French Tweeters Get Around Ban On Tweeting Election Results Using WWII-Era Codes
from the gouda-cheese dept
Last week, we wrote about how French Twitter users were being warned not to use social media tools like Twitter to reveal local polling or election results before all the French voting booths closed in the Presidential election. We pointed out how silly this was, and it appears that folks in France used a simple mechanism to get around the rules: using WWII-era coding techniques to share information in the same manner that the French Resistance used:
As a result, incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy became either Tokaji wine which, like his father, comes from Hungary, or Rolex because of his perceived “bling-bling” lifestyle.
His Socialist opponent Francois Hollande was either Gouda cheese (from Holland) or a soft, sweet “Flanby” caramel desert — an old and unforgiving nickname for the portly frontrunner.
Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen was associated with the names of totalitarian regimes or rodents and Communist Party-backed Jean-Luc Melenchon was either a rotten tomato or something linked to the former Soviet Union.
From there, it sounds like people just had fun with it, figuring out all sorts of ways to obliquely refer to the different candidates and how well they were doing without directly referring to any of them. Once again, the internet views censorship as an obstacle, and routes around it, through a rather creative form of “encryption.”
Filed Under: code, election, france, social media, world war two
Comments on “French Tweeters Get Around Ban On Tweeting Election Results Using WWII-Era Codes”
Mmmm
Wine, cheese, tomatoes and a caramel dessert. Sounds like the French know how to hold an election.
Nice!
Good news and fun news feels good. They break the monotony that all news is bad.
+1 to the Frenchies….
Mmmm
Wine, cheese, tomatoes and a caramel dessert. Sounds like the French know how to hold an election.
I’ll need to remember this when our new overlords decide to do something similar. Then again, aren’t exit-polls just a low-tech version of twitter?
Yet more proof that despite Mike’s claims he’s nothing more than an apologist for piracy!
{{ $accusatory_template }}
{{ $clueless_mike_template }}
Error: Failure in module ‘AutomatedTrolling’.
@Roger
Hi-freaking-larious! Thank you
I still can’t believe a supposedly democratic government went down a decidedly undemocratic road. That is the real news.
The Internet routes around stupidity.
The Internet routes around stupidity.
London calling.. London calling.. here is the news….
The Gamekeeper has put a new fence to protectect the Fat Pigs but the Frogs found a gap in the links and exploted it to the full potential, well dont to them. Trolls are exepcted to follow soon.
London out.. I repeat.. London out
Re:
Proof read proof read proof read damn it!
What did they think would happen – this is funny.
Re: Re:
Probably it was the heat of the moment. Nobody knows what’s gonna be trendy/viral anyway, so you better try
Foiled again
**THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN FLAGGED FOR MONITORING BY YOUR LOVING GOVERNMENT. COMPLIANCE IS ESSENTIAL! HAVE A NICE DAY!**
Dear Internet Users,
As your hero, I humbly request that you quit foiling all good intentions that your wonderful government is doing. We the government know what is best for the people, because we are also people. So just obey us, and quit being so sneaky.
V/R
Capt ICE Enforcer
If the French were smart they’d lock all the votes up in a safe and count them after the polls are closed everywhere, rather then attempt this charade.
Mmmm
Yeah, and we have to choose between Slim Jim and a fruitcake.
Re:
It is remarkable how leaky safes can get overnight, when they are full of votes. Quite unexpected things can get in and out. This dreadful problem with safes is why votes get counted straight away.
Mmmm
They also have multiple vaguely credible candidates, and a range of policies.
What’s also scary is that the French ultra-right still manages to sound reasonably sane compared to certain other right-wing electoral groups…
What’s a totalitarian rodent?
Something the president eats for dinner?
Re:
Chairman Mouse?
Adolf Ratler?
Rabbit Mugabe?
Josef Gerbils?
Benito Mousellini?
(I can’t think of any more…)
Re:
I always believed stupidity cannot even use the Internet
Is this ban a bad thing?
You can call it “censorship” if you want, but I’m not convinced that such a ban is necessarily a bad thing. Just look at the way early reporting ended up skewing the votes in later time zones during the 2004 US elections. (Not sure if France spans multiple time zones, though. I do know it doesn’t span nearly as many as the US does, so that might not be as big of an issue.)
Is this ban a bad thing?
It is censorship. Politicians love censorship, but the electorate hates it. It is amazing how many politicians do not get the message. Sarkozy has now become the only one term president for decades, because he did not get the message.
Good move, pollies, use censorship, same as the Nazis, then have the people use the same technique as they used in WWII. How to get yourselves viewed as no better than Nazis. Sarkozy will now have plenty of time to consider his mistakes. Will the others now get the message?
Isn’t it ironic they are holding elections in counties but at the same time, taking away free speech?
Why do they bother anymore? Just install whatever tyrant and get it all over with…
*oops* Type – *countries* – not counties.