4 ms·

So what happens when, for example, a US court or a court of some other jurisdiction in another country rules that their free speech laws say that a court cannot

So what happens when, for example, a US court or a court of some other jurisdiction in another country rules that their free speech laws say that a court cannot legally force them to pull results globally? What do they do then? I assume that since the US/other court wouldn't be forcing them, they would default to pulling it since Canada can apparently force them to do so, so pulling the data is mandatory in Canada but "voluntary" for the rest of the world. Far more importantly, a single country is now censoring the speech of companies globally. That's a truly astounding verdict to issue in a court of law. What about the sovereignty of all other nations?

dragonwriter 9y ago
> So what happens when, for example, a US court or a court of some other jurisdiction in another country rules that their free speech laws say that a court cannot legally force them to pull results globally? More interesting is when one sovereignty prohibits and imposes sanctions on behavior mandated with sanctions for non-compliance by another sovereignty. With various states adopting broad mandates for data retention while others are adopting mandates for removal, there are likely going to be circumstances where those conflict.
- 8note 9y ago
  that seems pretty simple, really: the company chooses one jurisdiction to operate in
Analemma_ 9y ago
> So what happens when, for example, a US court or a court of some other jurisdiction in another country rules that their free speech laws say that a court cannot legally force them to pull results globally? The endpoint of all this, which I now believe is basically inevitable in the long run, is Balkanization of the internet: eventually, Google and/or Canadian ISPs will only let Canadian users reach google.ca (with its modified results), and not google.com. The same will go for every other country. This is the only way to square the two opposing aims of not letting countries censor the internal globally, but still let them have sovereignty within their borders and have their decisions enforced. I'm not happy about that, but I don't see any other way around the issue. Continuing with the status quo essentially means sovereignty is dead and everyone now just has America's speech laws whether they like it or not. Even if that's what HN wants, it's just not going to happen.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> So what happens when, for example, a US court or a court of some other jurisdiction in another country rules that their free speech laws say that a court cannot legally force them to pull results globally? More interesting is when one sovereignty prohibits and imposes sanctions on behavior mandated with sanctions for non-compliance by another sovereignty. With various states adopting broad mandates for data retention while others are adopting mandates for removal, there are likely going to be circumstances where those conflict.

8note 9y ago
that seems pretty simple, really: the company chooses one jurisdiction to operate in

Analemma_ 9y ago

> So what happens when, for example, a US court or a court of some other jurisdiction in another country rules that their free speech laws say that a court cannot legally force them to pull results globally? The endpoint of all this, which I now believe is basically inevitable in the long run, is Balkanization of the internet: eventually, Google and/or Canadian ISPs will only let Canadian users reach google.ca (with its modified results), and not google.com. The same will go for every other country. This is the only way to square the two opposing aims of not letting countries censor the internal globally, but still let them have sovereignty within their borders and have their decisions enforced. I'm not happy about that, but I don't see any other way around the issue. Continuing with the status quo essentially means sovereignty is dead and everyone now just has America's speech laws whether they like it or not. Even if that's what HN wants, it's just not going to happen.