• Tax fairness between online and physical commerce
• Generalization of the digital check in place in the IDF region to help retailers go digital.
• Launch of a genuine 100% European sovereign cloud project
• Strengthening the legal status of data
• Reducing the digital divide by guaranteeing every French citizen access to a fast, high-quality Internet connection + developing digital training in the regions.

ERIC ZEMMOURfor digital sovereignty

• Funding for a French sovereign cloud to store strategic government and private sector data and sensitive French personal data in France
• Public investment in disruptive technologies (AI, quantum computing and semiconductors)
• Stepping up investment in blockchain and Web3 while creating a favorable environment for holding and creating crypto assets
• Support French digital champions at every stage of their development (through specific corporate and tax laws)
• Livret d’épargne Innovation (innovation savings account) to enable French people to invest tax-free in startups and innovative companies
• Accelerate the rollout of 4G and high-speed Internet throughout France to guarantee a secure connection for every French citizen and every business.
• Give a special place to teaching computer programming at secondary level, to meet the growing demand for jobs in the digital sector.

MARINE LE PEN meets the net giants

• Reduce the power of GAFAM.
• Set up a public social network. For the RN, only the courts should have the power to order the removal of content or the suspension of an account. On the proposed public network, “only the limitations of the law will apply [and] everyone will be able to express themselves and exchange freely”.

JEAN-LUC MELENCHON: nationalizing the digital age

• Constitutional review to enshrine the right to encryption of data and communications in the Constitution
• Providing France with a public data hosting service
• Creation of a public open-source software agency, particularly for government agencies
• Strengthening the CNIL’s resources to guarantee respect for privacy
• Guaranteeing net neutrality
• Guarantee a minimum right to free Internet access.
• Guaranteeing access to digital technology throughout France
• Application of the RGPD in the fight against discrimination
• Systematize the open data publication of public data

YANNICK JADOT: limiting digital technology

• Dismantling Gafam in Europe and France
• Setting European anti-trust standards for a diversified, decentralized digital ecosystem
• Moratorium on the construction of logistics platforms
• Data processing as close as possible to where it is produced + collegial governance of global Internet cables
• Creation of a digital public service
• Creation of an Algorithm Control Authority
• Controlling algorithms on cultural platforms
• Ban on behavioral advertising and micro-targeting
• Widespread use of open data and free and public software to guarantee data transparency and security
• Promoting free software
• Plan France haut débit
• Mission to study the impact of computer data storage on the climate

ANNE HIDALGO: regulating digital technology

• European tax harmonization with 3 new taxes: Tobin tax on financial transactions + tax on GAFAM + tax on multinationals
• Putting GAFAMs to work for the digital transition
• University digitization
• Creating 200 districts of digital excellence
• Boosting digital R&D
• Creation of a Green Data Hub to collect exposure data and cross-reference it with the Health Data Hub
• Data center operators’ charter to reduce their carbon footprint
• State certification to avoid greenwashing
• Deployment and pedagogical appropriation of inclusive digital technology
• Open data: free access to trading information