The French government, on Wednesday, revealed new counterterrorism and intelligence focused bill that focuses on deploying algorithms and other technology to increase surveillance on the activities and visitors of extremist websites. 

While the bill has been under preparation for the past few months, it was released on Wednesday just a few days after a French police official was killed in the police station in what is believed to be a terrorist attack. The current French government, under President Emmanuel Macron, has been under immense pressure to track and crack down on the increasing terrorist attacks and radicalisation of French Muslim minorities. 

In the bill, the government is proposing to include web browsing in the previously telephone-based surveillance system, which was put in place after a spate of terrorist attacks in 2015, with the aim of detecting potential terrorists. “We’ve moved from an external threat, with highly murderous attacks on France in 2015, to a threat that is internal, and much more difficult to follow using traditional intelligence techniques,” French Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin said Wednesday in a news conference. He further said that the bill will strengthen French intelligence services’ power to watch people’s online activities since the extremists are “are using less and less phone lines and more and more internet connections.” 

The bill also proposes the government's plan to deploy systems using AI to strengthen surveillance. The older intelligence data that was previously not allowed to be used will now be used to train AI systems to look for unforeseen patterns and develop new intelligence tools. “Artificial intelligence is clearly a field that should be opened up for intelligence services,” the official said. “We’re fighting to make sure no technological possibilities offered today are off-limits for intelligence services or the security services.”

Since the incumbent of Emmanuel Macron’s term in 2017, the government has been strengthening counter-terrorism policies. According to Castex, since the past four years, several security laws have been passed while almost 2,000 additional intelligence jobs have been created; 36 attacks have been thwarted in this period. 

Amid other measures, the bill would also give authorities greater power to strictly limit the movements of people convicted of terrorism for up to two years after they get out of prison.