Live data from Hacker News

Advice on accessing BBC News

bbc.com

11–20 of 117 posts

Re: Advice on accessing BBC News

#11

Interestingly, they also work for accessing RT and Sputnik from the EU that are banning them.

Broadcasting them in EU is banned.

But accessing them on the internet is not. Or in which EU country it has been blocked?

(I'm in EU but have not tried. Not interested in their content even for curiosity. I can read in our media what they say: There is no war. Ukraine is no nation, but Russians suppressed by nazis that ask to be liberated. In Russian media other standpoints are not mentioned at all.)

Edit: I have no good feeling about banning them. But I understand the Baltic countries: They have a substantial Russian-speaking community that consumes only Russian state media.

Re: Advice on accessing BBC News

#12
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please show me the law? Because that would mean that the U.K needs to close GCHQ and any other secret-service maybe even some police-work.

Believe it or not, law enforcement and intelligence agencies are permitted to do things ordinary citizens aren’t, in the course of their work. As to the relevant bit - section one, paragraph one, subsection a: >> 1)A person is guilty of an offence if— >> (a)he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer [ or to enable any such access to be secured…

That's not the whole thing. See also subsection b:

> (b)the access he intends to secure [F2, or to enable to be secured,] is unauthorised

If you're trying to access a news website it's pretty likely that your access is authorised.

Without subsection b, literally every use of a computer is computer misuse.

Re: Advice on accessing BBC News

#13
post #11

Interestingly, they also work for accessing RT and Sputnik from the EU that are banning them.

Broadcasting them in EU is banned. But accessing them on the internet is not. Or in which EU country it has been blocked? (I'm in EU but have not tried. Not interested in their content even for curiosity. I can read in our media what they say: There is no war. Ukraine is no nation, but Russians suppressed by nazis that ask to be liberated. In Russian media other standpoints are not mentioned at all.) Edit: I have no…

> Not interested in their content even for curiosity. I can read in our media what they say

If you're not interested in looking even for curiosity, how would you know whether your media is representing them accurately?

Do you think it would be reasonable for people in Russia to say they're not interested in looking at the BBC, even for curiosity, because they can read all about what the BBC are saying in Russian media?

Re: Advice on accessing BBC News

#14
post #9

Ironically, this advice is illegal in the U.K. under the computer misuse act - circumventing measures intended to restrict access to information is a criminal offence, as is providing information on how do do so.

My sense is that this is incorrect. I think the law would prohibit breaking into people's computers, not circumventing internet censorship. By circumventing internet censorship you're accessing information that its owner wants you to be able to access. You're not breaking into their computer.

Unfortunately, no. Consider prosecutions of users in the U.K. for accessing TPB via a VPN - TPB didn’t prohibit access, the govt did - but using any computer to access any information on any other computer which you are not authorised to access for any reason is an offence.

Re: Advice on accessing BBC News

#15
I'm always a bit perplexed when people hold up the BBC as an example of a respectable, unbiased news source - a lot of their stuff is ham-fisted, and some of it is flat-out propaganda.

I wouldn't say they are noticeably worse than other media staples - everything is biased - but they don't deserve to be on the pedestal they are put on.

Re: Advice on accessing BBC News

#17

Ironically, this advice is illegal in the U.K. under the computer misuse act - circumventing measures intended to restrict access to information is a criminal offence, as is providing information on how do do so.

"restrict access to information" means passwords, etc

Re: Advice on accessing BBC News

#18
post #11

Interestingly, they also work for accessing RT and Sputnik from the EU that are banning them.

Broadcasting them in EU is banned. But accessing them on the internet is not. Or in which EU country it has been blocked? (I'm in EU but have not tried. Not interested in their content even for curiosity. I can read in our media what they say: There is no war. Ukraine is no nation, but Russians suppressed by nazis that ask to be liberated. In Russian media other standpoints are not mentioned at all.) Edit: I have no…

> In Russian media other standpoints are not mentioned at all.

How would you know?

Re: Advice on accessing BBC News

#19
post #11

Interestingly, they also work for accessing RT and Sputnik from the EU that are banning them.

Broadcasting them in EU is banned. But accessing them on the internet is not. Or in which EU country it has been blocked? (I'm in EU but have not tried. Not interested in their content even for curiosity. I can read in our media what they say: There is no war. Ukraine is no nation, but Russians suppressed by nazis that ask to be liberated. In Russian media other standpoints are not mentioned at all.) Edit: I have no…

Well Cogent changed their statement and said that the reason they terminated their relationship with Russia is because of EU Regulation 2022/350 which is obviously b/s since they already started the termination before that [1].

This is a whole new level to banning Iranian and Lybian TV broadcasts by Ofcom by the UK. Very irresponsible and completely ignorant of all the slippery slopes and blowback that can happen. At least ICANN and the EFF is run by cooler heads.

But maybe you should check indian news which reported that Russia promised them buses to extract indian students[2].

[1] https://www.newspostalk.com/internet-service-provider-cogent...

[2] https://theprint.in/world/130-russian-buses-ready-to-evacuat...

Re: Advice on accessing BBC News

#20
post #11

Interestingly, they also work for accessing RT and Sputnik from the EU that are banning them.

Broadcasting them in EU is banned. But accessing them on the internet is not. Or in which EU country it has been blocked? (I'm in EU but have not tried. Not interested in their content even for curiosity. I can read in our media what they say: There is no war. Ukraine is no nation, but Russians suppressed by nazis that ask to be liberated. In Russian media other standpoints are not mentioned at all.) Edit: I have no…

Your attitude is a little bit perplexing to me. You have so much faith in your media that you trust them to accurately summarise what other media says?

Though thinking further I kind of get where you are coming from - there's English language media from a certain country that's so bad at propaganda I cringe just reading the headline. Guess I'm not as open minded as I thought I was.

Post reply on HN