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Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are removed

thehill.com

21–30 of 565 posts

Re: Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are removed

#21
post #5

The posts in question are frankly pretty awful, but this does kind of put the lie to the idea that if you don't like FaceGoogleBook's censorship you can just set up your own website.

The continued existence of Stormfront seems like a pretty strong rebuttal.

Re: Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are removed

#22
post #9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahh yes, multinational corporations worth hundreds of billions, also known as the left. Insightful.

The only two other comments in this thread are saying that this is "good".

I don't think other people see the connection to "the left" or net neutrality.

Re: Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are removed

#23
post #4

In which the left now suddenly no longer supports network neutrality.

Microsoft is an edge provider, not an ISP; net neutrality is about stopping ISPs from controlling edge providers to consumer contact, largely. It's not about regulating edge providers.

Re: Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are removed

#24
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they kind of shot themselves in the foot by leaving big social media platforms... for a big server hosting platform. If they wanted to go Henry David Thoreau on the corporate internet, why didn't they buy physical equipment?

In your scenario, are the datacenters and ISPs immune to political pressure?

Well, if we had net neutrality, the ISPs would be legally mandated to be content neutral; you can, of course, run your own data center.

EDIT: It may not be cheap, but the “free” in free press is libre, not gratis.

Re: Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are removed

#25

Little's posts on Gab are awful, and Microsoft is in his rights to refuse service to anyone. However they don't have the capacity to do a fair manual triage of all the services they are hosting, and they should avoid doing it until legally constrained.

Too lazy to actually look it up but I think that MS are getting ahead of the lawsuit from Europe. Europe will fine you X dollars for every second / minute / hour or something that a bad post is left online. So even if GAB does not comply with EU regs then Azure surely will and EU will go after the weakest link. MS knows this, and they don't care about GAB or Free Speech or whatever so they're going to shut them down if they don't comply.

IMO Europes rules are designed this way on purpose, they are sort of exporting their rules, and eventually if that's allowed to continue the internet will devolve to the lowest common denominator. Whomever has the biggest most enforceable fines rules the internet.

Re: Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are removed

#26
post #4

In which the left now suddenly no longer supports network neutrality.

This a great example of a comment from which we learn little but are agitated much.

> Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are removed

#27
post #5

The posts in question are frankly pretty awful, but this does kind of put the lie to the idea that if you don't like FaceGoogleBook's censorship you can just set up your own website.

The continued existence of Stormfront seems like a pretty strong rebuttal.

they keep getting kicked off all the tlds

even .ru revoked their domain

Re: Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are removed

#28
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they kind of shot themselves in the foot by leaving big social media platforms... for a big server hosting platform. If they wanted to go Henry David Thoreau on the corporate internet, why didn't they buy physical equipment?

In your scenario, are the datacenters and ISPs immune to political pressure?

Maybe not, but there are a much more diverse set of ISPs in different countries than there are cloud-hosting providers. We know that some of them are looser with what they will or won't enforce as long as you keep paying them. Can you imagine all those spammers from Bulgarian ISPs hosting their C&C servers on Azure?

I'm not saying there's a bulletproof-safe way for Gab, or any other site for that matter, to host - what if Trump slips Comcast $20 and a caramel tomorrow and tells them to bucket CNN traffic? - but there are certain choices which are obviously more risky than others.

Re: Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are removed

#29
post #5

The posts in question are frankly pretty awful, but this does kind of put the lie to the idea that if you don't like FaceGoogleBook's censorship you can just set up your own website.

Well you can host your own website on your own server. Of course, I do wonder how far this goes. What happens if the DNS server refuses to host the IP lookup? Host your own DNS server? What if the browsers refuse to allow access to the site? Build your own browser? What if ISPs refuse to transfer the data over the wire? Make your own internet? People have defended that this vs. Net Neutrality (at least the extent of…

And like for everything else, first a precedent is created with an indefensible case of terrorism/pedophilia/neo-nazism, then the rule gets progressively applied more broadly.

Re: Microsoft threatens to stop hosting Gab unless posts are removed

#30
post #5

The posts in question are frankly pretty awful, but this does kind of put the lie to the idea that if you don't like FaceGoogleBook's censorship you can just set up your own website.

Well you can host your own website on your own server. Of course, I do wonder how far this goes. What happens if the DNS server refuses to host the IP lookup? Host your own DNS server? What if the browsers refuse to allow access to the site? Build your own browser? What if ISPs refuse to transfer the data over the wire? Make your own internet? People have defended that this vs. Net Neutrality (at least the extent of…

> What happens if the DNS server refuses to host the IP lookup?

No need. It's easier if DNS registrars conspire to confiscate and/or refuse to sell domain names. This has already been done. SSL certs can, and have been, revoked. The ISPs haven't really been involved in these types of actions since the 90s, so I'm curious what their stance is. For now, if you've been run off the face of the WWW, you still have TOR hidden services or IPFS. Who knows what will happen when the ISPs get involved.

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