5 ms·

Mississippi would have a hell of a time convincing every ISP in the US to put up a firewall too. They could try, but not even China could build an impregnable

Mississippi would have a hell of a time convincing every ISP in the US to put up a firewall too. They could try, but not even China could build an impregnable firewall.

avs733 1y ago
six months ago I would have said the same thing about US universities.
- terminalshort 1y ago
  Universities? The primary revenue source for basically 100% of US universities is the federal government. The concept of a private university in the US is little more than a legal technicality.
nemomarx 1y ago
If you get 75% coverage (or let's say the 5 biggest ISPs here, comcast and so on) you don't need to really chase the long tail of small providers that hard. It would effectively be unavailable to non technical people at that point.
- TheDauthi 1y ago
  AT&T, Comcast, C-Spire. I don't know anyone who is on anything else here unless it's through a university.
ajb 1y ago
They don't have to go after all of them, they just have to make an example of one. See: qwest's Joseph Nacchio: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio
- devmor 1y ago
  God, Nacchio's story is infuriating. "Sorry, you can't use this evidence that exonerates you - it would be bad for the government."
immibis 1y ago
They don't need to. If only 1% of the people are able to access censored content and therefore hold censored ideas, the majority will treat them as crazy pariahs. It's the same mechanism that makes us consider the 1% of flat earthers crazy. Sadly the mechanism works based on how many people believe a thing, not whether it's true, so it can also block true things if only 1% of people believe them.
- shkkmo 1y ago
  We think flat earthers are crazy because it is a fairly trivial thing to prove them wrong. If you believe something that is that easily disproved AND widely understood to be so, there is clearly something wrong with you.
  - throwaway290 1y ago
    We don't think that people who think there's a bearded man in heaven are crazy, even if that's crazier than thinking earth is flat. We don't think they are crazy because they are not 1%, they are majority. Most people think flat earthers are crazy not because they proved them wrong. Just most people around them think flat earthers are crazy and that's enough.
    - Loughla 1y ago
      No we think flat earthers are crazy because it's trivial to prove wrong, whereas religious belief is a matter of faith that can't really be proven one way or the other, regardless of how silly the belief is. They're just different.
      - immibis 1y ago
        There is no way to prove that the earth isn't actually flat but every observation conspires to make it look round. For instance some flat earthers say that the atmosphere reflects light in the exact way that makes it look round. Take any phenomena on a globe earth, describe the exact same thing in flat earth coordinates and then say that everything weird in the equations is a new physical effect you just discovered.
irusensei 1y ago
I heard from a friend that went to China and the hotel staff right away asks if they want to VPN their room.
- rwbhn 1y ago
  Using a staff provided VPN sounds iffy.
throwaway290 1y ago
> They could try, but not even China could build an impregnable firewall. They can learn from Russia. Censorship in Russia now surpassed China. TSPU are now in every ISP facility. They pass all traffic through them and allow arbitrary bans of specific resources/protocols/etc in specific cities or whole regions.

Mississippi would have a hell of a time convincing every ISP in the US to put up a firewall too. They could try, but not even China could build an impregnable firewall.

avs733 1y ago

six months ago I would have said the same thing about US universities.

terminalshort 1y ago
Universities? The primary revenue source for basically 100% of US universities is the federal government. The concept of a private university in the US is little more than a legal technicality.

nemomarx 1y ago

If you get 75% coverage (or let's say the 5 biggest ISPs here, comcast and so on) you don't need to really chase the long tail of small providers that hard. It would effectively be unavailable to non technical people at that point.

TheDauthi 1y ago
AT&T, Comcast, C-Spire. I don't know anyone who is on anything else here unless it's through a university.

ajb 1y ago

They don't have to go after all of them, they just have to make an example of one. See: qwest's Joseph Nacchio: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio

devmor 1y ago
God, Nacchio's story is infuriating. "Sorry, you can't use this evidence that exonerates you - it would be bad for the government."

immibis 1y ago

They don't need to. If only 1% of the people are able to access censored content and therefore hold censored ideas, the majority will treat them as crazy pariahs. It's the same mechanism that makes us consider the 1% of flat earthers crazy. Sadly the mechanism works based on how many people believe a thing, not whether it's true, so it can also block true things if only 1% of people believe them.

shkkmo 1y ago
We think flat earthers are crazy because it is a fairly trivial thing to prove them wrong. If you believe something that is that easily disproved AND widely understood to be so, there is clearly something wrong with you.
- throwaway290 1y ago
  We don't think that people who think there's a bearded man in heaven are crazy, even if that's crazier than thinking earth is flat. We don't think they are crazy because they are not 1%, they are majority. Most people think flat earthers are crazy not because they proved them wrong. Just most people around them think flat earthers are crazy and that's enough.
  - Loughla 1y ago
    No we think flat earthers are crazy because it's trivial to prove wrong, whereas religious belief is a matter of faith that can't really be proven one way or the other, regardless of how silly the belief is. They're just different.
    - immibis 1y ago
      There is no way to prove that the earth isn't actually flat but every observation conspires to make it look round. For instance some flat earthers say that the atmosphere reflects light in the exact way that makes it look round. Take any phenomena on a globe earth, describe the exact same thing in flat earth coordinates and then say that everything weird in the equations is a new physical effect you just discovered.

irusensei 1y ago

I heard from a friend that went to China and the hotel staff right away asks if they want to VPN their room.

rwbhn 1y ago
Using a staff provided VPN sounds iffy.

throwaway290 1y ago

> They could try, but not even China could build an impregnable firewall. They can learn from Russia. Censorship in Russia now surpassed China. TSPU are now in every ISP facility. They pass all traffic through them and allow arbitrary bans of specific resources/protocols/etc in specific cities or whole regions.