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The message came from gouv.fr and alerted people to the strict rules that President Macron announced last night with regard to Covid-19, notably that it is now forbidden to go out of the house apart from certain essential reasons, and carrying a form.

However people have wondered how officials obtained their mobile phone number.

The answer is that the government asked all the mobile phone operators to send out the message to their customers.

The government is authorised to do this by the Code des postes et des communications électroniques, where it is needed to "transmit communications from public authorities aimed at the public to warn them of imminent dangers or to attenuate the effects of major catastrophes".