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Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication

freenetproject.org

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Re: Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication

#31

Post by hkt »

ogurechny wrote: post #20
hkt wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are different things. I2P is a transport layer, freenet is a (imo weird) combination of transport layer and distributed storage. So, running IRC over freenet (for instance) isn't a thing. Personally my take is that freenet is conceptually not as interesting as running bittorrent over i2p, but YMMV.

Freenet implements low latency queue and allows for near-realtime communication over distributed storage. Specifically, “IRC over Freenet” WAS made long time ago. You get modem-like delays and bandwidth, but is this a problem? Trying to use it when someone is actively searching for you is a different story, because there's a balance between sending data and being detectable.

TIL, my mistake. Thank you!

Re: Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication

#32

Post by azalemeth »

samsquire wrote: post #18

You have to go out of your way to find abusive media on freenet. There are many top lists of freesites and they are censored of abusive media. I recommend FMS the freenet messaging system which uses web of trust successfully to moderate messages in a Usenet forum.

Out of curiosity, what sort of things are on freenet? Is it worth installing it in a Tails VM?

Re: Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication

#33

Post by sweetbitter »

bitwize wrote: post #11

The upshot of a project like Freenet is that no matter how noble the intentions, these days it's pretty much a CSAM distribution network and little else -- and if you publicly fess up to using it you'll be put on a list. This is why the future of the internet is censored, regulated platforms like FB, Twitter, and Reddit -- if you seek out uncensored platforms you are ipso facto up to no good because of the reputation…

Federated platforms are pretty good with getting rid of public objectionable material. I thought that ever since encryption became a thing, we had pretty much forfeit the possibility of preventing the sharing of CSAM? Hence why Facebook is where the overwhelming majority of CSAM is found on the internet.

Re: Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication

#34

Post by ogurechny »

bitwize wrote: post #11

The upshot of a project like Freenet is that no matter how noble the intentions, these days it's pretty much a CSAM distribution network and little else -- and if you publicly fess up to using it you'll be put on a list. This is why the future of the internet is censored, regulated platforms like FB, Twitter, and Reddit -- if you seek out uncensored platforms you are ipso facto up to no good because of the reputation…

If something is not safe for child porn and terrorism, it is not really safe for everything else. Only as safe as someone lets you be. Alternatively, if something has means to censor “just” child porn and terrorism, they WILL be used for something else one day.

Re: Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication

#35

Post by einpoklum »

tetrisgm wrote: post #5

I wonder if Freenet is used for anything but super illegal stuff, and sheer curiosity? This isn’t to say privacy and escaping the bottleneck of traditional internet isn’t compelling. But I’ve yet to see a use case for Freenet.

If nothing else, many people use it for personal, interpersonal and group communications about perfectly mundane issues, uninteresting to governments, on principle.

(... for some definition of "many".)

Re: Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication

#36

Post by not_m_anissimov »

azalemeth wrote: post #13
fsflover wrote: post #2

How is it better than I2P: https://geti2p.net ? Upd: found this: https://geti2p.net/en/comparison/freenet .

My understanding is that: -- i2p was originally a fork of freenet -- Freenet was designed and conceived as a datastore, fist and foremost, whereas i2p using 'garlic routing' was apt for any IP protocol proxied over it (a bit like tor) -- Freenet therefore is more efficient and distributing popular data -- There are some concerns about the algoirthms behind freenet's anonymity, which i2p claims [1] are troublesome. --…

You're not likely to find child porn on Tor anymore unless you go looking for it. It's there, because Tor is much bigger than Freenet and I2P, but it's out the way. The hidden wikis were all cleaned up years ago. I bet the drug marketplaces thought it was bad for business to be listed alongside that sort of thing.

Freenet is the same as it ever was. I don't think you could play around on there and not find that stuff. Dunno what's going on on I2P these days.

Re: Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication

#37

Post by IndySun »

sweetbitter wrote: post #33
bitwize wrote: post #11

The upshot of a project like Freenet is that no matter how noble the intentions, these days it's pretty much a CSAM distribution network and little else -- and if you publicly fess up to using it you'll be put on a list. This is why the future of the internet is censored, regulated platforms like FB, Twitter, and Reddit -- if you seek out uncensored platforms you are ipso facto up to no good because of the reputation…

Federated platforms are pretty good with getting rid of public objectionable material. I thought that ever since encryption became a thing, we had pretty much forfeit the possibility of preventing the sharing of CSAM? Hence why Facebook is where the overwhelming majority of CSAM is found on the internet.

>Hence why Facebook is where the overwhelming majority of CSAM is found on the internet.

It's not that. It's because fb is huge. CSAM and it's purveyors will determinedly find a way to share digitally, eventually, on every platform. Only regularly shutting down/restarting anew, wholesale, disrupts; that or censorship.

Re: Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication

#38

Post by sgjohnson »

fsflover wrote: post #30
zepto wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize the EU is further down the path of enabling censorship than the US?

What are you talking about?

There is no near-absolute right to free speech in the EU. Countless people have been successfilly prosecuted for what would be covered under the 1st amendment in the EU.

Re: Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication

#40

Post by not_m_anissimov »

fsflover wrote: post #29
Yuioup wrote: post #9

I stay away from it because chunks of the data is hosted on your local machine, and it could potentially contain very unsavory data. Sure it's encrypted but try to explain that to your local law enforcement.

> Sure it's encrypted but try to explain that to your local law enforcement. But how will they read it if even you can't?

They know what they're looking for. If they know the file locators they can find any matching chunks and decrypt them. It gets worse, if someone connects to you and requests a file from you, good chance your node will cache the chunks in that file. Freenet is a probable-cause paradise.
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