The French National Assembly removed Article 16 bis from the Resilience bill by a vote of 69 to 37. The provision had prohibited requiring encryption services to introduce backdoors or master decryption keys, and its removal does not itself authorize such mechanisms but leaves the government without a legal obligation not to use them. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez defended the decision by citing concerns that the article could weaken authorized investigative techniques. Junior Minister for Digital Affairs Anne Le Hénanff pledged not to reintroduce any provision that weakens encryption before the end of the parliamentary session, but this commitment has not been written into law. The bill still requires a final vote in the Assembly on November 17, followed by a possible joint parliamentary committee with the Senate.
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