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The EU Law That Could Reshape Online Speech in the U.S.

6 points by rzk 4y ago

mytailorisrich 4y ago
The issue here is a technical one, not a legal one. If a platform wants to be global but only has an unique and global way of moderating content then it will naturally converge to the most restrictive legislations. So this shows that what is required is a fine-grained approach where content can be moderated and made available or not on a jurisdiction per jurisdiction basis. For instance, if someone in the US writes a twit that is legal in the US but not in, say, Germany then that twit should only be censored in Germany, not globally and certainly not in the US. Obviously, the issue is that this may be costly and so companies may decide not to bother and indeed to just follow the most restrictive legislations.
- Ekaros 4y ago
  The smaller markets make this really really fun. Take Thailand for example. It has real enforced lèse majesté laws. So content illegal there would also be illegal by anyone outside if it is shown there. Now add rest of the countries with similar laws like Germany and you are in for either very gated communities or extreme moderation.
  - mytailorisrich 4y ago
    > you are in for either very gated communities or extreme moderation. Indeed. That's the way the world is: it is very gated.
hunglee2 4y ago
The US needs to cease this type of appeasement. The EU as a 'regulatory superpower' only if US companies care for that market. We need to stick to our principles over profit and protect US social media firms from foreign laws, perhaps even encourage them to withdraw service from such unfree markets
- stop50 4y ago
  A lot of pages did this on the day the gdpr came into effect and a few still do it. the gdpr can be easily summarized: don't collect, share or process data without consent or reason; have someone in charge of data protection, give the customer a way to request the data you collected and if the customer wishes and it doesn't collide with regulations you have to delete or change the data
john_the_writer 4y ago
First thing I did when GDPR came in was add a bit of middleware to my rails app to redirect all EU users to a 403 page. Tracking users interactions with google analytics is a huge way to make my apps better. The last thing I want is to have to worry about getting fined. Getting fined for having a FONT in my app is insane, but it's happened.
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  If you are small and not in the EU you can just ignore the GDPR, no-one is going to come after you. But, yes, you can of course simply refuse to serve certain jurisdictions.
  - john_the_writer 4y ago
    For me, it was that I wasn't sure if I would be picked up in the EU. To protect myself I just did what I could to prevent it. Better safe than sorry. But yeah.. if google just stopped working in EU for a day (not paid for Gmail), I suspect the EU would be a little less emboldened.

6 points by rzk 4y ago

The issue here is a technical one, not a legal one. If a platform wants to be global but only has an unique and global way of moderating content then it will naturally converge to the most restrictive legislations. So this shows that what is required is a fine-grained approach where content can be moderated and made available or not on a jurisdiction per jurisdiction basis. For instance, if someone in the US writes a twit that is legal in the US but not in, say, Germany then that twit should only be censored in Germany, not globally and certainly not in the US. Obviously, the issue is that this may be costly and so companies may decide not to bother and indeed to just follow the most restrictive legislations.

Ekaros 4y ago
The smaller markets make this really really fun. Take Thailand for example. It has real enforced lèse majesté laws. So content illegal there would also be illegal by anyone outside if it is shown there. Now add rest of the countries with similar laws like Germany and you are in for either very gated communities or extreme moderation.
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  > you are in for either very gated communities or extreme moderation. Indeed. That's the way the world is: it is very gated.

hunglee2 4y ago

The US needs to cease this type of appeasement. The EU as a 'regulatory superpower' only if US companies care for that market. We need to stick to our principles over profit and protect US social media firms from foreign laws, perhaps even encourage them to withdraw service from such unfree markets

stop50 4y ago
A lot of pages did this on the day the gdpr came into effect and a few still do it. the gdpr can be easily summarized: don't collect, share or process data without consent or reason; have someone in charge of data protection, give the customer a way to request the data you collected and if the customer wishes and it doesn't collide with regulations you have to delete or change the data

john_the_writer 4y ago

First thing I did when GDPR came in was add a bit of middleware to my rails app to redirect all EU users to a 403 page. Tracking users interactions with google analytics is a huge way to make my apps better. The last thing I want is to have to worry about getting fined. Getting fined for having a FONT in my app is insane, but it's happened.

mytailorisrich 4y ago
If you are small and not in the EU you can just ignore the GDPR, no-one is going to come after you. But, yes, you can of course simply refuse to serve certain jurisdictions.
- john_the_writer 4y ago
  For me, it was that I wasn't sure if I would be picked up in the EU. To protect myself I just did what I could to prevent it. Better safe than sorry. But yeah.. if google just stopped working in EU for a day (not paid for Gmail), I suspect the EU would be a little less emboldened.