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The sad part is that it's not just authoritarian countries that are doing this, but also the democratic ones, in a foolish effort to stop "fake news" or "terror

by mtgx 9y ago

The sad part is that it's not just authoritarian countries that are doing this, but also the democratic ones, in a foolish effort to stop "fake news" or "terrorism propaganda". And the "better" AI is going to get, the easier it will be for them to call for such censorship, especially when people like Zuckerberg say they can already "stop 99% of the terrorist posts automatically". Because that's most definitely misleading and wrong, unless we can actually review what that content was. Like I bet a large portion of those posts were not posts by terrorists, but posts about terrorists. I don't think the AIs we have today can distinguish between them very well. And at least a small portion probably had very little to do with terrorism, but maybe were posts from people in the same area as some terrorists, or stuff like that. The AI will automatically block content that nobody will ever see. And we'll only depend on people who can somehow raise awareness that their content was blocked, produce a scandal, and then get the companies to unblock it (assuming the censorship will mostly be done by private companies in democratic countries). But this is not going to be a pretty future.

sdhgaiojfsa 9y ago
> The sad part is that it's not just authoritarian countries that are doing this, but also the democratic ones Which democratic country has blocked a major messaging app because it is used by political dissenters?
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  > Which democratic country has blocked a major messaging app because it is used by political dissenters? While it hasn't yet blocked it, the UK Government is certainly constantly after WhatsApp to remove the encryption (or build a backdoor) because a couple of terrorist jackoffs used it that one time (and I think they count as "political dissenters".)
  - Mayzie 9y ago
    > the UK Government is certainly constantly after WhatsApp to remove the encryption (or build a backdoor) Australia too. :-(
- piquadrat 9y ago
  Not messaging apps, but the government in Switzerland of all places recently introduced a law to block online casinos that don't operate under a Swiss license. The only reason that it hasn't gone into effect yet is because enough signatures have been collected to force a referendum. https://calvinayre.com/2018/01/19/business/swiss-voter-referendum-online-gambling-domain-blocking/ https://calvinayre.com/2018/01/19/business/swiss-voter-refer...

by mtgx 9y ago

sdhgaiojfsa 9y ago

> The sad part is that it's not just authoritarian countries that are doing this, but also the democratic ones Which democratic country has blocked a major messaging app because it is used by political dissenters?

zimpenfish 9y ago
> Which democratic country has blocked a major messaging app because it is used by political dissenters? While it hasn't yet blocked it, the UK Government is certainly constantly after WhatsApp to remove the encryption (or build a backdoor) because a couple of terrorist jackoffs used it that one time (and I think they count as "political dissenters".)
- Mayzie 9y ago
  > the UK Government is certainly constantly after WhatsApp to remove the encryption (or build a backdoor) Australia too. :-(
piquadrat 9y ago
Not messaging apps, but the government in Switzerland of all places recently introduced a law to block online casinos that don't operate under a Swiss license. The only reason that it hasn't gone into effect yet is because enough signatures have been collected to force a referendum. https://calvinayre.com/2018/01/19/business/swiss-voter-referendum-online-gambling-domain-blocking/ https://calvinayre.com/2018/01/19/business/swiss-voter-refer...