Everyone wants to crush their citizens. Except Iceland, maybe.
They want to ban porn though. Any country left that actually cares about freedom, other than Germany?
No, no, we just pretend. We are the USAs and the NSAs bitch like all our neighbors.
Africa's Worst New Internet Censorship Law Could Be Coming to South Africa
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Re: Africa's Worst New Internet Censorship Law Could Be Coming to South Africa
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
They want to ban porn though. Any country left that actually cares about freedom, other than Germany?
> Any country left that actually cares about freedom, other than Germany? Last time I checked (5 minutes ago), we didn't. (german speaking)
The day when even the Spiegel titles
"DER VERRAT – BND und Bundesregierung gegen deutsche Interessen"
(in english: "THE TREASON – BND and federal government vs. German interests")
you really can’t say the country cares about freedom :/
Re: Africa's Worst New Internet Censorship Law Could Be Coming to South Africa
#13Sounds about right for the fpb in sa. They make a lot of talk about protecting against pornography specifically child pornography. Given south Africa's current trend of sexual violence against minors it's understandable but they are pretty much unable to enforce anything.
The sa government has a very mediocre understanding overall of how the technology that makes up the Internet works and likes to propose rather broad and technically unfeasable laws that inevitably are either ignored or eventually abandoned.
It wasn't that long ago that they expected any isp to be keeping packet logs of any traffic through thier network for a period of five years on the off chance that the police might need it. It took a fair bit of back and forth to get them to realize how absurd such an approach was.
I would expect that if this does come to pass and youtube is blocked etc, that even the most naïve user will suddenly discover what a vpn is and life will continue. ( never underestimate the technological capability of someone , including your grandmother, to find a way to watch thier cat videos on the Internet )
Re: Africa's Worst New Internet Censorship Law Could Be Coming to South Africa
#14How is publication specified? Is it a single word, a character, a millisecond of sound or video? I wonder how that scales. Could be the first real DoS of a ministry. Bring it on....
Re: Africa's Worst New Internet Censorship Law Could Be Coming to South Africa
#15Everyone wants to crush their citizens. Except Iceland, maybe.
Factors that prevent states from going totalitarian: - small size - decentralized/local government structure - limited geopolitical influence - high level of education of the population - history/culture of democracy Large, powerful states with a lesser educated population will inevitably drift towards totalitarianism over time. This implies the use of various means of population control, with total surveillance bein…
Disproof by counter example: Singapore (the "history/culture of democracy" is arguable I suppose).
Re: Africa's Worst New Internet Censorship Law Could Be Coming to South Africa
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Factors that prevent states from going totalitarian: - small size - decentralized/local government structure - limited geopolitical influence - high level of education of the population - history/culture of democracy Large, powerful states with a lesser educated population will inevitably drift towards totalitarianism over time. This implies the use of various means of population control, with total surveillance bein…
Disproof by counter example: Singapore (the "history/culture of democracy" is arguable I suppose).
Singapore is centralized, has comparatively large population, especially for its size, and no history of democracy. That's where you become halfway there.
Re: Africa's Worst New Internet Censorship Law Could Be Coming to South Africa
#17Больше ада! Aka, worse is better.
The idea here is: reasoning does not work. You reason for good things, against stupid laws, but you have no leverage. We'll have to walk thru pain, "fear and loathing", most of those laws will be passed somewhere, in a few years or decades they'll prove to not work. Then they will be gradually repelled. Now there will be leverage: "this law was tried in a country CCC and it went sour".
We humans actually suck at designing something (like laws). Our only bet is evolution. You can't reason. You can only show. So we'll have to try ideas even when it's obvious they're stupid.
Re: Africa's Worst New Internet Censorship Law Could Be Coming to South Africa
#18Больше ада! Aka, worse is better. The idea here is: reasoning does not work. You reason for good things, against stupid laws, but you have no leverage. We'll have to walk thru pain, "fear and loathing", most of those laws will be passed somewhere, in a few years or decades they'll prove to not work. Then they will be gradually repelled. Now there will be leverage: "this law was tried in a country CCC and it went sour…
Sadly, the notion that 'It was tried in and didnt work so we should avoid it' doesn't really apply to politics. Consider Australia's current internet censorship and metadata legislation, the same laws have been tried all over Europe, the US, Asia and a host of other countries and proved worthless, and yet the government pushes forward with them. Its simply for appearances, the leadership needs to look like its tough on whatever the hot topic of the hour is.
Re: Africa's Worst New Internet Censorship Law Could Be Coming to South Africa
#19Больше ада! Aka, worse is better. The idea here is: reasoning does not work. You reason for good things, against stupid laws, but you have no leverage. We'll have to walk thru pain, "fear and loathing", most of those laws will be passed somewhere, in a few years or decades they'll prove to not work. Then they will be gradually repelled. Now there will be leverage: "this law was tried in a country CCC and it went sour…
>Now there will be leverage: "this law was tried in a country CCC and it went sour".
Yeah because that worked so well with the example of alcohol prohibition, really taught us a lesson about drug laws ;D
Re: Africa's Worst New Internet Censorship Law Could Be Coming to South Africa
#20That is some North Korean level of crazy!