@watchfulcitizen @GrapheneOS Certified baguette here; I just checked, because I was really surprised that this was happening, and it looks like it's right-wing leaning journals that are doing this... So I'd chalk this up to the usual fearmongering, and not something widespread (e.g. Le Monde hasn't written anything about it, and they're IMO far more grounded and diligent).

Here's an article on a (small) French tech site, noting the altercation before pointing out that @GrapheneOS went on conspiratory-like afterwards... I side with the final paragraph, stating more or less that we're all trying our best, and bashing each other's gonna lead somewhere.
https://linuxfr.org/users/hellpe/journaux/le-parisien-qualifie-grapheneos-de-botte-secrete-des-narcotrafiquants-les-devs-n-apprecient-pas
"*Le Parisien* calls GrapheneOS a secret trump card for drug dealers, devs are miffed"

PS: I happen to type this from a iodéOS phone, because I decided to buy a Fairphone out of ethical reasons, and thus GrapheneOS was a non-starter. Consider that this kind of reasoning might be at play for why they're receiving government funding and not you, not just conspiracies?

@issotm @watchfulcitizen

> and it looks like it's right-wing leaning journals that are doing this

That's not true. They're doing it because state agencies contacted them. Most of the articles are quotes. Do you consider state-funded news in France to be right wing? There's a massive amount of coverage based on inaccurate claims from state agencies, not the journalists. The journalists are not doing their job by taking that as fact and not giving a chance for us to respond to specifics, sure.

@issotm @watchfulcitizen iodéOS and /e/ are extraordinarily insecure and non-private. iodéOS is openly partnered with scammers including Robert Braxman. Both companies (iodé and Murena) have misled people about GrapheneOS for years including misrepresenting it as not for regular people. In doing so, they helped build the narratives now being used by law enforcement to mislead people about GrapheneOS.

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/24134-devices-lacking-standard-privacysecurity-patches-and-protections-arent-private has more info and third party sources on Fairphone, iodéOS and /e/.

@GrapheneOS @watchfulcitizen
Alright, so... I took the time to do some more searches, read your messages, and read some of that giant thread you've linked to.

> [The journals a]re doing it because state agencies contacted them. Most of the articles are quotes.
I can't speak for the contents of the Parisien or Figaro article, because they're paywalled. I would however like to point out that the Figaro's headline specifically uses the word “misused” (« détourné »), implying that this is *not* the use case y'all have intended for it.

> Do you consider state-funded news in France to be right wing?
Arguably, given our political direction these last few years, I'd say yes lol. But neither of the above two is state-funded, and since I don't have access to the contents I can't say they got the info from state agencies. How'd you know?

> There's a massive amount of coverage
Is there? I could only find three articles: [Le Parisien](https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/google-pixel-et-grapheneos-la-botte-secrete-des-narcotrafiquants-pour-proteger-leurs-donnees-de-la-police-19-11-2025-NTGPQE4JCNGEHLF7XGIQ3CCA2I.php), [Le Figaro](https://www.lefigaro.fr/secteur/high-tech/qu-est-ce-que-grapheneos-ce-logiciel-detourne-par-certains-trafiquants-pour-supprimer-les-informations-de-leur-telephone-20251119), and [francetvinfo](https://www.franceinfo.fr/faits-divers/narcotrafic-les-autorites-alertent-sur-l-utilisation-d-un-systeme-d-exploitation-de-telephone-pour-echapper-aux-forces-de-l-ordre_7631510.html) (more on that one below).

> The journalists are not doing their job by taking that as fact and not giving a chance for us to respond to specifics, sure.
Actually, the francetvinfo article contains two lengthy paragraphs of your response. And... claiming that you're a non-profit is kind of missing the point? Like, yeah, sure, but what happened still happened. I agree with the rest of your stance, but I'm afraid this kind of thing does paint you in a bad light. But what do I know, I'm just a single guy :P

@GrapheneOS @watchfulcitizen

> You linked to another highly inaccurate and extremely biased article.
You mean... biased in your favour, you know that, right? Here's the last paragraph, translated for any reader's convenience:

(full disclosure: I agree with GrapheneOS that they've been unfairly portrayed by Le Parisien and on the political predicament in France, however I don't think their project is any less security theater than other extant Android forks. Regardless, one can see that for the pigs, not wanting Google in your pocket, that's suspect. "Don't stand out", I guess.)

> Rather than doing your own research, you're basing your claims on another inaccurate article which is wrongly blaming a right wing newspaper for it.

No, I went to google.fr's News tab, typed "GrapheneOS", and sifted through the first three pages, finding only Le Parisien and Le Figaro as reputable news source, and then linuxfr as an opinion piece. You'll find attached a screenshot of the first page of results. The second page only contains technical articles about trying out GOS or explaining what it is. (Again, if there's “massive” coverage, I'm missing it. And the secondary sources I see only quote these two papers, not any TV source either.)

Again, since the two articles are paywalled, I cannot offer further comment on the rest of your (second) post.

@issotm @watchfulcitizen

> I agree with GrapheneOS that they've been unfairly portrayed by Le Parisien

This is missing the point of what we've been saying. GrapheneOS has been misrepresented by French law enforcement including false claims.

> I don't think their project is any less security theater than other extant Android forks

That's an extraordinarily inaccurate belief. GrapheneOS preserves all the standard privacy/security model/features and greatly enhances it vs. the direct opposite.

@issotm @watchfulcitizen Those operating systems also typically go many months and even many years without providing kernel, driver and firmware patches. For example, on Pixels, they haven't provided those patches since Android 16 was released in June 2025. We backported those patches to Android 15 QPR2 and then shipped Android 16 in June 2025.

GrapheneOS successfully protects from sophisticated exploit tools such as Cellebrite Premium despite significant efforts from them to compromise it.

@issotm @watchfulcitizen The reason France is going after GrapheneOS is because of the much stronger level of security against exploits than other devices. The reason they want to force inclusion of a backdoor is because multiple advanced commercial exploit tool products which work fine against other Android devices don't work again it. Here's a thread with a previous example, although note we have ongoing access to current documentation for these tools:

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/14344-cellebrite-premium-july-2024-documentation

@GrapheneOS @watchfulcitizen

Ah... that thread doesn't load for me, for some reason.