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Former Prime Minister of New Zealand and special envoy for the Christchurch Appeal Jacinda Ardern arrives at the 5th Christchurch Appeal Summit, co-chaired by her and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on Nov. 10, 2023.
Call to crack down on terrorist content
OpenAI and Anthropic, two of AI’s biggest startups, signed on to the Christchurch Call to Action at a summit in Paris on Friday, pledging to suppress terrorist content. The perpetrator of the Christchurch shooting was reportedly radicalized by far-right content on Facebook and YouTube, and he livestreamed the attack on Facebook.
While the companies have agreed to “regular and transparent public reporting” about their efforts, the commitment is voluntary — meaning they won’t face real consequences for any failures to comply. Still, it’s a strong signal that the battle against online extremism, which started with social media companies, is now coming for AI companies.
Under US law, internet companies are generally protected from legal liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The issue was deflected by the Supreme Court last year in two terrorism-related cases, with the Justices ruling that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing to sue Google and Twitter under US anti-terrorism laws. But there’s a rich debate brewing as to whether Section 230 protects AI chatbots like ChatGPT, a question that’s bound to wind up in court. Sen. Ron Wyden, one of the authors of Section 230, has called AI “unchartered territory” for the law.
Fallout from riots in France
Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: Hi, everybody, and a happy Fourth to you. Just a couple of days in Nantucket. Very enjoyable. And wanted to talk a little bit about a place that is a little less enjoyable right now, which is France.
You've seen massive riots across the country over almost a week, the worst in nearly 20 years in France, which is really saying something for that country. Social protest is basically taken as sport and riots are frequent. But even in that context, this has been notable and exceptional. What what sparked it off has nothing to do with extending pensions from 62 to 64. Those were major demonstrations across the country, but basically just shut down the economy for a period of time. Not so much violent protests. No, these violent riots and lootings and the like were set off by the French police gunning down a 17 year old French boy about Algerian descent. He was trying to get away from the police. They were trying to stop him. The police immediately said that he was killed in self-defense, that he was trying to run the police over. That turned out very quickly to be a lie because there was video capturing the French gunning at him as he was trying to get away and that it's kind of a George Floyd type situation in France. The response is deeply political. In other words, what you believe about who is responsible depends very little on the facts of the case and overwhelmingly on where you happen to stand politically. On the one hand, you've got Muslims that are seen by the right in France as taking over French identity, as not really being French. Big structural problems in France, in the suburbs outside of the wealthier French cities where most of the Muslim population lives. A lot of drug trafficking there, a lot of violent crime, a lot of poverty. If you ask the average French citizen what percentage of the population is Muslim, on average, they respond by saying a third, which is insane. It's actually some 10%. But that sensibility gives you a sense of how this is played on the right politically in France.
On the left, you're blaming the police, which treats Muslims considerably worse than than non-Muslims in France. One recent study in France showed that Muslims were 20 times more likely to be asked to shown their papers by police than others in routine traffic stops. 17 drivers, almost all Muslims, have been shot dead by the French police in the last year and a half. Now, if you're an American, you you see that and you say, hey, only 17, that's not actually that bad. That sounds like a bad weekend in Chicago, right on the south side. But but this is like in the United States, an issue that has not been dealt with, an issue that is being swept under the rug. Macron needs the police on his side so he doesn't push them very hard. But he has come out and immediately said this was unacceptable behavior and has detained the French police officer. And the hard right is pushing down on Macron really, really strongly as a consequence. Meanwhile, these are not peaceful protests. I want to be very clear. This is widespread looting. This is arson. It's violence, and well over 500 police injured as a consequence of all of it. So it is it is a pretty big deal. The far left in France is condemning the police. They have taken the side clearly of not just the protesters, but many actively even supporting the rioters and the looters, the far right defending the police and specifically the detained police officer and some even talking about these areas of of Muslims in France being called foreign enclaves, even though a majority of those living there are French citizens.
And the danger here is that while Macron is a creature of the center in politically and trying to balance both sides, the reality is that both the far left and the far right are going to get more popular across France on the back of this episode. And so, I mean, democracy and democratic institutions in France are getting weaker. The present trajectory for democracy in France is in trouble, frankly, just much as it is in the United States, much as it is in Brazil, where I just was last week. I am happy to say that after six days of of violence and rioting and looting, today life in France is a lot more calm. Politically, this looks bad for Macron on the international stage. King Charles had to cancel a visit. Macron had to cancel a state visit that was quite important to go to Germany over the weekend. He's got a respite for the time being, but you wouldn't say it's because he's managed it well. You'd say this is a structural problem that is only going to get worse in France going forward, and we'll be watching it very closely.
So that's the news for Monday, and I hope everyone has a happy Fourth tomorrow if you're in the United States, for those that celebrate, as they say, and for all the rest of us, let's keep on keep it on. Talk to you soon.
French riots highlight policing problem
Carl Bildt, co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations and former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics.
Does France have a policing problem?
Well, I mean, primarily they got a riot problem. This is a third major wave of severe riots that President Macron is facing. The first was the "yellow vests," as they were called. The second was the protest over pension reforms, which was more overtly political. And this has been triggered by the police killing a young guy in a Paris suburb a couple of days ago. It's a severe issue. They do have a police problem, although substantially less than we find in the United States. Let's see what happens. President Macron has been forced to cancel his important visit to Berlin in order to focus on these issues. Let's see what happens. It's a rather French phenomenon.
What's been the fallout of the coup or the mutiny attempt in Moscow?
Well, the answer to that is that we simply don't know. We don't know exactly what happened during the day of the mutiny of the rebellion. We know even less perhaps of the fallout that is going to play out over quite some time. When these things happened, they fundamentally shake a regime, and this regime has been shaken. Putin is now trying to regain strength in different ways. To some extent, he might succeed. To some extent, it's highly unlikely that he will succeed. So, the development of Russia has entered a new phase. Whether this will have an effect on the battlefield. We haven't seen that as of yet. But there's a lot on this that we haven't seen as of yet.
US intel leak could cause problems in Putin's Russia
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics from Washington, DC.
What's been the fallout from President Macron's visit to China?
Confusion might perhaps be the most diplomatic way of phrasing it. Because whatever he meant to say, he phrased it in such a way that it gave rise to a lot of misunderstanding. It was interpreted, not least on this side of the Atlantic, as a fundamentally different policy on Taiwan. That is not the case. We have fundamentally the same policy in Europe and the US on Taiwan, the One-China policy, not support for Taiwan independence, strong support for Taiwan's democracy, and a resolute opposition to any attempts at changing the status quo by force. That would have been a better way of phrasing it from President Macron side.
What's going to be the fallout from the US intelligence leaks?
Well, I think there will be or there is a certain amount of turmoil here in Washington over it, by necessity. There is a certain amount of surprise in Europe, by necessity. But I think the fallout, as a matter of fact, might be stronger over time in Moscow, because the leaks do indicate that the US has penetrated fairly deep Russian structures, very deeply. I don't think that in terms of gathering intelligence, I don't think Vladimir Putin will take very lightly to this. So my guess is that as a result of intelligence leaks, you will find that more heads rolling in Moscow than heads will be rolling in Washington.
Macron's China visit hasn't moved Xi on Ukraine
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics from Tabiano Castello, Italy.
What's the fallout from President Macron's visit to China?
That remains to be seen. There is still no sign, really, of him managing to move Xi Jinping on the issue of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. President Xi has not yet made that telephone call to President Zelensky that he said he was going to do. He says he's going to do it at some point in time. But whether some point in time is tomorrow or one year from now is left open, so remains to be seen.
What are the lessons of the Good Friday Agreement 25 years ago?
Well, President Biden now goes to Belfast to be part of the celebrations for the Good Friday Agreement. That's good. I think what we can learn from that is both to understand that conflicts of these sorts have very deep historical roots, and secondly, that it takes time to overcome. There is no violence in Northern Ireland. Brexit has created new problems, but there are still sectarian tensions. But peace agreements of this sort, they should be celebrated, but they require maintenance work over time as well in order to really work.
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Why Netanyahu relented to protests in Israel, but France's Macron didn't
Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.
Why did Netanyahu end up backing down to protests in Israel, but not Macron in France?
Well, they are two different countries. But really, in Israel, they hadn't yet pushed the reform through. At this point, Netanyahu hasn't said he is given up on it. He said he's waiting for 30 days. Now, he might not be able to get it through, but still, it wasn't like it was passed and then he said, "Too much. Now, I've got to undo it." Where in the case of Macron, he had already gotten the vote in the upper house. He'd already forced it through, avoiding the lower house through a constitutional measure, which meant that essentially he had already gotten the agreement and then he was dealing with massive demonstrations. Which, by the way, the demonstrations themselves not super popular in France, even though the pension reform is strongly opposed, so I'm not surprised by that.
Should the West be worried about North Korea developing tactical nuclear weapons?
We got two of these complicated questions. Well, I think that the fact that North Korea continues to expand its nuclear program is a deep concern, because they are an enormously impoverished rogue state, and there's no information on what really goes on inside that country, and there's no real effective diplomatic relations that any countries and certainly their adversaries have with them. So the increasing tests of ballistic missiles that we see going on is a concern, is a worry. In fact, the only thing that calmed them down recently was when Trump met with Kim Jong-Un, and then they did the freeze-for-freeze informally. So you didn't have US military exercises with South Korea, with Japan, and you didn't have tests of ballistic missiles from North Korea. Of course, that's gone and now the tensions are greater. Frankly, there should be more engagement between the two sides.
China is going to break up Alibaba into six parts. What does this tell us about the state of Xi's tech crackdown?
I think more importantly is the fact that Jack Ma is back in China and was clearly told by the Chinese, "Hey, we're not going to arrest you. This would be a really good time to come back." So too, the fact that someone who had been under arrest, involved in the semiconductor program has now been released to start working again. This is the Chinese government saying, "Yes, there's state control, but we want to focus on growth and we want effective response to US and allied export controls on semiconductors, so we have to really empower the private sector with state restrictions, but also with state investment. Whether that's going to be effective or not, very open question, but the Chinese are clearly trying to pile all in on their own national champions in this advanced technology space.
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French protests strengthen the far right & far left
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective from Venice, Italy, on the French protests and Boris Johnson's Partygate fallout.
What's really happening in France?
It's a very difficult situation. Protests all over the place. The political landscape is fractured. What's going to happen in the National Assembly is everyone's guess. And it is, for the moment, strengthen both the far right and the far left, with the center of French politics imploding. Difficult situation for Macron. Let's hope that he gets through it.
Have we now seen the end of the political career of Boris Johnson in the UK?
That remains to be seen. I don't think there's ever an end to that, more or less. But what has been happening is that Prime Minister Sunak has been able to get control of the Conservative Party. He got through the agreement with the European Union on Northern Ireland, and it was only Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and a couple of the hard liners that voted against. So I think he is now in better control of the party and Boris Johnson is more isolated than he's been for a long time. Good news.
Israeli constitutional crisis despite compromise attempts
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective from Jerusalem on the protests in Israel and France.
What is really happening in Israel?
Well, it is really a profound crisis. It is cultural. We might argue it is political. It's got to be constitutional. The new government of Prime Minister Netanyahu, very much to the right, is trying to change the constitutional legal order of the country, and that is heavily opposed by large segments of Israeli society. The president has been trying to broker compromises failed, the crisis was only deepened to the detriment of the society and strength of Israel.
What is happening in France with the pension reform?
Well, this is a key thing for President Macron in his efforts to modernize and make France a more productive country and productive economy in the future with pension reform. He has been heavily opposed. And he hoped that he was going to get it through the National Assembly fairly easily. He had to resort to other extremely unusual, not unique, but unusual constitutional measures. He got it through profound crisis, heavy opposition. His government will face a vote of non-confidence, likely to survive it. And I think President Macron will actually get the reform through.
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