SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the what-you-see-depends-on-where-you-are dept.
Silicon Valley is a uniquely American creation, the product of an entrepreneurial spirit and no-holds-barred capitalism that now drives many aspects of modern life.
But the likes of Facebook, Google and Apple are increasingly facing an uncomfortable truth: it is Europe's culture of tougher oversight of companies, not America's laissez-faire attitude, which could soon rule their industry as governments seek to combat fake news and prevent extremists from using the internet to fan the flames of hatred.
While the U.S. has largely relied on market forces to regulate content in a country where free speech is revered, European officials have shown they are willing to act. Germany recently passed a law imposing fines of up to 50 million euros ($59 million) on websites that don't remove hate speech within 24 hours. British Prime Minister Theresa May wants companies to take down extremist material within two hours. And across the EU, Google has for years been obliged to remove search results if there is a legitimate complaint about the content's veracity or relevance.
(Score: 4, Flamebait) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday November 03 2017, @04:44PM (30 children)
Fuck Europe. I'm not European. SN is not a European company. They can suck a dick.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @05:05PM
I appreciate this. I am more than happy to have Europeans of all sorts comment and participating, but if there has to be an assumption of risk for allowing that, it should be on them. If their governments want to restrict their access to this or another site, I will (anonymously) support their effort to stop or change their government, but we (especially you all in the editorial/developer/maintainer group) should never allow that to change how the site operates. I suppose I should go buy another contributor a gift subscription. Thanks to all the people that contribute to this place.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @05:13PM (5 children)
And they can, you know why? it's because they don't have government agents telling them what genitalia to have contact with unlike the big government amerikkka
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @05:50PM (3 children)
lolwut
Oh, oh, oh, I've got it. You're a homosexual man living in Texas, and you're frustrated by sodomy laws. I'm with you 100%! Government should not be in the marriage business, and it certainly should not be regulating people's sex lives!
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday November 03 2017, @06:35PM (2 children)
You're both living a decade or two in the past. You can buttfuck your boyfriend till his colon falls out in Texas in $current_year.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Informative) by krishnoid on Friday November 03 2017, @06:43PM (1 child)
IANAL, but that seems like it would fall afoul of at least some law.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @06:56PM
Littering?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday November 03 2017, @07:30PM
"big government of bukake"
FTFY
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Informative) by maxwell demon on Friday November 03 2017, @05:16PM (6 children)
I'm also pretty sure SN is not a tech giant. Or did I miss something?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @05:20PM
You just don't understand that the donation meter is measured in millions of dollars
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @06:33PM (3 children)
No shit
anyway I approve of their privacy policies, those europe people.
they are doing more good for my privacy than republicans EVER did no matter who was in charge of which house.
i am not saying democrats did it right, but they at least listened. the current administration and their incredibly anti-consumer rights approach to business is so appalling i feel sorry for the ignorance of my fellow americans, but I am sure they already have something marketed to them to make them feel better if they buy it.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday November 03 2017, @07:01PM (2 children)
No, pretty much everyone's pissed off about Trump's boy's Internet decisions who's heard about them. Yes, even Trump fans. What, you think they're like Democrats and think their guy in office is some sort of holy priest?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @07:56PM (1 child)
No, it appears they believe he is a God Emperor, they probably envisage themselves as priests spreading the bad word and kicking immigrants in the nuts.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday November 03 2017, @10:12PM
Put. Down. The. Kool-Aid.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday November 03 2017, @06:36PM
What, you think they go easier on the little guys who can't afford lawyers?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @06:14PM
I was going to make a post about privacy laws and how I think those are a good thing, but obviously from the article that is not what they're getting at.
So censorship, plain and simple. Oh, along with official propaganda campaigns. Ugh.
Such laws will fix nothing and will most likely have a backlash that is even worse. Silver lining though, perhaps it will drive people to actually adopt decentralized and encrypted communication channels.
The answer to crime and violence has always been the same, get real people investigating. Creating some sort of automated system is bad, even though it sounds good at the start to some. Red light cameras went bad, automated content removal systems went bad and punish innocents. I can't think of more right now, but I'm curious to see how self driving cars will go.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @06:28PM (2 children)
US server, US law should apply. The "open borders" psychopaths think this concept should somehow extend their authoritarian bullshit. I don't reside or do business in Africa and just because my site is accessible from there, I am not subject to their fucking laws. The EU and other censors can simply fuck right off. And if they really don't like terrorism, how about policing their physical borders rather than attempting to infringe on virtual ones?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday November 03 2017, @07:09PM (1 child)
Most of the US "tech giants" have giant server- and datacenters in EUrope to server the European market. So inside Europe, European laws. Adapt or fuck off to your side of the pond.
https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/ [amazon.com]
https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/index.html [google.com]
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/technology/us-europe-cloud-computing-amazon-microsoft-google.html [nytimes.com]
http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/content-tracks/design-build/facebook-to-build-second-data-center-in-sweden/85409.fullarticle [datacenterdynamics.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @08:35PM
Which they can and should remove.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @06:50PM
european here.
thank you.
please follow the laws of the country you and your server reside in.
i am happy that I can connect to it from outside your country, and I hope I won't have to fight for the right to connect to it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Friday November 03 2017, @06:59PM (8 children)
If US companies doesn't want to have their "silicon valley goodness" spread to Europe that has almost twice the population of the US and instead go suck a dick I'm cool with that. If they want to peddle their warez in Europe they should adopt and adapt to European rules just like if they want to sell them anywhere else outside the USA. Just like other companies adapt to American standards when they want to sell their stuff in the USA. I don't really see a fault with that.
I know a lot of people would probably suffer great mental anguish if they didn't get their daily Facebook fix and such but I'd be cool with it. Some other other company would swoop in and fill the void in no time. But it still wouldn't bother me one way or the other.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday November 03 2017, @07:07PM (7 children)
You'd actually be fine with your government setting up the Great Firewall of $state and don't think they'd abuse it once in place? I don't think I'll ever understand people who think like that.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Friday November 03 2017, @07:13PM (3 children)
I'm not saying I'd be fine with that. I'm saying that if you want to sell your warez in Europe you adapt to the local laws just like European companies that want to sell their stuff in America adapt to the american ways and laws. If one doesn't like it then try peddling the stuff on one of the other continents. Except they won't accept the american way either, just ask China. But the high paying consumer market in Europe is just to juicy to give up. So you adapt and then apparently cry like a bitch about it to the WSJ or your share holders or whomever.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @08:56PM
No, they only have to do that if they have a US office. Should the law of England and Wales suddenly apply to a NYC apartment if I want to travel over and crash on someones couch for a week? Why would it be different for me interacting with people on a US based forum?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday November 03 2017, @10:14PM (1 child)
Ahh. Roger. Personally, I think Europe would blink first if their people were suddenly cut off from most of the top sites on the Internet.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Friday November 03 2017, @11:14PM
You may be surprised how fast those services will be replaced by local clones. Look at yandex and the like.
I know for a fact many apps have clones in the language of their country - happens a lot in my country of origin.
They won't have zillions of subscribers, won't ever go global, but they do charge low fees for their service and are operating under a much stricter privacy legislation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 04 2017, @01:47AM (2 children)
I think you'll admit that there is plenty of suck in the way our tech industry does business. It seems that all of them view American citizens/consumers/whatever as assets to be exploited. Although we, as a group, do little to inspire respect, American business makes it's disrespect obvious. Europe seems to demand a minimal level of respect for human rights.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 04 2017, @02:17AM (1 child)
Like the right to free speech? Naw. They give not a fuck about the people. They're just pandering for votes same as any politicians.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 04 2017, @02:28AM
I was referring more to rights like privacy. Corporations have no right to data mining. I do have a right to privacy, however poorly defined that right might be.
Pandering for votes, of course. But, if the votes demand that US corporations respect privacy, then so be it. And, if Euros don't care about their right to free speech, the politicians will strip that right away. It's up to them.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Sunday November 05 2017, @04:59AM (1 child)
Only 4 sentences packed into 83 characters... and I'm not quite sure where to begin.
I agree with 50% of your message and loathe the other 50%. Your score is currently marked as flamebait with 4 with points because you received 2 insightfulls, 2 flamebaits, 1 informative, and 1 funny -- a fair rating, so I'll just leave everything as is.
First off, I agree with you on the legality of free speech. It should be completely open. However, when I first read the words "Fuck Europe" and that Europe could "suck a dick", I thought you were talking about people like me. I'm an American living in Europe (because I dared fall in love with a European). However, knowing your history and re-reading the post, I know you're talking about politicians, the political situation, etc. BUT...
For your information, if Soylent News were to ever be filtered in Germany, I -- one of your fellow Americans who agrees with you about free speech -- would lose an important source to help remind me how to critically think. It's one of the very few places I can find people that help challenge my way of thinking because it doesn't often fall prey to over simplifying a complex situation in a tweet-sized "message". Which is what leads me be miffed at you because you are over-simplifying a complex situation with a tweet-sized message. The very thing that both left and right wingers are guilty of.
Look, I'm not European either, but with your tweet size rant, you're insulting both a lot of Germans I know and the many Americans who live here when you say "I'm not European... They can suck a dick."
Yeah, I know. You couldn't give a shit about our feelings.
But here's a pro tip from someone trying to educate the masses that you're thumbing your nose at: Don't insult your target group. You have a bad habit of that and if you want to change the world, you have to look at things from other people's perspective and alter what you say to they will be receptive to your ideas. People do have feelings and when those feelings are hurt, your message will not be received. Although there's a time to be crass and insensitive, you cross that line waaaay too often. You're hurting your own cause.
Or, maybe you don't want to change the world and you really want to tell about 7 billion people on the planet to suck a dick. (Including your fellow Americans living abroad.) I don't know. I can't ever tell with you.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 05 2017, @11:30AM
I thought it obvious from the context that this was a targeted "fuck you" rather than a broad spectrum one.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.