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Funny how exactly EU follows the path Russia has recently taken. After Russia passed the law that banned online material promoting terrorist content, suicide, d
by smsm42 8y ago
Funny how exactly EU follows the path Russia has recently taken. After Russia passed the law that banned online material promoting terrorist content, suicide, drug information and harm to children, and so on, there was an avalanche of false takedown requests and misidentifications, including attempting to block Wikipedia, ban Bhagavad Gita commentary (yes, really) and many more anecdotes that sound funny unless you live there. Now Russia has progressed to banning "insulting" the government publicly, i.e. direct ban on political dissent. I wonder how long it would be until EU does the same.
- _Schizotypy 8y agoRussia banned drug information? What sort of information, like pharmacology?
- filoleg 8y agoIt is implied that the parent comment was talking about illegal drugs. Interesting side fact: unlike in english, there are two completely distinct words for illegal and legal drugs in russian language. Which a lot of times makes it easier to spot russian-speaking posters, as they tend to refer to illegal drugs as just "drugs", while referring to legal ones using other more specific terms, like "pills" or something else.
- smsm42 8y agoIllegal drugs, precursors (such chemicals as acetone or sulphuric acid), plants that may contain chemicals that are components of illegal drugs, information that may be considered "propagandizing" using of drugs, etc. > unlike in english, there are two completely distinct words for illegal and legal drugs in russian language Which two words do you mean? I can't think of any two fitting this description.
- filoleg 8y ago“Наркотики” for illegal drugs and “лекарства” for legal. I realize that the first one translates literally as “narcotics”, but it is used in russian language exactly like “illegal drugs” is in english. On a side-note, until I saw your reply, I didn’t realize how bad it was. It is absolutely crazy to me that something like “acetone” would fall under this law. Thanks for posting a concise summary.
- narag 8y agoNot only Russian. In Spanish "droga" y "medicamento" are different words too.
- baud147258 8y agoFrench too: "drogues" and "médicaments"
- mschuster91 8y ago> Interesting side fact: unlike in english, there are two completely distinct words for illegal and legal drugs in russian language. German is the same: "Drogen" = illegal drugs like cannabis, "Medizin" = medicine. For Germans learning English, "drug store" may sound confusing until one learns about the various distinct meanings of the word "drug" in English.
- petre 8y agoIn Greece, when I asked a waiters for directions to a drug store they all made big eyes until I said the German word which is probably derrived from the Greek αποθήκη. It was quite funny.
- int_19h 8y ago"Drug store" was probably the most confusing term I ran into in colloquial American English for this same reason. Just saying it sounded all kinds of wrong at first.
- anonoholic 8y agoFunnily enough, English does too. "drugs" vs. "medicine" (pharmaceuticals).
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- smsm42 8y agoMostly information about making drugs that are frequently abused, but it's hard to say specifically what qualifies since some law bans just "propaganda" and what is "propaganda" is for any local judge to decide, and decide they do. And some bans information such as "growing plants containing narcotic drugs" - so if you are a gardener and want to know how to grow a poppy flower, woe is to you. Also if you are chemist and want to make an experiment involving acetone (it's a "drug precursor"). And so on. Some more general information in English here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Internet_Restriction_Bill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Internet_Restriction_B... but this is not the only law, there are many additional bans (Russian parliament is sometimes called "crazy printer" in Russia because it has issued so many insane laws). You can read about banning Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_Wikipedia_in_Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_Wikipedia_in_Russia
- w1nst0nsm1th 8y agoI think we’re still a long way before we reach the excess of Russia regarding free speech et subordination of democratic values.
- manigandham 8y agoHow long? It's always quicker than you think once you're sliding down the slope.
- tuxt 8y agoDoes homophobic count as free speech?
- smsm42 8y agoEU is certainly not yet where Russia is. But it's walking the same road, and stepping on the same rakes on the way. How long does it take depends on how complacent EU citizens would be when they freedoms are taken away. So far the answer seems to be "quite so", but maybe when people start being fined and jailed and sites like Internet Archive start being blocked some of them would wake up?
- oarsinsync 8y agoSpain banned speech critical of the government several years ago, and several people have been jailed already. At least one person has been jailed over a tweet. Europe isn’t one big whole, parts of it are already obviously worse than others.
- honzzz 8y ago> Spain banned speech critical of the government Could you please provide some reference? I seriously doubt that what you said is correct.
- oska 8y agoSpain has passed a law banning the “glorification of terrorism” or “humiliating victims of terrorism”. While this is not 'speech critical of the government' the law is vaguely worded and has been broadly interpreted. More detail in this report from Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/03/Spain-Counter-terror-law-used-to-crush-satire-and-creative-expression-online/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/03/Spain-Counter...