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b3kart 2 hours ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index

Probably tongue-in-cheek, but UK 18th, US joint 34th with Poland

sd9 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Are the sibling comments astroturfed? This seems like such a bizarre thing to be talking about in relation to an Anthropic model release. As someone from the UK, I don't feel like I'm living in an authoritarian country. And yet most of the sibling comments are insinuating that I am. Weird.

r721 17 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

It's just people who use "For You" algorithm on X.

killerstorm 35 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm sure there are people in Russia, China, ... who don't feel like they're living in an authoritarian country.

tene80i 17 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

If you think Britain and Russia or China are equivalent in terms of government overreach, you need to find new sources of information.

33 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]
[deleted]
HDThoreaun 27 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

HN is extremely pro free speech and the UK has recently decided to engage in censorship. Part of the issue users here reckon with is the recency. Unlike many authoritarian countries that seem hopeless with regards to free speech the UKs censorship is a recent development that many think can still be undone through political action. Similar to takes on why Israel is being protested when places like sudan arent.

Flere-Imsaho 12 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Indeed: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce83pj1ggmeo

In the uk you can very much be imprisoned for "hate speech", which in my view is a form of censorship.

sd9 26 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

This has passed me by - can you give me some specific examples?

I personally don't feel limited in my speech, but I'm willing to accept that I may be wrong

Nobody I know in real life is talking about censorship or free speech in the UK

tene80i 19 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

They’re talking about British hate speech laws. They think other countries have universal free speech and they absolutely do not, but for some reason they think Britain goes too far. Although “think” is probably too generous - they’re parroting talking points.

JacobAsmuth 22 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Nobody I know is talking about censorship" is a certified HN banger.

sd9 20 minutes ago | parent [-]

I don't know, I would expect it to come up in the pub or something if people were concerned about it, it's not like we have the thought police here

HDThoreaun 6 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

The UK has a censorship bureau, ofcom. The example that comes up most here is 4chan, which the UK is currently trying to ban because they refuse to do age verification. If you read the threads here you will see other stories. One that sticks out to me is someone who was talking about their struggles running a forum about depression. They live in canada and were contacted by ofcom demanding the forum add age verification, cant totally remember the reason but it was something about kids being able to access talk about depression. Ofcom said that if he doesnt add age verification to his forum he will be arrested if he ever enters the UK. He even blocked uk IPs but they said that wasnt enough. We can quibble about whether age verification is a form of censorship, I think it clearly is, if only because it is a large regulatory hurdle that stops people from hosting forums because its too much regulatory work.

The UK also has a very broad definition of hate speech that many users here detest.

sd9 2 minutes ago | parent [-]

Makes sense, thank you. I am opposed to the age verification laws that we have introduced recently.

Petersipoi an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> published by the British media company the Economist Group

Haha, it's literally the first sentence of the Wikipedia page. That's fucking funny. Try again.

tene80i 14 minutes ago | parent [-]

Why is it funny? You think British media can’t be critical of the British government? They are famously merciless.

Also, the economist is majority foreign owned, so try doing more than 1 second of research, or be more civil, or ideally both.

m0guz 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> The Democracy Index published by the British media company

We decided that we aren't one of those authoritarian countries.

solenoid0937 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Most of these indexes are made by ideologically motivated people.

In the UK you get thrown in prison for making a slightly unfriendly tweet. Freedom of speech simply does not exist.

No sane person sees that as being less authoritarian.

JustSkyfall 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> In the UK you get thrown in prison for making a slightly unfriendly tweet.

Do you? The closest thing I can think about is how someone was jailed for encouraging arson attacks on asylum hotels. I'd be extremely surprised if the US had zero cases of somebody receiving a police visit after threatening to kill the President or bomb a school or something...

(FWIW I do think the UK needs stronger free speech protections, but saying that you'll be immediately jailed for writing unfriendly tweets is a huge stretch)

BoorishBears an hour ago | parent [-]

https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/select-communications-off...

Are they really making 12,000 arrests a year over tweets and posts?

10xDev 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>the quality of discussion on HN has gone to shit, i miss when model released used to have actual informed takes from people that used them or substantive discussion about the system card

Your comment earlier.

Edit: also, not much change in the last 10 years in prison population. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn04...

solenoid0937 an hour ago | parent [-]

https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/select-communications-off...

12k people a year thrown in prison for spicy tweets

starshadowx2 40 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

That is not a true statement.

Here's a good break down and explanation of what that number actual means - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB3WVygAM8I

10xDev an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So roughly 0.017% of the population.

"Spicy tweets" including:

sending false communications

sending threatening communications

sending or showing flashing images electronically to people with epilepsy intending to cause them harm (‘epilepsy trolling’)

encouraging or assisting serious self-harm

sending a photograph or film of a person’s genitals (‘cyberflashing’)

sharing or threatening to share intimate photographs or film

solenoid0937 30 minutes ago | parent [-]

Or a lot more commonly - critique of immigration policy

dgellow an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

That link says “12k arrests”, not thrown to prison! It’s also not clear how reliable that data is