Screen grab: Pressure on big Internet groups

French authorities opened a new front this week. Now under the aegis of the Socialist government of François Hollande, the country’s telecoms regulator asked the Paris public prosecutor to investigate Skype, the popular, Microsoft-owned internet phone service, for failing to register as a telecoms operator. To some observers, these moves reflect a classic French instinct to exert control over unruly markets. “It is not really surprising that with the internet becoming such a big part of the economy it has attracted the attention of the French ‘engineers’,” says a French businessman. “There is a strong tradition here that just letting things happen cannot be the best answer.” But does the flurry of action across a wide sweep of internet activity signal a potentially damaging attack on a much-needed source of growth in a sclerotic economy? Or are the French authorities simply acting more forcefully to come to grips with problems that are vexing regulators around the globe?