Is that a good situation, Minister for Digital? Tel Panoramix in Otis in Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, we wonder. Jean-Noël Barrot is certainly the owner of a morocco made for him. But he remains lurking in the shadow of Bruno Le Maire at Bercy, as well as that of Emmanuel Macron, who tends to keep the most beautiful pieces for himself, like the big announcements on AI during the last show VivaTech, at the arm of the new nugget of the sector, Mistral. Jean-Noël Barrot, however, found a way to show himself in the flattering role of the “sheriff”, within the supposed digital “Wild West”. Twice this year, the 40-year-old centrist has cast his intense azure gaze into that of Elon Musk. The last time by clearly expressing the possibility of banning Twitter (now X), the social network owned by the billionaire, if it did not respect the moderation rules which came into force in the European Union. Rebelote during the riots this summer, where the “minister of Twitter and TikTok” had the platforms remove dozens of content calling for violence. Latest victim: Apple, at the beginning of September, which certainly did not expect to see its “keynote”, its flagship annual event, hacked by the minister, threatening to withdraw its iPhone 12 from the French market. The reason: a slight exceedance of the level of electromagnetic waves.
The SREN bill, “securing and regulating the digital space”, discussed in the National Assembly, offers Jean-Noël Barrot the opportunity to flex his muscles differently. Despite the presence of technical, more “business” subjects – from cloud credits to the supervision of gambling in the Web3 era – the text embraces a resolutely societal shift compared to the last major digital law promulgated seven years ago now. At the time, this was based around the notion of “open data”, for the circulation of data and knowledge on the web. This time, among the key measures discussed in the Chamber since October 4: an anti-scam filter as well as the bringing into line of large pornographic sites, forced to control the age of their users in order to exclude minors. But also the fight against cyberharassment with a temporary ban on social networks, an unprecedented system on a global scale, inspired by the stadium ban on violent football supporters.
When ChatGPT meets MoDem
The angle of attack arouses criticism on the left. As soon as the debates opened, France Insoumise filed a motion to reject it – immediately rejected -, worried about the fate of individual freedoms on the Internet. The idea of blocking sites, even fraudulent ones, also repels committed associations, such as Quadrature du Net. “Regulating through censorship, authoritarianism and massive attacks on fundamental rights is not the right solution,” writes the latter. The tone is also rising around a potential obligation to verify identity on social networks pushed by the general rapporteur Paul Midy. But the dissonant voices, in the days to come, should focus on the form more than the substance, the latter rather gaining consensus in the majority and on the right. “The control solutions will be difficult or even impossible to implement,” underlines Tariq Krim, former vice-president of the National Digital Council, who worked on the 2016 law. “For porn, it is totally futile technically. This will just be good to slow down the use of content a little at Jacquie and Michel [NDLR : un célèbre producteur de contenus]”, squeaks a deputy from Jean-Noël Barrot’s own political camp. The specter of the failure of the Avia law, in 2020, which attacked hateful content on the Internet before being almost entirely censored by the Constitutional Council, is on everyone’s mind. These formal remarks have the gift of tensing up the minister’s entourage: “That’s no reason not to try,” corrects an advisor. The trial into “technical amateurism ” floats in the atmosphere. And a little, it must be said, on Jean-Noël Barrot.
Digital technology was not originally a vocation. The result of a political agreement with the MoDem, his appointment to this position within the first Borne government, in the summer of 2022, surprised the bookmakers policies. However, there was no shortage of experts in his sector, such as the Côtes-d’Armor deputy Eric Bothorel in the ranks of the majority, or the digital ambassador, Henri Verdier, appointed by Emmanuel Macron. in 2018. In the months preceding obtaining his ministry, he carried out his function as deputy for Yvelines, worked wisely at the Finance Commission, and identified for former Prime Minister Jean Castex the territories most affected by the crisis in order to support their rebound. “He was ready for Bercy,” judges his former thesis director, the economist David Thesmar. But probably more for SMEs or Public Accounts.
Less “start-up Nation” than Mounir Mahjoubi and Cédric O, his two predecessors – only designated secretaries of state -, Barrot claims not to have felt disoriented by the position. Met in June at the VivaTech show, the former professor at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the United States, a graduate of HEC, defends certain interests to L’Express. “I am not a computer developer but my profession as a teacher-researcher led me to work on data.” A know-how that he uses in particular in the context of research on digital inclusion, one of his markers. He also narrates, between two puffs of an electronic cigarette, the passionate creation of MoDem’s ChatGPT, “Demochat”, an inexhaustible tool on the history of the party. Financing innovation is also a subject that he masters well. “Digital technology is a huge challenge, a transformation of civilization which is only just beginning,” whispers François Bayrou to motivate him. The president of MoDem claims a “fraternal and filial” relationship with his foal. This is an opportunity for him to achieve political accomplishment. Finally.
More story about MRP than biography of Musk
Because the least tech minister is probably the most political. Son of Jacques Barrot, a figure of centrism, his beginnings were not those hoped for. “My father had passed on his political heritage in Haute-Loire to Laurent Wauquiez. The latter did not take a very good view of the return of the biological son to the country,” he explains modestly when he talks about the beginning of his career, around fifteen years ago. The world recounted more bluntly that the Republican leader, during an attempt at intimidation in an elevator of the department’s hotel, had chosen a more graphic expression: “bullet in the head.”
His exile, first in the United States, then in Yvelines, did not change his original plans. “He could easily have continued as a teacher-researcher where he was very brilliant, but it was obvious to everyone that he was infected by the virus of politics,” comments David Thesmar. Barrot is a true “thinker”, joins his deputy chief of staff, Kevin Thuillier. A man more passionate about reading stories about the Popular Republican Movement (MRP), the Christian Democratic movement from which his grandfather Christmas, also a former MP, came, than about the latest biography devoted to Elon Musk. A “soldier monk” who works in his office until late at night, with baroque music playing in the background. His first steps into digital technology only whetted his appetite. Kevin Thuillier, who has worked with Jean-Noël Barrot for six years, notes that his current scope allows him to “tickle” other areas, such as Work, which he can approach through the prism of artificial intelligence. Or industrial questions, via the notion of “sovereignty” in which tech already plays a key role. Digital technology is everywhere, and not just at the ministers’ hotel in Bercy.