5 ms·

No it isn't. For example in my EU country I can see the list of all websites blocked, and all of them are for piracy/copyright infringement and illegal betting

No it isn't. For example in my EU country I can see the list of all websites blocked, and all of them are for piracy/copyright infringement and illegal betting (legal betting is allowed, but must register and pay taxes). That and rt.com. I can also say/post whatever I want in social media except stalk and harass individual people. There is no "censorship" at all compared to virtually anywhere else in the world, US included.

CamperBob2 8mo ago
That's normalization.
kvemkon 8mo ago
> That and ... lenta.ru ? (aha, management personnel has been replaced 2014 [1]) [1] https://t.me/systemasystema/89 https://t.me/systemasystema/89 [RU]
SanjayMehta 8mo ago
Blocking RT is not censorship? Nor is sanctioning your own journalists? Or a former intelligence agent, a Swiss national who worked for NATO, and now lives in Belgium? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46969722 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46969722
- goobatrooba 8mo ago
  You link to a comment which lists a number of russian-paid propaganda actors spreading lies and hate. They have not been censored by a government but by courts which based on evidence identified breaches of law. It's something very different from censorship.
  - blell 8mo ago
    RT was not censored by any courts of law. It was censored by an unelected executive branch.
    - herbst 8mo ago
      Also it's not "censored in Europe" I am in Switzerland and can still access it
  - SanjayMehta 8mo ago
    So say when China censors USAian and European sites, that's authoritarian, but when Europe does it it's very different from censorship. Got it.
  - SanjayMehta 8mo ago
    Col Jacques Baud is the exception to your rant. He's a retired swiss intelligence officer who served with NATO. He didn't even quote a Russian source in his books, has refused to appear on any Russian media channel. Now explain why he's sanctioned.
  - SanjayMehta 8mo ago
    Pensioner called Merz "pinoccio," now faces police investigation. Even our "authoritarian" PM Modi ignores petty nonsense like this. You people need to wake up. https://www.stimme.de/heilbronn/stadt-heilbronn/friedrich-merz-bundeskanzler-pinocchio-beleidigung-polizei-ermittlungen-art-5143482 https://www.stimme.de/heilbronn/stadt-heilbronn/friedrich-me...
- stockerta 8mo ago
  Blocking someone who's sole purpose is to destabilise your region is wrong? You are an idiot if you think that one should let them spread their lies and anti EU propaganda freely.
  - brainwad 8mo ago
    Imagine what the Russian government tells its citizens about (blocked) European and American foreign news, and then you will see why this is a terrible argument. The mark of a free country is that nothing is blocked, because the citizens can be trusted to think.
    - stockerta 8mo ago
      And y64 can see where that th5n25ng br64ght the us. Rampant Russian disinfo helped push them into the mess they are in. No thanks, I still stand by that some things needs to be banned, be it foreign disinformation campaigns or nazis eg.
stinkbeetle 8mo ago
> No it isn't. Yes it is. > For example in my EU country I can see the list of all websites blocked, and all of them are for piracy/copyright infringement and illegal betting (legal betting is allowed, but must register and pay taxes). That and rt.com. You provided a counter-example that disproves your claim in the next sentence. I'm just flabbergasted.
- goobatrooba 8mo ago
  Blocking a propaganda outlet by a hostile foreign government is not censorship and certainly not "general censorship that is normalised." If you know that a foreign actor intentionally tries to undermine your government you honestly think the right course of action is to just relax and let it happen? Absurd. Europe has seen it's share of dictators and knows that a democracy needs to also protect itself.
  - stinkbeetle 8mo ago
    A regime dictating what its people may and may not read about is exactly censorship.
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
AnthonyMouse 8mo ago
> all of them are for piracy/copyright infringement and illegal betting Does that include all of the sites that share the same IP addresses as those sites? For that matter, you're posting a reply to an article about a European country blocking the website of a generic US government VPN service, and the service isn't even operating yet. So not only have they graduated to censoring VPNs, they're now censoring a website whose only content is political criticism of their other censorship.
- herbst 8mo ago
  There are no IP bans ...
  - petcat 8mo ago
    Well apparently there are, because huge swaths of CDN PoP IPs are getting banned/blocked in Europe especially during La Liga matches. How are we explaining this?
    - CamperBob2 8mo ago
      They explain it by plugging their ears, chanting "LA LA LA LA", rocking back and forth, and telling themselves (and everyone else) that the US is worse.
axus 8mo ago
I'd love to see the link to your country's blocklist.
- herbst 8mo ago
  Not op, but here: https://www.gespa.ch/en/fighting-illegal-gambling/access-blocking https://www.gespa.ch/en/fighting-illegal-gambling/access-blo...
  - brainwad 8mo ago
    Let's be real, this is just protectionism. The most popular prediction market in the world is DNS-blocked, in the hopes of redirecting you to some crappy online casinos instead.
lenkite 8mo ago
Good lord. Your response only proved his statement. Blocking rt.com glaringly showcases the eye-rolling, ridiculous and "moving to dangerous-territory" censorship that the EU is performing - my opinion as a citizen of an Asian nation.
- verzali 8mo ago
  How much dangerous censorship does your Asian nation carry out? India, for example, blocks thousands of websites - no sex work for them - and regularly shuts down the Internet entirely.
  - lenkite 8mo ago
    Why else do you think I mentioned that the EU is on a dangerous path ? I utterly stand against govt censorship.
    - hdgvhicv 8mo ago
      But corporate censorship by companies larger and more powerful than most countries with no democratic accountability is ok?
      - lenkite 8mo ago
        Govt is far worse since Corporates can't throw you in jail for social media posts - which is what is happening.
  - blell 8mo ago
    Why is the response to all of this a giant ad hominem. “Oh but <region> does it too!” - how does this help me as an European?
- goobatrooba 8mo ago
  Ah yes, there is a foreign government sponsored campaign to deligitimise and spread lies about your country and government. And because you are a democracy you should just accept it and let lies and propaganda flood your country? Can't even make these entities follow the law as they operate outside your legal framework. So let them lie and manipulate people while claiming to be "news.l". This is how democracy dies - when we stop caring about truth. This is how fox ruined the US, when lies becomes fine just because they are "opinion" or "entertainment".
otherme123 8mo ago
Not true. Going to assume you are from Spain. Try posting a recording of the police. Try posting something praising terrorism. Try a joke about victims of terrorism. A humour magazine called Mongolia has been fined with 40,000€ for publishing a joke about Ortega Cano. Try offending religion publicly. All of that is allowed in the US. Every country in Europe has some restraint to freedom of expression (lots of them ban either nazi or communist symbols, for starters). US has none.

CamperBob2 8mo ago

That's normalization.

kvemkon 8mo ago

> That and ... lenta.ru ? (aha, management personnel has been replaced 2014 [1]) [1] https://t.me/systemasystema/89 https://t.me/systemasystema/89 [RU]

SanjayMehta 8mo ago

Blocking RT is not censorship? Nor is sanctioning your own journalists? Or a former intelligence agent, a Swiss national who worked for NATO, and now lives in Belgium? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46969722 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46969722

goobatrooba 8mo ago
You link to a comment which lists a number of russian-paid propaganda actors spreading lies and hate. They have not been censored by a government but by courts which based on evidence identified breaches of law. It's something very different from censorship.
- blell 8mo ago
  RT was not censored by any courts of law. It was censored by an unelected executive branch.
  - herbst 8mo ago
    Also it's not "censored in Europe" I am in Switzerland and can still access it
- SanjayMehta 8mo ago
  So say when China censors USAian and European sites, that's authoritarian, but when Europe does it it's very different from censorship. Got it.
- SanjayMehta 8mo ago
  Col Jacques Baud is the exception to your rant. He's a retired swiss intelligence officer who served with NATO. He didn't even quote a Russian source in his books, has refused to appear on any Russian media channel. Now explain why he's sanctioned.
- SanjayMehta 8mo ago
  Pensioner called Merz "pinoccio," now faces police investigation. Even our "authoritarian" PM Modi ignores petty nonsense like this. You people need to wake up. https://www.stimme.de/heilbronn/stadt-heilbronn/friedrich-merz-bundeskanzler-pinocchio-beleidigung-polizei-ermittlungen-art-5143482 https://www.stimme.de/heilbronn/stadt-heilbronn/friedrich-me...
stockerta 8mo ago
Blocking someone who's sole purpose is to destabilise your region is wrong? You are an idiot if you think that one should let them spread their lies and anti EU propaganda freely.
- brainwad 8mo ago
  Imagine what the Russian government tells its citizens about (blocked) European and American foreign news, and then you will see why this is a terrible argument. The mark of a free country is that nothing is blocked, because the citizens can be trusted to think.
  - stockerta 8mo ago
    And y64 can see where that th5n25ng br64ght the us. Rampant Russian disinfo helped push them into the mess they are in. No thanks, I still stand by that some things needs to be banned, be it foreign disinformation campaigns or nazis eg.

stinkbeetle 8mo ago

> No it isn't. Yes it is. > For example in my EU country I can see the list of all websites blocked, and all of them are for piracy/copyright infringement and illegal betting (legal betting is allowed, but must register and pay taxes). That and rt.com. You provided a counter-example that disproves your claim in the next sentence. I'm just flabbergasted.

goobatrooba 8mo ago
Blocking a propaganda outlet by a hostile foreign government is not censorship and certainly not "general censorship that is normalised." If you know that a foreign actor intentionally tries to undermine your government you honestly think the right course of action is to just relax and let it happen? Absurd. Europe has seen it's share of dictators and knows that a democracy needs to also protect itself.
- stinkbeetle 8mo ago
  A regime dictating what its people may and may not read about is exactly censorship.

deleted 8mo ago

[deleted]

AnthonyMouse 8mo ago

> all of them are for piracy/copyright infringement and illegal betting Does that include all of the sites that share the same IP addresses as those sites? For that matter, you're posting a reply to an article about a European country blocking the website of a generic US government VPN service, and the service isn't even operating yet. So not only have they graduated to censoring VPNs, they're now censoring a website whose only content is political criticism of their other censorship.

herbst 8mo ago
There are no IP bans ...
- petcat 8mo ago
  Well apparently there are, because huge swaths of CDN PoP IPs are getting banned/blocked in Europe especially during La Liga matches. How are we explaining this?
  - CamperBob2 8mo ago
    They explain it by plugging their ears, chanting "LA LA LA LA", rocking back and forth, and telling themselves (and everyone else) that the US is worse.

axus 8mo ago

I'd love to see the link to your country's blocklist.

herbst 8mo ago
Not op, but here: https://www.gespa.ch/en/fighting-illegal-gambling/access-blocking https://www.gespa.ch/en/fighting-illegal-gambling/access-blo...
- brainwad 8mo ago
  Let's be real, this is just protectionism. The most popular prediction market in the world is DNS-blocked, in the hopes of redirecting you to some crappy online casinos instead.

lenkite 8mo ago

Good lord. Your response only proved his statement. Blocking rt.com glaringly showcases the eye-rolling, ridiculous and "moving to dangerous-territory" censorship that the EU is performing - my opinion as a citizen of an Asian nation.

verzali 8mo ago
How much dangerous censorship does your Asian nation carry out? India, for example, blocks thousands of websites - no sex work for them - and regularly shuts down the Internet entirely.
- lenkite 8mo ago
  Why else do you think I mentioned that the EU is on a dangerous path ? I utterly stand against govt censorship.
  - hdgvhicv 8mo ago
    But corporate censorship by companies larger and more powerful than most countries with no democratic accountability is ok?
    - lenkite 8mo ago
      Govt is far worse since Corporates can't throw you in jail for social media posts - which is what is happening.
- blell 8mo ago
  Why is the response to all of this a giant ad hominem. “Oh but <region> does it too!” - how does this help me as an European?
goobatrooba 8mo ago
Ah yes, there is a foreign government sponsored campaign to deligitimise and spread lies about your country and government. And because you are a democracy you should just accept it and let lies and propaganda flood your country? Can't even make these entities follow the law as they operate outside your legal framework. So let them lie and manipulate people while claiming to be "news.l". This is how democracy dies - when we stop caring about truth. This is how fox ruined the US, when lies becomes fine just because they are "opinion" or "entertainment".

otherme123 8mo ago

Not true. Going to assume you are from Spain. Try posting a recording of the police. Try posting something praising terrorism. Try a joke about victims of terrorism. A humour magazine called Mongolia has been fined with 40,000€ for publishing a joke about Ortega Cano. Try offending religion publicly. All of that is allowed in the US. Every country in Europe has some restraint to freedom of expression (lots of them ban either nazi or communist symbols, for starters). US has none.