Good. freedom.gov is a clear subversive political influence campaign that should be banned by all European countries.

JohnLocke4 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It is basically just a proxy. I don't see how censorship could be an antidote to a "subversive political influence campaign" - if anything you're describing censorship

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tovej 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Censoring foreign political influence and misinformation campaigns is just sane policy.

US misinformation is no different from Russian misinformation. freedom.gov is specifically meant to spread this misinfo, freedom of speech is the stated purpose, but if you believe that, you are naive.

This is obviously an influence campaign.

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JohnLocke4 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

How exactly does a proxy spread misinfo? Also, the project isn't even functional yet and appears to have been blocked to avert piracy

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AnimalMuppet 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Well, it certainly allows and enables the spread of misinformation.

That is, what's blocked? Things that people consider misinformation. Some of it really is, and some of it is just stuff that's politically unpopular with the powers that be (which they're also going to label misinformation). And then some of it falls afoul of various copyright laws or other such.

But certainly real misinformation is a significant chunk of that. The proxy enables that misinformation (and disinformation) to bypass the censorship/blocking. So in that sense, yes, it spreads misinformation.

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JohnLocke4 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I agree. I just don't agree with misinformation not being protected as free speech. Surely having an INGSOC decide what is truthful enough to be shared is detrimental to free expression and thought. Heliocentrism was also misinformation at one point.

	▲	tovej an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Ok, let's use the more accurate term: disinformation. This is what this site is built for. Even the premise of the site is disinformation. Europe does not currently censor much of anything on the internet very strictly. We can still access X, 4chan, 8kun, kick, etc., and all the absolutely vile discourse on them. Not to mention our homegrown nazi breeding grounds. But a site which will presumably be used to curate a selected list of far-right propaganda? By the US govt? That propably needs to see pushback.

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rvnx 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It has a name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughtcrime

The solution to disinformation is not censorship, it's education and to teach early people on how to critically think by themselves.

	▲	SpecialistK 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It's "thoughtcrime" and "censorship" when they do it. It's "stopping disinformation" and "protecting democracy" when we do it.
	▲	tovej 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Oh please. If a known bad actor is trying to influence your polity, the best solution is to block them. This does not mean people should not also be educated. That critical thinking is also what leads me to the conclusion this should be blocked.
	▲	13415 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Believe it or not, removal of content is mandated on the basis of laws that have been passed by the majority of representatives elected by the people. For example, it is a crime in Germany to publicly glorify wars of aggression and use Nazi symbols or deny the Holocaust. It's also a crime to publish child abuse material. On a side note, setting up a website deliberately designed to circumvent such laws will itself likely violate the law and might lead to criminal prosecution. While the US government will certainly be protected by diplomatic immunity, other people involved probably won't be protected.

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AnnikaL 41 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Should the Spanish government decide what is "misinformation"? Should it be forbidden to read false or misleading statements on the Internet?

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rvnx 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Absolutely, the same way we should only use European technologies. We have the best bottle-caps in the world.

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kamyarg 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Please make sure to review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

...

> Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

> Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.

> Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.

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mschuster91 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> We have the best bottle-caps in the world.

Spoken like someone who never walked the Isar river beaches in the morning after a Saturday night in summer. Used to be full of plastic bottle caps from all the party goers, now it's just the metal beer caps that you can easily pick up with a magnet.

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rvnx 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Fair enough, this is actually a positive regulation.

This was more to put on perspective that innovation and gaining market share are the main priority in US/China, whereas in Europe, priority is more on regulation.

For example, one of the priorities here in the EU is to regulate and tax AI companies, rather than to make the place attractive.

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adithyareddy 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The chip on the server hosting this comment was almost certainly printed with an ASML lithography machine. I get the sentiment but the bottle-cap meme needs to die. Innovation and regulation are not opposite ends of a slider where you have to pick one or the other.

	▲	rvnx 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'm totally on your side that ASML, Airbus and a couple of pharmaceutical companies are great innovators and very special (in a positive way) companies in this world. But still, this is where I slightly disagree, because I feel the more regulation, the less innovation is possible. Here just feeling frustrated when I see that freedom.gov getting censorship of that overall tendency to regulate, rather than to actively promote freedom of entrepreneurship, of expression, of thinking out-of-the-box etc, and this freedom.gov thing is just a symptom of that whole system.

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Rumple22Stilk 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Innovation is not correct.

Extracting maximum profit is correct.