Apparently in France it is an act of terrorist behaviour to use VPNs, Signal, encrypted drives etc.
A short section of the article:
“All members contacted adopted a clandestine behaviour, with increased security of means of communication (encrypted applications, Tails operating system, TOR protocol enabling anonymous browsing on the Internet and public wifi)”.
General Directorate for Internal Security (Direction générale de la Sécurité intérieure, DGSI)
“All members of this group were particularly suspicious, only communicating with each other using encrypted applications, in particular Signal, and encrypting their computers and devices […].