Technology to better fight homophobia. It was the idea of the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau. Invited to RMC’s Rothen s’igne program this October 24, he returned to the difficult fight against homophobic chants in football stadiums, a few hours before the OM-PSG clash.
In particular, it wants to use “smart” (or “algorithmic”) video surveillance tools, currently in the experimental phase.
Specifically, algorithmic video surveillance consists of adding a layer of software to analyze the images captured by surveillance cameras instead of by a human. The objective: to recognize suspicious behavior, but also risk situations.
It is not possible to identify it
As the website of the Ministry of the Interior reminds, the law, which provides for an experiment until March 2025 (started on the occasion of the 2024 Olympic Games), allows this software to be configured to recognize eight types of situations, including the presence of a person in a prohibited space, too many people in a crowd, a fire, or even an abandoned package.
In a stadium, such a tool could be used to detect the activities of certain fan groups, for example by lighting a smoke bomb. But the cases provided for by the law do not mention sound analysis at all, which could detect certain song lyrics.
Above all, algorithmic video surveillance is not facial recognition, something that is still prohibited by law: if people’s behavior can be analyzed, authorities have no right to use facial recognition software to identify particular fans.
At Tech&Co, Bruno Retailleau’s office specifies that algorithms could be used to better target surveillance cameras towards the most sensitive groups of followers. Here again, without a facial recognition tool, we assure you. This technological assistance could thus allow the police to have images to identify the authors of homophobic songs.
Despite warnings from the CNIL about an “uncontrolled widespread of these devices, by nature intrusive, would imply a risk of widespread surveillance and analysis in public spaces”, the government wants to perpetuate algorithmic video surveillance after March 2025.
An evaluation report on the use of algorithmic video surveillance must also be submitted to Parliament before the end of 2024.
Source: BFM TV
