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Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

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Re: Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

#311

Post by jazzyjackson »

numpad0 wrote: post #277
jazzyjackson wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what levers does that give governments seeking to get compliance out of an internet service - if multiple apps are hosting anti-party propaganda the government has to block the domains of each app ? Or, perhaps the domains of the content itself is blocked so apps continue to work but fail to load content within certain borders ?

Bluesky's whole moderation and decentralization setups were only devised, or at least implemented, after it blew up in Japan and bunch of Japanese artists immediately started hammering the platform with novel content they consider to be lawful and more kosher than normal but were officially felt platform threatening to their team. So, not to undermine efforts from Bluesky team - I applaud their SoTA attempt at microb…

I can only imagine what this refers to but after googling for a few minutes for "bluesky japan controversy" I'm just going to let this exchange color my impression of what's going on at bluesky:

> Deleted Post

>> Katie Tightpussy: BLACKTHORNE: We are a moderation service for Bluesky with the goal of improving social media for progressive queer folks and leftists who wholeheartedly enjoy Japanese anime, manga, games, hentai, fan art, and doujin.

MARIKO: The Anjin incorrectly believes that he is an expert on Japanese culture.

>>> Sign in Required

>>> Sign in Required

>>> Yep, the "controversial fiction" thing is such a sad (yet hilarous) cop-out. They KNOW it's wrong so they employ this linguistic obfuscation to try and make people think they aren't pedos.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:hslv64eax7d2lwrm7qtg44ud/po...

Re: Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

#312

Post by hereme888 »

kstenerud wrote: post #295
pcwalton wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's frustrating that anything related to X/Twitter is such a predictably-partisan tinderbox because this is really interesting technical information. Thank you for sharing it!

It's partisan/political because Musk is partisan/political. And it's not just Musk. We've been living in a fantasy land of "no political affiliation" in the tech world for decades, and now that the age of the hyper-rich has come once again, they are realizing the benefits of using the power they wield to shape the worlds they live in. So now in the early stages of this century's great fight, we'll see our beloved tec…

yup, just read the comment.

Re: Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

#313

Post by dartharva »

dont_forget_me wrote: post #16

It saddens me the Brasil banned X because of racism, anti-semitism and hate-speech. But X is still not banned in the west. At some point we have to come to this realization in the west that absolutism is never the answer. Free speech is good upto certain extent, the way it was at Twitter before the rich and powerful took over. Moreover, it is content moderation and it doesn't have anything to do with free speech.

[flagged]

Re: Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

#314

Post by Dalewyn »

kstenerud wrote: post #295
pcwalton wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's frustrating that anything related to X/Twitter is such a predictably-partisan tinderbox because this is really interesting technical information. Thank you for sharing it!

It's partisan/political because Musk is partisan/political. And it's not just Musk. We've been living in a fantasy land of "no political affiliation" in the tech world for decades, and now that the age of the hyper-rich has come once again, they are realizing the benefits of using the power they wield to shape the worlds they live in. So now in the early stages of this century's great fight, we'll see our beloved tec…

>once again

When has the rich not been more or less 1:1 with The Powers That Be(tm)?

The form changes with the sands of time, but the essence is always the same.

Re: Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

#315

Post by roenxi »

kstenerud wrote: post #295
pcwalton wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's frustrating that anything related to X/Twitter is such a predictably-partisan tinderbox because this is really interesting technical information. Thank you for sharing it!

It's partisan/political because Musk is partisan/political. And it's not just Musk. We've been living in a fantasy land of "no political affiliation" in the tech world for decades, and now that the age of the hyper-rich has come once again, they are realizing the benefits of using the power they wield to shape the worlds they live in. So now in the early stages of this century's great fight, we'll see our beloved tec…

> We've been living in a fantasy land of "no political affiliation" in the tech world for decades

Which "we" are you speaking for? That doesn't sound like the tech world, we've had a lot of explicitly political tech movements over the years. Off the top of my head some of the more successful and major ones were:

- Cryptography.

- Free Software.

- Cryptocurrency.

The Silicon Valley based companies have been politically active since at least 2016, there have been a couple of political exoduses by various groups to alternative platforms. The non-Silicon-Valley companies have been worse and generally suspect to the point where nobody expected political apathy (is anyone going to claim that Chinese social media are not politically subordinate to the state?).

Re: Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

#316

Post by petre »

chipdart wrote: post #61
morkalork wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your new digital town square brought to you in part by the House of Saud, where there's free speech for everyone but some accounts are more equal than others and cisgender is a slur.

Saudi Arabia is of course Twitter's second largest shareholder. But Twitter is also owned by Russian oligarchs linked to Putin himself. https://www.dw.com/en/what-do-xs-alleged-ties-to-russian-oli... We're talking about Elon Musk's Twitter, who around the time of Russia's invasion of Ukraine was found to have hardcoded censorship of pro-ukraine content as well as users who posted pro-Ukraine content on Twitter.

This is just speculation. I see videos from Ukraine sticking it to the Russians like every other day from Twitter, shared with the news. Also from Telegram channels. The most recent one was with a downed Su-25. Here:

https://x.com/igorsushko/status/1828661567094984774

Re: Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

#317

Post by viraptor »

dgfitz wrote: post #74

Disclaimer: indifferent at best to musk, probably more dislike than anything else, but not with vitriol. So I read that this is all because musk refused to appoint a Brazilian citizen as an X representative, as dictated by Brazilian law. I have not verified this part. Musk refused because the last person to fill that role had all their bank accounts frozen by the judge. The judge also cut off payments from Brazilian…

> well then starlink is free for Brazilian citizens because I don’t want to cut people off from their internet connection

It's only for existing customers and because they can't charge them anymore, but don't want to drop the customers just yet. It's a business continuity plan, not some altruistic gesture.

Re: Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

#318

Post by Aerroon »

mstipetic wrote: post #11
adventured wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no possible alternatives to US based services unless you enjoy extreme restrictions on speech. Europe has become a big no-go zone for speech over the past decade, they're outright hostile and authoritarian about it (with only a few exceptions among European nations). And the direction re liberalism and human rights in Europe is overwhelmingly hostile toward speech. And for South America, Africa and Asia you…

[flagged]

The US is a ~250 year old continuous democracy. Almost no European states can say the same. After WW1 a lot of democratic European states popped up. Two decades later half of them were autocratic.

I think it's half that our governments don't want to give away control, lest the peasants become uppity. And the other half is that that's just how the dice landed when the laws were first created.

Re: Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

#319

Post by JumpCrisscross »

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #285
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> right to lie is fundamental to the principle of freedom of speech It's obviously not. We prosecute fraud. No freedom can be absolute unless it is singular.

I wasn’t calling it absolute. I used the word fundamental. My meaning was that giving people this freedom means giving them the freedom to lie as well. I agree that we can debate specific exceptions, which I feel SCOTUS precedence has explored in very nuanced ways. But that’s not where I was going. I was making the point that even if you think something is a ‘truth’, what you perceive as a ‘lie’ must be allowed since…

> giving people this freedom means giving them the freedom to lie as well. I agree that we can debate specific exceptions

We can. But we don't and never have. Anyone arguing for the freedom to lie without consequence is off the deep end. There has never been a society that doesn't punish lying and fraud. (What constitutes a lie is a deeper question.)

> even if you think something is a ‘truth’, what you perceive as a ‘lie’ must be allowed

Why? Also, where? Ever?

If I go and commit a bunch of fraud, I'd expect--at best--riotious laughter from anyone with more than two brain cells if I offered, as my defence, that I cannot be punished for defrauding everyone because I'm part of the truth-finding process.

> truth that is just unchallenged feels more like propaganda

Propaganda is regularly challenged. A truth that cannot be challenged is an article of faith. This entire debate reeks of arguments from faith on both sides.

Re: Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

#320

Post by dartharva »

polski-g wrote: post #145
markdown wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh? Could you explain why he did "the right thing" in Brazil but not in Turkey, India, China, and other countries?

Did those countries engage in censorship by vote of the legislator or by decree?

Decree. Every single one of them.
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