The French Government has said it planned to monitor what citizens search for on platforms such as Google, TikTok and Instagram.
It said it wanted to to keep a close eye on public opinion regarding governmental policies, current events and potential protests, using Artificial Intelligence.
According to investigative news outlet l’Informé on October 30, the Government Information Service (SIG) issued a call for tenders, inviting companies to propose tools for analysing what French citizens were talking about online. The call closes on November 6.
Previously limited to social-media monitoring, this new programme will include search engines with a “search listening tool”, expanding the range of data collected from daily searches “to understand what people are concerned about in real-time”, SIG said.
It said the government would also focus on what it called “weak signal detection”, aimed at identifying early signs of possible protests before they gained traction.