Paris ramps up security ahead of Olympics opening ceremony
Insights from Insikt Group, The New York Times, Financial Times, and Human Rights Watch
The News
Artificial intelligence surveillance systems, fighter jets, and a force of up to 45,000 police and soldiers are in place ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris on Friday.
The vast security apparatus is intended to make good on the organizer’s promise last year that the French capital will be the “safest place in the world” during the Games.
Residents, tourists, and workers will only be allowed to enter a sealed-off six-kilometer stretch of central Paris if they show the police a QR code proving they have the right to be there.
SIGNALS
2024 could be particularly dangerous
France has seen repeated attacks by the Islamic State, which has a history of targeting large public events. The country raised its national security alert to the highest level after an attack killed 144 people in Moscow in March. Ultimately, these Games could be particularly dangerous due to broader geopolitical crises: Russian state-sponsored organizations and other threat groups could be emboldened by escalations in Russia’s war against Ukraine, and in the Middle East, cyber threat research organization Insikt Group warned in a recent report. The head of the team responsible for cybersecurity at the Games declined to speculate about potential attacks, but told The New York Times in April he had no doubt there would be one.
Paris Games may be ‘too big, too open, and too vulnerable’
Critics say Paris’ venue choices have increased security risks: Using the Seine for the opening ceremony is a “criminal folly,” a security expert who worked on the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games told the Financial Times. That the number of ticketed spectators allowed onto its banks was halved to 300,000 suggests the French security establishment is “privately nervous,” and with good reason, a columnist argued in The Washington Post in February: Authorities said they wanted the ceremony to take place “right in the heart of Paris” for the first time, but the event is likely “too big, too open, and too vulnerable to ensure safety,” he added.
Mass surveillance could spill over into long-term securitization
The French authorities’ use of AI-powered mass surveillance technologies to detect so-called “suspicious behavior” risks disproportionately targeting minority and racialized groups, Human Rights Watch argued in a recent report. These systems are poorly regulated, and giving private companies access to thousands of video cameras throughout France risks “legally permitting and supporting these companies to test and train AI software on its citizens and visitors,” a legal expert argued in The Conversation. Saccage 24, an anti-Olympics protest group, told the Associated Press that the legacy of the Games would be “long-term securitization” across the country, a broader pattern among Olympics host countries.
