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US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

reuters.com

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Re: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

#741

Post by 46493168 »

joenot443 wrote: post #712
duckerduck wrote: post #630

Maybe the EU can open a book portal for the US. https://pen.org/report/the-normalization-of-book-banning/

The whole book banning thing is a little weird in 2026, IMO. It's exciting to think about, we all liked Fahrenheit 451, but a book not being bought for elementary schools doesn't really make it "banned" IMO. There are a lot of books which probably shouldn't be in schools. I don't think children should be given copies of Mein Kampf or Camp of Saints, nor the random dark fantasy novels which are so popular today. It fe…

> I don't think children should be given copies

Disingenuous framing. Book bans remove books from school libraries. A book sitting on a shelf is not giving a book to someone.

> of Mein Kampf or Camp of Saints

Why not? Genuinely, why not? What will happen if children have access to words on a printed page? Most of them have access to a supercomputer in their pocket.

To make my stance clear in case it’s not: there is no such thing as “age appropriate literature.” A free society depends on intellectual freedom. Restricting school libraries from holding certain books is a tactic to raise children to be closed minded adults.

Re: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

#742

Post by antonyh »

touristtam wrote: post #289
gpt5 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Reuters, it will essentially be a free VPN. https://www.reuters.com/world/us-plans-online-portal-bypass-...

So you're not paying for it? In corporate america how is that going to be moneytized?

Money is the smallest concern here. It could easily replace the content with state-approved versions and the majority would never know, or at the least redirect to other sites/pages as needed. After all, it's being described as a 'portal' not a simple service.

Re: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

#743

Post by coldtea »

arethuza wrote: post #718
RobotToaster wrote: post #651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This new "portal" will most likely only allow de facto government controlled sites like X.

"government controlled sites like X" - I thought the control was the other way around?

[flagged]

Re: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

#744

Post by notrealyme123 »

jbstack wrote: post #482
pms wrote: post #434

It's a waste of resources, but please do it! The entire "European Union censors" narrative is a hoax [1], so the portal will achieve nothing, but you've got to do what you've got to do! [1] First, the EU countries have much higher World Press Freedom Index than the US. Second, once you start reading how little there is of the alleged "censorship" in the EU, you realize it's a no-brainer aiming to protect people.

As someone living in an EU state who has to regularly turn my VPN on and off to have full internet access, I can't agree with you that it's a "hoax". It's inconvenient enough for me that I'm looking into having a custom router that will switch between VPN destinations depending on what site I'm accessing. Also "EU countries have higher press freedom than the US" is a strawman argument. We're not talking about press f…

DCMA. United states censoring all around the world. So please host a VPN to get around that.

Re: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

#745

Post by frumplestlatz »

jjtwixman wrote: post #682
frumplestlatz wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re entirely free — at any time — to leave NATO, develop your own replacement weapons programs, and fully fund your own defense. I suspect most Americans would actually be quite supportive. You’ll just have to figure out how to actually pay for it.

The only country Americans care about is Israel, it doesn't really matter, we get it. We don't care. Please close Ramstein :)

Germany is free to exit NATO and close Ramstein. I believe it only requires a 1-2 year notice period.

The defense budget required to operate without US assistance is another matter entirely; you’re looking at doubling existing spending, plus hundreds of billions in one-off procurement costs — and that assumes ongoing access to US weapons systems.

The US subsidizes the massive weapons development programs you currently rely on; cost sharing agreements and unit purchases do not come close to offsetting the full sunk R&D costs the US covers.

Replacing those weapons programs, and the existing US industrial base and supply chain they depend on, would run into the trillions of dollars.

Just the R&D portion of the US defense budget is $150B a year — the entire EU’s aggregate defense R&D spending is only ~€15B/year.

A truly independent EU that did not depend on the US for its security would be a very different place.

Re: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

#746

Post by ActionHank »

pms wrote: post #434

It's a waste of resources, but please do it! The entire "European Union censors" narrative is a hoax [1], so the portal will achieve nothing, but you've got to do what you've got to do! [1] First, the EU countries have much higher World Press Freedom Index than the US. Second, once you start reading how little there is of the alleged "censorship" in the EU, you realize it's a no-brainer aiming to protect people.

I personally love the idea that they think people are so desperate to logon to facebook or tik tok that they will use some government vpn to access advertising laden slop.

Re: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

#747

Post by reactordev »

iso1631 wrote: post #698
reactordev wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of… Ashburn, VA is the data center capital of the world. When you type and hit submit, even on this site, your data will hit one of those data centers. The few exceptions are government networks and China.

So you're saying my french ISP tunnels all traffic from my hotel to my office through to America? Or are you saying that the NSA has a hidden tap on the equipment without my ISP knowing. How does that traffic get from the ISP router to the NSA?

I’m saying your ISP isn’t being entirely forthcoming about what goes on on their networks… take that as you will.

Re: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

#748

Post by pdpi »

reliabilityguy wrote: post #724
Sharlin wrote: post #706

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, if that’s your problem with my comment, feel free to rephrase it in your mind to something like "to promote fringe-right and anti-immigration parties and movements that any sane observer recognizes as authoritarian and racist because they’re not even bothering to dogwhistle". If you need a source for that you haven’t been following the news.

> not even bothering to dogwhistle So, basically, you are saying that they are openly racist? Is there any evidence of this? > If you need a source for that you haven’t been following the news. Nice deflection. You are the one making outlandish claims, so the proof is on you and not the “news” that someone is supposed to follow.

You want concrete proof? Vasquez Perdomo v Noem is your proof. The Supreme Court effectively legitimised racial profiling.

Re: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

#749

Post by amarant »

throwaway140126 wrote: post #622
hananova wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(1) Is also because it's literally vandalism. (2) Also points out that there were posts of holocaust denial, which has been illegal in most of europe for literal decades. (3) Is an article about an investigation into whether or not the cart was protected by freedom of expression or whether there would be grounds for further trial. Nobody is in trouble yet. Isn't it convenient how all posts that say something that rhy…

(1) Calling a politician a dick is vandalism? That's nonsense. (2) The corresponding prosecutor made clear that his house was raided for calling the politician stupid and NOT for anything else. You would have known that if you would have read the document I linked to. To quote it: Wegen des Tatverdachts einer gegen Personen des politischen Lebens gerichteten Beleidigung gem. §§ 185, 188, 194 StGB erfolgte am vergange…

First article, second paragraph states that the search was ruled illegal.

The one who got in trouble was ultimately the dick, not the one who called him that....

Re: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

#750

Post by mancerayder »

mortarion wrote: post #639
kjksf wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we can. But that's not what "hate speech" is code word for. At this point in time any opinion to the right of extreme leftist ideology is considered by said leftist to be "hate speech". Examples of "hate speech": criticism of muslims (but jews are ok), or minorities, or men playing in women's sport or breast amputation of 15yr olds, or immigration. Nick investigating Somali fraud is racist and hateful. The "hate…

Countries in Europe (and most of the world) have positive constitutions, which defines what the government "must do" (for its citizens), whilst the USA has a negative constitution that defines what the government "cannot do" (against its citizens). What constitutes hate speech is carefully defined in the constitutions of EU countries. Politicians can't just amend or extend the definition at will, except in the UK whi…

>In Europe we recognize that Hitler came to power by abusing free speech,

I've heard this again and again - no one mentions that the Nazis had roving bands of men intimidating people like a mob, and that Hitler came to power because of a false flag operation that burned the Reichstag.

But we should forget the physical threats of the Nazis and focus on thin parallels to their ideas, under the guise 'hate'.

When you do that, you end up with people arbitrarily deciding what's hateful and not, depending on their own values. Chants about English culture threatened by Muslims, hate, chants about Israel and Jews dominating the country, not hate (courtesy of UK hate speech protections).

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