Cybersquatters target France's leading politicians

Prime minister Franois Fillon, opposition leader Franois Hollande and even Nicolas Sarkozy are among those targeted

For a French politician trying to get across a vote-winning message just five months ahead of the presidential election, it is about the worst thing that can happen.

Type in what might appear to be the website of the ruling right-of-centre prime minister Franois Fillon and what do you get? The campaign site of socialist presidential candidate Franois Hollande. In turn, a click on Hollande's site directs visitors to Lolitique, a blog of satirical political quotations. That may not be ideal, but it is certainly better than the party website of the ruling UMP party, where until recently website visitors were directed.

Even the French president, seeking re-election next May, has not escaped the cybersquatters. A click on www.Nicolassarkozy2012.fr takes you to a tattoo site and www.sarkozy-2012.info.fr to a blog opposed to the French leader including submissions from someone calling themselves Sarkozy Dgage, or Sarkozy Clear Off.

Even more damagingly, the domain name www.karachigate.fr referring to an arms sale corruption scandal takes visitors to the Elyse Palace website.

Centrist presidential candidate Herv Morin is victim of a technological double whammy.Both www.morin2012.com and www.morin2012.fr take visitors to a blog called pense btes, or think stupid.

Several politicians have been forced to take legal action to recover domain names linked to their identities, including Bertrand Delano, the socialist mayor of Paris. The French courts tend to rule in favour of politician! s.

A law introduced in March declared that the registering of domain names "may be refused when susceptible of attacking the personality, or intellectual property rights" of anyone except in cases justified by "legitimate interest and motivated by good faith".

Usurping someone's identity "to attack their honour" is punishable by a year in prison and a maximum 15,000 (12,900) fine.

French politicians have long considered the internet an unruly beast that needs to be tamed. Suspicious of its ability to both embarrass and demystify, they have sought to regulate and "civilise".

In 2009, Jean-Franois Cop, head of Sarkozy's ruling right-of-centre party, said: "The internet is a danger for democracy", while Azouz Begag, a sociologist and minister under the former president Jacques Chirac, said: "The internet, it's political revenge."

Internet users clearly like to think ahead. The domain names for fillon2017, cop2017, hollande2017 and sarkozy2017 have all already been taken.


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