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> That's a US perspective, stemming from US history. EU rights as to anonymous speech are weaker, It's interesting that on one hand you're right, in the US, an
by embedding-shape 1mo ago
> That's a US perspective, stemming from US history. EU rights as to anonymous speech are weaker,
It's interesting that on one hand you're right, in the US, anonymous speech receives near-absolute protection. In the EU, it's more of a "qualified right" than so absolute. But, on the other hand, in our modern age, EU seems better at defending against mandating backdoors or weakening end-to-end encryption violates the right to privacy (2024 Podchasov v. Russia), while the US is seemingly going the other way of adding more backdoors and weakening E2E encryption.
So yes, on paper it seems like the US likes anonymous speech more than the EU, but in practice, it seems like the US is doing less to actually protect anonymous speech than the EU.
- hdgvhicv 1mo agoUS free speech is qualified too - just in different ways. And even when free speech is protected, it doesn’t stop you receiving the consequences log being arrested or losing your job and home.
- embedding-shape 1mo agoI feel like we're talking about different things here. I understand "free speech does not mean free of consequence", so if your employer doesn't like your opinions, you can get fired, that's all fine and dandy. But why you add that someone could be arrested for free speech? The whole point of free speech, at least for me, is that the government cannot arrest you for that, even if all the people around you see you as despicable or whatever. What is "free speech" for you actually?
- hdgvhicv 1mo agoPeople get arrested and fined for speech quite a lot in the US. I guess that’s just a consequence https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/23/supreme-court-case-citizen-journalist-appeal/88086502007/ https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/23/supre... https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-03-17/arrest-of-pro-palestinian-students-sparks-alarms-over-free-speech-it-reeks-of-mccarthyism.html https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-03-17/arrest-of-pro-pale... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/17/people-fired-punished-posting-charlie-kirk-death https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/...
- inigyou 1mo agoIndeed, that's why people sometimes say the US doesn't have free speech. But when people say that, they often get attacked, because duh, it says right there in the first amendment that it does! That's why they would instead say things like "the US has exceptions to free speech" or "the US doesn't have unqualified free speech" even though the truth is "the US doesn't have free speech"
- yywwbbn 1mo ago[dead]
- dannyobrien 1mo agoCould you give examples of the US adding backdoors and weakening end-to-end encryption? I'll give you the almost-certain weakening of proposed crypto standards, and Clinton-era export controls, but I don't think I've seen any movement in that direction recently. The most successful attempts statutorily seem to be in the UK and the US. Also: the European Court of Human Rights, as a non-EU institution, doesn't have an enforcement mechanism, so I'm not sure it's a good example to give in defending against such proposals. For instance, Russia declined to respect that decision, and I don't think it's had much effect on the UK's backdoor regime.
- embedding-shape 1mo ago> Could you give examples of the US adding backdoors and weakening end-to-end encryption? Do you really need examples of this? There are countless of them, some programs you cannot have missed are PRISM, STATEROOM and BULLRUN but there are more of them too.
- Semaphor 1mo agoI must say I find it interesting you say "cannot have missed" as I never heard of stateroom or bullrun before
- embedding-shape 1mo agoI guess not everyone read through the Snowden "revelations" back in 2013: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowden_disclosures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowden_disclosures > PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM > STATEROOM is the code name of a highly secretive signals intelligence collection program involving the interception of international radio, telecommunications and Internet traffic - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stateroom_(surveillance_program) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stateroom_(surveillance_progra... > Bullrun (stylized BULLRUN) is a clandestine, highly classified program to crack encryption of online communications and data - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullrun_(decryption_program) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullrun_(decryption_program)
- yywwbbn 1mo ago[dead]
- RA_Fisher 1mo agoEuropeans use American iPhones and Android bc they wouldn’t add a backdoor. Didn’t the UK want a backdoor added?
- anonymousiam 1mo agoAnybody who feels that their communications are secure on their mobile devices is deluded. There are countless access methods at many levels, even in the US. There are laws in every country (including the US) to ensure that communications can be monitored when such monitoring is "authorized."
- inigyou 1mo agoThe US seems to generally take the approach that everything must be absolutely protected from the government, while European countries are fine with delegating things to the government and regulating things, and putting all the protections on the government itself, instead. It hasn't always worked well and may turn out to be naïve, but so has the US way. It's a bit like spreading your eggs between many ordinary baskets, or putting them all in one basket but making that basket as strong as you can. Neither one is obviously a better approach.