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Pirate Bay founder thinks Parler’s inability to stay online is 'embarrassing'

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Re: Pirate Bay founder thinks Parler’s inability to stay online is 'embarrassing'

#371

Obviously Parler didn't consider censorship as part of their threat model, while TPB necessarily had to. Moreover, I'm pretty sure TPB has gone down here and there, probably for weeks at a time. I don't think Parler's problems threat model is that bad; just maybe don't depend on companies that are liable to peer pressure. In the worst case you just get hosting from someone who isn't going to dump you because of socia…

TPB had a much greater threat to them. They were even threatened by domain registrars.

How could you say TPB didn't consider censorship? What is a DMCA takedown if not censorship?

Re: Pirate Bay founder thinks Parler’s inability to stay online is 'embarrassing'

#372
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TPB never supported absolute free speech. I can't find it now, but they used to have a section of their site where they posted responses to media company lawyers, and they basically said they wouldn't take down anything except child porn. I'm not sure if the rules have changed in the years since.

CP is one of the very few things where mere possession is illegal. It makes sense that TPB, which is mainly against copyright and IP, would not allow it.

With CP it's also that making distribution harder might disincentivise the creation of the material, so removing it everywhere could have the very real effect of saving actual children.

This might be a bit of a naive view on things, considering how some forms of content will always find ways of spreading, but it's still a very strong point to argue that it's different from content like 3D-printable pistol schematics.

Re: Pirate Bay founder thinks Parler’s inability to stay online is 'embarrassing'

#373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry for OT but what about a simple small time private AWS user like me who uses it for static hosting my blog and stuff. Does that mean someone could request a lot of files, over and over, to increase my bill? Or is that served by some cache? Let's say for example I host Mastodon media on S3, about 30G of unique data. Could someone use that to increase the cost of my bill? I do of course have a budget alert set but…

This is always a possibility so you take steps to protect yourself. If it’s a few static assets, put a CDN in front of it. You won’t be charged extra by S3 because the CDN would cache it. If you’re hosting Mastodon, then I assume you’d take steps to ensure that only an authenticated user can access any data. And that user would also need to be authorised to access only specific data. And that authenticated and author…

Most CDNs also charge for transfer.

Re: Pirate Bay founder thinks Parler’s inability to stay online is 'embarrassing'

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when is "not enough moderation" grounds for terminating hosting? Amazon does a terrible job of moderating their own catalog and reviews. Should their ASNs be blackholed? You can read the comments on any given CNN article, and see racist statements. Should CNN reporters be barred from attending press conferences?

It is grounds for terminating hosting when AWS has repeatedly asked you to remove said content AND they've offered to help you migrate you off of AWS. See court filings - https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.294664... Or for specific sections, see https://twitter.com/questauthority/status/134916216569825280...

If Microsoft sends an email to Valve telling them to delete certain unlawful posts on Steam, or else they'll use Windows Defender to block the Steam executable, would you defend that?

Why not? It's not like Valve owns the computers of their customers. They're in clear violation of the Windows terms of service. If you violate the ToS, then Microsoft has every right to remove you from their operating system and Valve is in turn free to migrate to a different OS.

Re: Pirate Bay founder thinks Parler’s inability to stay online is 'embarrassing'

#375
post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Hacker Who Archived Parler Explains How She Did It (and What Comes Next) I'm really glad she did that. I'm fine with all this stuff getting taken down, but it really needs to be archived somewhere for historical purposes, to help understand this moment. Given the kind of media and political impact Trump's tweets from @theRealDonaldTrump have been, I really hope they're archived at NARA along with the @POTUS twe…

> "I'm fine with all this stuff getting taken down" I understand this on a visceral level, but I wish more people would look beyond that to the implications for communication on the web. This action by Amazon happens to correspond with what I think is right and just on first iteration, but what principle prevents Amazon from arsing some other group that we agree with?

Aye. Relevant SSC:

https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/12/29/the-spirit-of-the-firs...

https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/24/guided-by-the-beauty-o...

Re: Pirate Bay founder thinks Parler’s inability to stay online is 'embarrassing'

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but what principle prevents Amazon from arsing some other group that we agree with? Parler had people discussing murdering Congresspeople and didn't do anything about it. No matter which faction of "what level of free speech is acceptable" one subscribes, this is never acceptable and it is no wonder that Parler got booted off.

> this is never acceptable I want you to understand what I'm about to say. Understand it in your bones: it is unacceptable to me and to you and it is reprehensible; and beliefs that you hold dear will someday, by someone, be seen as unacceptable and reprehensible. To protect the speech of the reprehensible is to protect your own speech. That's what I would like you to understand. David Goldberger didn't defend the ri…

> But if “planning and executing crimes” is the standard by which platforms should be shut down

Planning an executing crimes is the standard by which those doing so should be shut down. Ideally, by the actor as close as possible and able to do so with minimal collateral damage.

But a second-order platform that determines a first-order platform is systematically incapable or unwilling to do that does not act improperly in cutting service to the first order platform .

Re: Pirate Bay founder thinks Parler’s inability to stay online is 'embarrassing'

#377
post #212
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Due to the people involved, Parler is almost certainly not a honeypot setup by the FBI, CIA, or some other government organization. However some of the details that have leaked out over the last week made me wonder how little of the site would have changed if that was the intended purpose.

Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

More like, sufficiently advanced malice is indistinguishable from common incompetence :)

Re: Pirate Bay founder thinks Parler’s inability to stay online is 'embarrassing'

#378
post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and notify you about it hours later if you decided to create usage alerts and bill you at the end of the month. This is the crucial part: AWS will serve whatever is request. It brings them money.

Sorry for OT but what about a simple small time private AWS user like me who uses it for static hosting my blog and stuff. Does that mean someone could request a lot of files, over and over, to increase my bill? Or is that served by some cache? Let's say for example I host Mastodon media on S3, about 30G of unique data. Could someone use that to increase the cost of my bill? I do of course have a budget alert set but…

AFAIK yes. This is why I never get people that use AWS. DigitalOcean or any other VPS provider for that matter gives you a flat monthly rate so you know there will never be any surprises. Why take the risk?

Re: Pirate Bay founder thinks Parler’s inability to stay online is 'embarrassing'

#379
post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Hacker Who Archived Parler Explains How She Did It (and What Comes Next) I'm really glad she did that. I'm fine with all this stuff getting taken down, but it really needs to be archived somewhere for historical purposes, to help understand this moment. Given the kind of media and political impact Trump's tweets from @theRealDonaldTrump have been, I really hope they're archived at NARA along with the @POTUS twe…

> "I'm fine with all this stuff getting taken down" I understand this on a visceral level, but I wish more people would look beyond that to the implications for communication on the web. This action by Amazon happens to correspond with what I think is right and just on first iteration, but what principle prevents Amazon from arsing some other group that we agree with?

> what principle prevents Amazon from arsing some other group that we agree with?

Honestly, none. It's their business and they can handle it however they want.

What you can do (and this is exactly what Kolmisoppi was suggesting) is build your platform to work without relying on other people's business.

I'm happy that companies like Amazon don't want to get associated with people who organized a failed coup. That should be the bare minimum. But there is no law which forces you to be hosted on Amazon if you want to be on the Internet. You can self-host. You can buy/rent servers in another country, where what you are doing doesn't have direct consequences which might lead people to want to get away from you. Use the blockchain, use torrent, develop your own P2P protocol. Those people just got locked out from the easy way, something they should have expected to happen (and plan for) since day one.

Re: Pirate Bay founder thinks Parler’s inability to stay online is 'embarrassing'

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can build on Java + SpringBoot + MySQL + Linux + Docker Compose, then what else do you really need? I mean there's tons of technology stacks to choose from, but people get lazy and take the easy way out rather than learning to scale servers themselves. Get on Linode. It's base on Linux instances. If you build on Linux you are "free" and not "owned"

Linode and Digital Ocean docs also are leagues ahead of AWS. They cover a lot of stuff. I didn’t even know what fail2ban was when one of my VPS’s got hacked. Went through all their docs, they cover a lot and really helped me understand how much I didn’t know while at the same time providing guides on getting up to speed. AWS won’t tell you about those things because they sell you security, so you remain a dumbass abo…

If you are doing ssh config properly, then you don’t need fail2ban or its ilk.
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