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EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

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351–360 of 467 posts

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The excuse has to be something nobody can appear to be supporting (pedophilia, terrorism, nazis, etc.). It's not only an appeal to emotion, it's also a false dichotomy, a loaded question, guilt by association. Others look at this recipe and can't help but notice its effectiveness. Eventually nobody is beneath pulling this kind of logic, even if they were the ones crucifying it just a few short years ago. The weaker t…

> The excuse has to be something nobody can appear to be supporting (pedophilia, terrorism, nazis, etc.). If this actually works then it should work in both directions, right? Example: Many websites are malicious or adversarial, therefore anything enabling a service to discern whether the user is a vulnerable child is a boon to website-operating pedos and needs to be eliminated. The law should inhibit predatory servi…

The FATF guidance actually state that if your purchase a VPN license (shows up on credit card bill) you should suspect of being pedophile by your bank staff:

https://x.com/moo9000/status/1901906097323012466?s=20

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#352
post #109

In case people no longer remember, when China started to require websites to register for a license before be allowed to operate, it was for "protecting the children" too. This simple policy then goes on to silence most individual publisher(/self-media) and consolidated the industry into the hands of the few, with no opportunity left for smaller entrepreneurs. This is arguably much worse than allowing children to wat…

You know, if Politicians, Law Enforcement and Military Personnel are included and affected by all these anti-privacy laws, I'm all for it (not really). Let their daily corruption come to light by the opposition exposing all their dirty laundry (because of course they'd used the data against each other) and vice-versa over and over... and that's not gonna happen because we don't live in that world where laws apply fai…

Europol is lobbying for this.

Of course, by using tax payers money.

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#353
post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why porn is such a problem and an excuse. There is so much genuinely horrifying stuff on the internet - including gore, pictures and videos of all kinds of abuse, but the problem is always with people having sex on camera for money...

I think the important part is that parents talk with their children about the nature of porn. It's unavoidable that they're going to run into it at some point, and I think it's important that they understand that's not what real sex is like. I did catch my son watching porn when he was 13. We talked about it, I blocked some stuff at my router (hardly comprehensive, but mostly to make it easy to avoid the thing he was…

I don't have kids yet, but I remember what it was like as a teen. Now from the perspective of the adult, all that stuff about how porn supposedly damages young person's view of what real sex is like was exaggerated. In fact, porn ended up being a pretty decent educational experience for me. Definitely filled the gaps that the "responsible education" left behind. On the other hand, as a young boy I saw some very drastic self-harm pictures online and it's been with me since - almost 30 years later I still remember.

re: gaming addiction - my parents were obsessed with me being "addicted". Now, as an adult, I don't care about games anymore. Everything I have I owe to computer skills and English. What my parents didn't want to see (or couldn't?) was that at the time games were the only interesting thing to do. We were glued to the screens mostly because everything else sucked.

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Age verification will be implemented as identity identification. And that means anything you read or write or watch or say will be tied to your identity, registered by the government and other organizations, and used against you as an individual. Do you understand now? Or will you only understand when you get fired from your job and they won't tell you the reason?

> Age verification will be implemented as identity identification. Thank you for bringing an argument. I want to start by tackling your argument head on. What if it's not though. What if it's implemented by attestation and signatures rooted at your local national government? Nobody will be able to tie whatever you watch or write to your identity, because they won't have it. To my understanding, that's what's proposed…

> there are much more prescient and immediate things you should oppose than this.

We can oppose more than one thing at a time. All of these privacy invading measures should be opposed as strongly as possible. Companies like Google should be broken up by the government, the parts should not be allowed to collude with each other, and there should be laws preventing the kind of data collection they do without full transparency, user control, and ownership.

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why porn is such a problem and an excuse. There is so much genuinely horrifying stuff on the internet - including gore, pictures and videos of all kinds of abuse, but the problem is always with people having sex on camera for money...

>I don't understand why porn is such a problem and an excuse. Because porn is the most taboo things in public, even if a lot of people use it at home. Nobody will come and defend liberal porn access because then everyone will call you a gooner or a pedo. It'll probably be the end of your political debate. Which means porn access can be weaponized without any political opposition. It's the perfect scapegoat to remove…

Yes, I agree, my point was more about why is sex such a taboo, when there are things out there, that are genuinely worse. But I guess it's a bit too wide of a topic to have a productive discussion.

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#357
post #109

In case people no longer remember, when China started to require websites to register for a license before be allowed to operate, it was for "protecting the children" too. This simple policy then goes on to silence most individual publisher(/self-media) and consolidated the industry into the hands of the few, with no opportunity left for smaller entrepreneurs. This is arguably much worse than allowing children to wat…

I have an extreme slippery slope idea. If they want to protect children, shouldn't they sterilize everyone? Every child born, regardless of wealth will inevitably suffer injury, illness, and psychological setbacks. Therefore, the best way to protect them would be not allowing people to have children. By the way, not having children is also more eco-friendly, because an infinite series simply converges. I wonder if I’…

Worth remembering that eugenics was the smart idea among many intellectuals in the earlier 20th century. The fascinating list of eminent adherents include J. Maynard Keynes, Winston Churchill, T. Roosevelt, Francis Crick, Linus Pauling, Herbert Hoover, J.H. Kellogg (of corn flake fame), Oliver Wendell Holmes, GB Shaw, Sidney Webb (early socialist, co-founder of the LSE & the Labour Party) and William Beveridge who created the British National Health System (NHS). Apparently Hitler wrote "There is today one state in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the United States.". (Mein Kempf).

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#358
post #232
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a recap how it happened in Russia: 1. First, year ~2015 legal framework was created under disguise of banning pirated media(specifically torrents.ru)(legislative push). State-wide DNS ban introduced. Very easy to circumvent via quering 8.8.8.8 2. Then, having legal basis, govt included extra stuff in banned list(casinos, terrorist orgs, etc)(executive push). IP bans introduced, applied very carefully. 3. Legal e…

and yet my friend in Moscow is able to use VPN to get around all this

"If you are not in prison yet, it is not your merit, but our failure." -- attributed to Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Upd: are they able to use VPN when the Internet is in so-called "white-list mode" where only certain websites are available?

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#359
post #145
post #109

In case people no longer remember, when China started to require websites to register for a license before be allowed to operate, it was for "protecting the children" too. This simple policy then goes on to silence most individual publisher(/self-media) and consolidated the industry into the hands of the few, with no opportunity left for smaller entrepreneurs. This is arguably much worse than allowing children to wat…

Just a recap how it happened in Russia: 1. First, year ~2015 legal framework was created under disguise of banning pirated media(specifically torrents.ru)(legislative push). State-wide DNS ban introduced. Very easy to circumvent via quering 8.8.8.8 2. Then, having legal basis, govt included extra stuff in banned list(casinos, terrorist orgs, etc)(executive push). IP bans introduced, applied very carefully. 3. Legal e…

8. 2026 White-list mode is occasionally enforced.

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The excuse has to be something nobody can appear to be supporting (pedophilia, terrorism, nazis, etc.). If only being associated with pedophilia and nazis was still something that had to be avoided because it would be career ending otherwise.

Right? I was just thinking that Maine looks to be electing someone who had nazi tattoos, and it would seem pedophilia is one of the few things both parties approve of at least in deed.

(Graham Platner had the tattoo covered up 10/2025)
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