GAFAM: Luc Rubiello, author of the petition for the Digital Pact and internet independence of France

Testimonies | 3 minutes

Luc Rubiello, president of the Innooo association, has launched a petition to promote a digital pact aimed at protecting France and the data of the French against the GAFAM.

GAFAM is an acronym used to refer to the American web giants: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft primarily. Luc shares with us today his approach and the actions that have been implemented alongside his petition to support his cause.

Can you tell us why you launched a petition on this subject?

I launched a petition to contest the power and influence of GAFAM because I have witnessed a number of harmful and deleterious effects that are known and unacceptable in our society: cyberbullying, suicides, overexposure to screens leading to mental health issues, easy exposure of young children to pornography, the proliferation of fake news and misinformation of citizens, violations of privacy, resale of personal data, abuse of dominant position hindering innovation, unregulated advertising encouraging addiction and overconsumption, and the development of online hate… The actions of these companies have a catastrophic effect on our society. What is the responsibility of these companies today in the dissemination of content inciting hatred or even in the assassination of Samuel Paty?

The association therefore decided to launch an online petition to raise awareness of this reality among citizens and politicians from all sides: the INNOOO Digital Pact for an internet without advertisements and without GAFAM currently has over 108,000 signatories, making it one of the first mobilizations on the MesOpinions site, the French leader in online petitions.

Why did you choose MesOpinions to carry your fight?

Let’s remember that China and Russia have preserved their independence and internet security from the United States. We are not just criticizing the harmful hegemony of GAFAM: we are proposing concrete solutions. In this sense, the INNOOO Digital Pact is one of the tools chosen to raise awareness of this deleterious hegemony while also serving as a guiding thread for the association's current and future activities around four societal issues:

“Overexposure to screens”
“Dangers of GAFAM”
“Digital pollution”
“Good internet practices”

We chose MesOpinions because it was not feasible for us to opt for an American petition site due to the nature of our fight against GAFAM, to combat the harmful effects mentioned above, and finally because MesOpinions is certified by the CESE, which is a guarantee of seriousness.

You have carried out a number of actions alongside this petition to further promote your cause, can you tell us more about this?

Alongside the petition, the association advocates for a French internet without advertisements and without GAFAM, based on online tools, designed, hosted, and maintained in France:

A multi-search engine returning the most relevant answers without advertising
Daily news guaranteed without "fake news"
An image search engine focusing on serendipity (the ability to make a discovery by chance)
A decentralised social network (without a centralised system), free and moderated: https://reseau.innooo.fr/about based on local groups in France but also eventually in all French-speaking countries

We have also launched awareness-raising actions on good internet practices, such as the game of 160 educational cards Coquinou, conferences and tutorials launched with the CNIL, or the publication and distribution of a booklet written on the occasion of reaching 100,000 signatures, to the candidates for the 2022 presidential election titled: “INOOO is INOUÏ - Using digital technology without being enslaved by GAFAM”.

What advice would you give to petition authors who want to go further and spread their fight more widely?

Based on our experience with high-audience petitions, 5 pieces of advice can be suggested to allow a petition to gain more signatories:

Set clear objectives before launching in terms of milestones for the number of signatories and associated means
Involve your community in defining these objectives
Organise an event at the launch of the petition and at each milestone
Make a video of each launch event and distribute it only to community members
Write a news update every week until the first milestone is reached, then one every month for the other milestones

We also recommend using quotes to help convey and illustrate your fight.

Thus, in his speech on voluntary servitude, Etienne de la Boétie warned, "Be resolute not to serve any longer and you will be free." "They are only great because we are on our knees," which applies quite well to the relationship of the French with GAFAM: France, under the digital tutelage of the United States, must rise up, and we must do everything to extricate ourselves from this hegemony: it is a collective effort involving the State, civil society, and French companies in terms of their social responsibility.

What are the next steps in your mobilization to alert public opinion and decision-makers?

Recognised as being of general interest by the public finances, the Innooo association has become a credible and recognised alternative to American search engines and social networks for all French people who want to access knowledge without advertising, stop having their personal data plundered, and combat the dangers posed by GAFAM.

An advertising-free internet also corresponds to French and perhaps European culture because advertising has no place in a school, a college, a high school, a hospital, a barracks, a court, and neither does it belong on the internet, as it shifts us from an information society to a data society, which constitutes a major barrier to access to knowledge, a loss of freedom, and the end of democracy. A choice of civilization thus becomes necessary between humanism, which involves an advertising-free internet, and the transhumanism of the "augmented man" of GAFAM, which promises to "kill death," an objective as sterile as it is absurd because killing death would mean killing life.

The mercantile internet of GAFAM, driven by limitless greed, has developed so rapidly that it resembles the evolution of a cancer rather than the growth of a living being.

The goal of the association and the INNOOO community is to raise awareness among French citizens about the dangers of this dependency and its consequences and to ask the candidates for the 2022 presidential election to sign the INNOOO Digital Pact and commit to implementing its seven proposals in the event of victory in the presidential elections.

The INNOOO association has thus contributed since 2010 to the genesis of the GDPR and the GAFA tax, which correspond to the second and third proposals of its Digital Pact. Although legally existing, these measures are poorly or not applied and require persistent follow-up from civil society, closer to the ground, in inter-ministerial settings for effective implementation with one goal: stop the speeches and move to action.

If you share the values and the seven proposals of the Digital Pact for the independence and security of the internet in France, we invite you to sign and also to get others to sign the petition.

Thank you to Luc for his commitment and the variety of actions implemented alongside his petition. If you have a cause to support, don’t hesitate and get started!