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Petition to stop France from forcing browsers like Firefox to censor websites

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Re: Petition to stop France from forcing browsers like Firefox to censor websites

#171

Post by rrobukef »

mywittyname wrote: post #121
bonzini wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> government being able to mandate that a certain website not open at all on a browser/system is uncharted territory and even the most repressive regimes in the world prefer to block websites further up the network (ISPs, etc.) so far. Repressive government's don't do their blocking at the browser level because it is completely ineffective. Anyone who wants to access the forbidden websites will be able to do so anywa…

I think simply modifying the hosts file on a machine to "rename" the domain of the site you want to visit would be sufficient to bypass a browser-level block.

Please just make the block-list a plain-text human-readable file. That way I can update the file when a new torrent website is convicted and black-listed.

Re: Petition to stop France from forcing browsers like Firefox to censor websites

#172

Post by extraduder_ire »

Until 1999 (had to look it up) france completely banned "unlicensed" use of encryption.

Even to the extent that if you had a windows NT server and changed the region to france, it would replace your hashed password with a plaintext version when you next logged in. So, there is a history of boneheaded tech laws.

Re: Petition to stop France from forcing browsers like Firefox to censor websites

#173

Post by stainablesteel »

There's no basis for blocking a web browser that doesn't comply.

If Mozilla came out and said "nah", what exactly would the french government do? ban that web browser? demand every website accessed via france check if someone is running a banned web browser?

the absurdity would spiral out of control on its own, it seems best to ignore this so that the europeans can take an official L on regulating web content.

Re: Petition to stop France from forcing browsers like Firefox to censor websites

#174

Post by denton-scratch »

londons_explore wrote: post #58
_trackno5 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s absurd that an article exists to allow French govt agents to display messages in my browser. How is that even enforced?

Rules exist to require messages be shown on phones - for example the emergency alert system for hurricanes. Doesn't seem unreasonable that computer OS's and/or web browsers be required to support the same.

Phones are much easier to control than general-purpose computers; broadly-speaking, consumers get phone software from 'stores' that are gated by companies that can be controlled. That is, if it can be controlled by government, it will be. Doesn't make that kind of control "reasonable".

And you can "require" what you like; unless you have real control, then you won't get what you "require".

Re: Petition to stop France from forcing browsers like Firefox to censor websites

#175

Post by micadep »

FrenchDevRemote wrote: post #70
TacticalCoder wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... or to the benefit their friends owning private companies. Yup this one in France is really a big problem. The public sector spendings officially represents something like 58.1% of the french GDP (official "Insee" numbers from 2023, for 2022)... France is not far from a planned economy and, unsurprisingly, it's a particularly harsh environment for real small private SMEs (i.e. those without friends at the state)…

France is really far from a planned economy. Marseille's worst neighborhoods are really chill compared to the bad parts of any American city. The streets are pretty safe. Your comment is kinda ridiculous, stop watching TV. Yeah there are lot of taxes, but those taxes come in handy when you can get 2 years of unemployment benefits when starting a company. Or when you know, get a cancer that would cost a few millions t…

France is not a planned economy in the Soviet Union style, and we are in a privatisation trend. But the state still has a huge role in the economy and a history of interventionism in the private sector. More than most European countries.

I have no knowledge of the worst American cities, but saying that Marseille's worst neighborhoods are "chill" and "The streets are pretty safe" is pure madness.

Re: Petition to stop France from forcing browsers like Firefox to censor websites

#176

Post by redeeman »

myko wrote: post #26
Am4TIfIsER0ppos wrote: post #19

I thought they wanted "more than deplatforming" https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplat... https://archive.today/ia2z4

Everything in that blog post looks reasonable, unlike what France is looking to do

yeah, I do agree that it was very reprehensible of trump to tell people to go home and be peaceful. I mean, how incompetent can he be? he spends all the effort scheming and plotting to illegitimately take over the government, capture the capital, and overthrow the good men and women working there, only to then go and screw it up at the end by telling people to PEACEFULLY make their voices heard, and then double down on this monumental screwup, by telling them to go home???? my god how stupid can trump be.

Re: Petition to stop France from forcing browsers like Firefox to censor websites

#177

Post by redeeman »

goodbyesf wrote: post #55
Am4TIfIsER0ppos wrote: post #19

I thought they wanted "more than deplatforming" https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplat... https://archive.today/ia2z4

Exactly. Mozilla is one of the worst tech companies pretending to do good. Tech wasn't always like this. In the 00s, everyone was for free speech. Mozilla wasn't like this either. Hate to say it, but once the tech elite ( or more like the money elite controlling tech ) started talking about minority, lgbt and women's 'rights', they all started censoring, deplatforming, oppressing. Of course to fight 'hate speech' - w…

unfortunately it seems a great many tech people are cowards and just goes along with all the BS. They have to collect a paycheck after all.

Re: Petition to stop France from forcing browsers like Firefox to censor websites

#178

Post by ben_w »

denton-scratch wrote: post #168
ben_w wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the citizens really cared about the future of their children they would not have elected a government that is a stinking pile of poop As always, I find myself unsure how many actively voted for the Eton Mess vs how many voted to keep out Socialist Santaclaus and his Singing Elves. Both have been (de facto) kicked out of their respective parties since the last election, which says something about the terrible sta…

> Both have been (de facto) kicked out of their respective parties since the last election I thought that by "Eton Mess", you meant to include Rishi Sunak and David Cameron. The former is the leader of the Tories, and I'm not aware that Csameron is (de facto) no longer a Tory. What did you mean?

Boris Johnson, specifically, as their leader in the previous election. I mean, look at him, guy's a literal and metaphorical mess.

Re: Petition to stop France from forcing browsers like Firefox to censor websites

#179

Post by denton-scratch »

londons_explore wrote: post #140
_trackno5 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, we can all agree that this narrow use is in the interest of the public. Emphasis on narrow. It’s completely unreasonable to have a broad scope direct communication channel between the government and my browser or OS.

My government (UK) seems to struggle with communicating some things with citizens. There is no way so send a simple short message to every citizen. For example, recently the law changed so that pedestrians had priority at 't' road junctions without traffic lights. Ideally, every citizen would be send a small infographic showing the new law on the day it became law. They would click "okay" and go on with their day. In…

> There is no way so send a simple short message to every citizen.

1. Not every citizen possesses an SMS-capable device.

2. Many smartphone-enabled citizens don't want to be nagged by the government.

> Instead, the government bought up TV ads and billboards across the country

I don't watch TV ads. I haven't seen any of these billboards. And I didn't know there was anything unusual about the law on T-junctions in particular.

Re: Petition to stop France from forcing browsers like Firefox to censor websites

#180

Post by redeeman »

cubefox wrote: post #119
alphanullmeric wrote: post #103

Good. We will see how many supporters of “stopping misinformation” are willing to be subjected to their own rules.

The "misinformation" that is blocked might be just of a type that is politically convenient to be blocked for those people.

all the way until it isnt. I strongly think that many people are cheering for the pendulum to be pulled sooo far to one direction, that they will have a total chock when it inevitably goes the other direction again
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