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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

#851

Post by iso1631 »

selfmodruntime wrote: post #661
phatfish wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your input on UK society. FWIW, despite the coordinated attacks we are doing just fine. If you live your life through social media it might look like we are one step from North Korea though.

> FWIW, despite the coordinated attacks we are doing just fine. What a sad handwaive of the current state of affairs

All sorts of issues. Personally I would put housing as the number one issue the country faces, and has done for years, but I can see arguments about inability to deliver projects, planning rules in general, a concentration of wealth into fewer hands

What problems are you thinking about

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

#852

Post by rtkwe »

riffraff wrote: post #383
rtkwe wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trade and tarriff relief are an option still. Despite how shitty the US has been and the distrust that will cause in the future access to US markets will be very attractive until the economy collapses. Soft power isn't just from countries liking you after all.

> Trade and tarriff relief are an option still Are they though? Trump tried to use them to get ownership of Greenland a few weeks ago and just gave up. Then he tried to bully Canada again, and also gave up again. I think at this point nobody takes his offers of relief or threats seriously anymore, since any deal you make can be invalidated a couple weeks later.

There's a huge range of stuff way below trying to annex Greenland or the strong arming he tried to use against Greenland. This thread was talking about how the US could get countries to not block their free anti-censorship VPN not territory annexation. It's a way smaller ask, comparing them borders on absurd.

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

#853

Post by 878654Tom »

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…

Most access blocking is through ISP DNS servers. Just set your DNS to an open one, no need for a VPN.

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

#854

Post by tencentshill »

speedgoose wrote: post #379
tantalor wrote: post #218

That's not very "America First" Why are my taxes paying for benefits for Europeans? They already killed USAID.

The cost of running such a VPN is perhaps worth it when you consider the value of the intelligence it can collect.

Non-monetary, indirect value (Goodwill, "soft power", leverage, future gains) is not, and has never been a consideration for President Trump [1]. All accounts must be settled immediately. Funny how he had to take out a full-page ad, because he couldn't get this opinion actually published in any newspaper.

[1] Donald Trump - Letter on Foreign Policy - September 2, 1987

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

#855

Post by philwelch »

Helmut10001 wrote: post #492
schoen wrote: post #38

I just chaired a session at the FOCI conference earlier today, where people were talking about Internet censorship circumvention technologies and how to prevent governments from blocking them. I'd like to remind everyone that the U.S. government has been one the largest funders of that research for decades. Some of it is under USAGM (formerly BBG, the parent of RFE/RL) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Agen…

This is somewhat counterintuitive: The US is the only country I know where most newspapers and government services use strict geoblocks to prevent me from accessing US sites in Europe. Conversely, I've never had any problems accessing European sites from the US. I know this is for a different set of reasons (likely GDPR cookie law or similar), but it's funny that anyone thinks blocks like this are relevant. Most peop…

That's actually a related issue. European governments routinely and sometimes illegally attempt to enforce their laws against American websites, so if you run a website it's easier to just block the entire continent than to deal with that.

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

#856

Post by ben_w »

GoblinSlayer wrote: post #815
ben_w wrote: post #784

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, yes. There's also debate and ego-less teaching for the sake of truth-seeking.

For the sake of truth seeking you will selectively teach information that your ego deems true.

Some are as you say.

My ego prefers to be the kind of person who ends up at truth over being one who has fooled themselves into thinking they have already found it, which makes changing my mind easier than others find it.

I am pleased to say, others have also remarked that I am closer to this ideal than others they know.

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

#857

Post by sellmesoap »

reactordev wrote: post #187
Aurornis wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just minutes ago you said this: > Almost 80% of communications go through a data center in Northern VA Where are you getting this new 200 numbers? Share a source please.

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.

Another way to think about it, many websites the data gets transmitted before you hit submit, between various type ahead reactive frameworks, soft keyboards with networked spell checking, your AI powered mood ring, always listening smart watch/car/home etc. Grandad always said don't say anything on the radio you wouldn't say in public, well we're up to don't think out loud or see how your crazy idea looks in text before you edit the Mel Gibson tones out of it. Tinfoil hats are off, on, locked!

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

#858

Post by indubioprorubik »

pousada wrote: post #789
Waterluvian wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a clear way to project soft power: make sure your message and culture can get through.

So far the current admin has been very successful in obliterating all the soft power the US built up through the decades.

Because that softpower spread a toxic culture, that has poisoned western civilization from within?

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

#859

Post by lunatuna »

Anyone check out the site? Wild that freedom right now is basically a gif of a cowboy riding a horse with a gun pointed out front. Just shooting our way to freedom seems reasonable 'in these times'.

What's the meaning of this? Is it just theatre? And what is the message of the show? Is it a real fear that people have of lack of information that will set them free and they need to cowboy up and get there no matter what? Struggling to get this.

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

#860

Post by esterna »

jbstack wrote: post #559
nolok wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which country ?

Italy. Examples of sites I can't access without VPN: torrent sites (including legal uses), betfair.com (which I use as a more accurate political predictor than polls), and various non-EU sites which block access because they've decided it's easier than complying with extra-territorial requirements imposed by the EU (this one isn't direct EU censorship, but it amounts to the same thing indirectly. Sometimes I set my V…

I also live in the EU. betfair.com is not blocked by my ISP here. Rather, they are blocking my ISP ("[...] you may be accessing the Betfair website from a country that Betfair does not accept bets from [...]"). That the website not only prevents betting but also does not show any odds is a technical decision on their part. Gambling regulation is also usually domestic, and not EU law.

Websites deciding EU users are not valuable enough to comply with GDPR is, as you say, also not censorship. It is again the technical decision of some website owners to provide their content only in conjunction with illegal processing of your data.

I have not had issues accessing torrent indices from the EU. This too is usually handled domestically and has little to do with the EU.

There is legitimately dangerous (current and upcoming) EU legislation (Chat Control, eIDAS, age verification, previously the Data Retention Directive), so I don't think it necessary to weaken your argument by listing non-examples.

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