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I am appalled at how much censorship is being pushed down our throats with this war and somehow it is gaining wider acceptance that doing this is ok. The writer

I am appalled at how much censorship is being pushed down our throats with this war and somehow it is gaining wider acceptance that doing this is ok. The writer of this article even seems to suggest that Google or Cloudflare could have blocked them from their DNS, but they haven't been ordered to. We want to censor our opponents at big DNS providers level? Really?

skocznymroczny 4y ago
In Poland they already blocked some Polish websites on DNS level for spreading "Russian propaganda".
dathinab 4y ago
> The writer of this article even seems to suggest that Google or Cloudflare could have blocked them from their DNS, No the writer is irritated that local ISPs are confronted with a regulation which can be interpreted as requiring them to go _far_ beyond DNS blocking while non local DNS provider aren't required to do any blocking when providing service to the UK.
jotm 4y ago
Never let a good opportunity pass by, I guess. Information should be free imo, though I do not know how to deal with people who believe even the most obvious bs. Can DNS level blocks be bypassed using other DNS services? Google and Cloudflare are by far not the only ones, pretty much every ISP has their own.
- stephen_g 4y ago
  I’m sure worst case you could run your own recursive resolver locally (on a Raspberry Pi or something) but you do get a bit of a performance hit for sites you aren’t visiting regularly.
DarkByte8 4y ago
What other options are there to fight enemy propaganda?
- mistermann 4y ago
  My choice: drop the strategy of keeping the population dumb and unable to realize it so they are easy to manipulate.
  - usrn 4y ago
    This. We were taught in school to recognize and analyze propaganda, advertising, and PR. I'm not immune but sometimes it almost seems like it when I talk to other people.
    - sprucely 4y ago
      Who is we? YMMV, but any sort of emphasis on critical thinking wasn't my experience in an Arizona school district in the late eighties/early nineties. If such curriculum was available, the kids who took it were likely outliers in having influences to push them in that direction.
      - usrn 4y ago
        Yeah, I was homeschooled. It sounds to me like public schools actively discourage this kind of thing.
- nlitened 4y ago
  Truth and transparency?
- thriftwy 4y ago
  Have better propaganda of your own? Both the delivery mechanism and the payload.
- maxwell 4y ago
  Foreign propaganda should be exposed, documented, and contextualized instead of given more power by banning and removing it. https://scottberkun.com/2013/banning-things-makes-them-powerful https://scottberkun.com/2013/banning-things-makes-them-power...
simonh 4y ago
Censorship is (roughly speaking) the suppression or prohibition of a particular point of view, or the speech of a person. This is not that. No points of view are prohibited, and if these people want to express their opinions in public or on other forums that choose to deal with them, they are feee to do so. This is a restraint of trade.
- usrn 4y ago
  Most public forums have a very narrow window of allowed ideas. Personal websites are the best way to explore new things and not get pigeonholed. It's weird to hear someone on HN argue against them. Of all the forums I use this is probably the most pro-personal-website one.
  - simonh 4y ago
    The target of this isn’t particularly personal web sites like blogs and such. All the commercial activities and business interests of these people are being targeted. It’s mainly about commercial sites for which these people are the beneficial owners. Remember we talking about billionaire oligarchs many of who’s businesses will have commercial web sites and web applications. As a matter of law it’s conceivable it might affect their personal sites, if they have any, but that’s incidental.
- legalcorrection 4y ago
  No. Preventing you from reading someone’s website is censorship.
  - simonh 4y ago
    Closing a book shop or newspaper because it was funded by criminals isn’t censorship. That’s hysterical hyperbole. Anyway this isn’t really about reading websites particularly, it’s mainly about accessing commercial internet services like search or commercial sites. It just happens that internet publishers are also businesses so they can be affected too. However there’s nothing in this targets speech and that doesn’t seem to be the intention.

skocznymroczny 4y ago

In Poland they already blocked some Polish websites on DNS level for spreading "Russian propaganda".

dathinab 4y ago

> The writer of this article even seems to suggest that Google or Cloudflare could have blocked them from their DNS, No the writer is irritated that local ISPs are confronted with a regulation which can be interpreted as requiring them to go _far_ beyond DNS blocking while non local DNS provider aren't required to do any blocking when providing service to the UK.

jotm 4y ago

Never let a good opportunity pass by, I guess. Information should be free imo, though I do not know how to deal with people who believe even the most obvious bs. Can DNS level blocks be bypassed using other DNS services? Google and Cloudflare are by far not the only ones, pretty much every ISP has their own.

stephen_g 4y ago
I’m sure worst case you could run your own recursive resolver locally (on a Raspberry Pi or something) but you do get a bit of a performance hit for sites you aren’t visiting regularly.

DarkByte8 4y ago

What other options are there to fight enemy propaganda?

mistermann 4y ago
My choice: drop the strategy of keeping the population dumb and unable to realize it so they are easy to manipulate.
- usrn 4y ago
  This. We were taught in school to recognize and analyze propaganda, advertising, and PR. I'm not immune but sometimes it almost seems like it when I talk to other people.
  - sprucely 4y ago
    Who is we? YMMV, but any sort of emphasis on critical thinking wasn't my experience in an Arizona school district in the late eighties/early nineties. If such curriculum was available, the kids who took it were likely outliers in having influences to push them in that direction.
    - usrn 4y ago
      Yeah, I was homeschooled. It sounds to me like public schools actively discourage this kind of thing.
nlitened 4y ago
Truth and transparency?
thriftwy 4y ago
Have better propaganda of your own? Both the delivery mechanism and the payload.
maxwell 4y ago
Foreign propaganda should be exposed, documented, and contextualized instead of given more power by banning and removing it. https://scottberkun.com/2013/banning-things-makes-them-powerful https://scottberkun.com/2013/banning-things-makes-them-power...

simonh 4y ago

Censorship is (roughly speaking) the suppression or prohibition of a particular point of view, or the speech of a person. This is not that. No points of view are prohibited, and if these people want to express their opinions in public or on other forums that choose to deal with them, they are feee to do so. This is a restraint of trade.

usrn 4y ago
Most public forums have a very narrow window of allowed ideas. Personal websites are the best way to explore new things and not get pigeonholed. It's weird to hear someone on HN argue against them. Of all the forums I use this is probably the most pro-personal-website one.
- simonh 4y ago
  The target of this isn’t particularly personal web sites like blogs and such. All the commercial activities and business interests of these people are being targeted. It’s mainly about commercial sites for which these people are the beneficial owners. Remember we talking about billionaire oligarchs many of who’s businesses will have commercial web sites and web applications. As a matter of law it’s conceivable it might affect their personal sites, if they have any, but that’s incidental.
legalcorrection 4y ago
No. Preventing you from reading someone’s website is censorship.
- simonh 4y ago
  Closing a book shop or newspaper because it was funded by criminals isn’t censorship. That’s hysterical hyperbole. Anyway this isn’t really about reading websites particularly, it’s mainly about accessing commercial internet services like search or commercial sites. It just happens that internet publishers are also businesses so they can be affected too. However there’s nothing in this targets speech and that doesn’t seem to be the intention.