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posted by mattie_p on Friday February 21 2014, @02:18PM   Printer-friendly

l3g0la5 writes:

"Techie News reports:

Twitter isn't allowing users to post a link to Kickass.to stating that the URL in the tweet 'appears to link to a page that has spammy or unsafe content.' I tried clicking on one of the URLs sent to me by one of our publishers who wanted to share with us a draft copy of the soon to be published book and as soon as I clicked on it I was greeted with a rather unfamiliar message on Twitter. 'The site you were trying to visit may be unsafe! This link has been flagged as potentially harmful.' This led me to try out a little test of linking a random Kickass.to link and Twitter blocked the request with a message: 'Oops! A URL in your Tweet appears to link to a page that has spammy or unsafe content.'"

Fluffeh adds: "Questions to Twitter about the reason for this unusual blockade remain unanswered. On its website Twitter claims to use Google's safe browsing diagnostic tool, but the Kickass.to domain is not blocked here. Perhaps even stranger, KickassTorrent's old domain Kat.ph gets the same blocking treatment."

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Friday February 21 2014, @02:27PM

    by BsAtHome (889) on Friday February 21 2014, @02:27PM (#4313)

    "We know what is good for you, trust us. We only wish for your well-being and could not dream to harm you in any way."

    That is what many "old" dystopian sci-fy films portrayed were corporations run the world. It looks more and more that sci-fy has become sci-fact. It does not feel right.

    • (Score: 1) by DarkMorph on Friday February 21 2014, @02:29PM

      by DarkMorph (674) on Friday February 21 2014, @02:29PM (#4314)

      "We know what is good for you, trust us."

      You know what this reminded me of?

      The government of the Soviet Union.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @02:33PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @02:33PM (#4318)

        In Soviet America you block the corporations.

      • (Score: 5, Funny) by mtrycz on Friday February 21 2014, @02:39PM

        by mtrycz (60) on Friday February 21 2014, @02:39PM (#4320)

        You know what this reminded me of?

        Strange thing, I thought you'd say United States.

        --
        In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DarkMorph on Friday February 21 2014, @03:07PM

          by DarkMorph (674) on Friday February 21 2014, @03:07PM (#4347)
          I know you jest but it's not far from the painful reality. It's exactly why relatives who were raised in the USSR look at the current state of affairs here in the US and shake their heads saying, "this is deja vu, we've been through this before." Unfortunately this time around there seems to be nowhere to run off to in order to get away from it.

          My father quotes someone he heard on the radio once, though I don't recall from what year, perhaps the 1980's, and the announcer said something along the lines of, "The day they have the authority to tell us that we must wear our seatbelts when we drive is the day we lose our freedom."
          • (Score: 5, Insightful) by hubie on Friday February 21 2014, @06:39PM

            by hubie (1068) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 21 2014, @06:39PM (#4450) Journal

            My father quotes someone he heard on the radio once, though I don't recall from what year, perhaps the 1980's, and the announcer said something along the lines of, "The day they have the authority to tell us that we must wear our seatbelts when we drive is the day we lose our freedom."

            This has less to do with a slide into a totalitarian than it does with someone being told they can't do something. You hear pretty much the same thing today on issues like incandescent bulbs. If you define freedom as broad as the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want, no matter what, then any law that puts restrictions on something, it is by definition taking away your freedom. However, the purpose of the justice branch of the government is to try to navigate that fuzzy area of what you are and aren't allowed to do, and that line shifts around.

            The level and the degree of oppression one feels is proportional to how strong they feel about that issue at stake. Jon Stewart rather humorously pointed out Fox News' Megyn Kelly's opposing views on the Family Leave Act. When it first was proposed, she slammed it for being an entitlement program and government run amok. However, 10 or 15 years later she had a baby and went out on an extended maternity leave, then ripped one of the conservative commentators a new one when he questioned her being out so long. Stewart's take: They're really only 'entitlements' when they're something other people want. When it's something you want, they're a hallmark of a civilized society, the foundation of a great people. 'I just had a baby, and found out that maternity leave strengthens society, but since I still have a job, unemployment benefits are clearly socialism.

            • (Score: 3, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Friday February 21 2014, @08:02PM

              by GungnirSniper (1671) on Friday February 21 2014, @08:02PM (#4508) Journal

              This has less to do with a slide into a totalitarian than it does with someone being told they can't do something. You hear pretty much the same thing today on issues like incandescent bulbs.

              I strongly disagree. Totalitarianism's basic tenet is that the citizen is not an individual with human rights, but the property of the state. Therefore any harm the citizen risks, even if solely to himself, is something the state has the authority to ban. The human right to free will, including the right to risk, runs counter to the goal of such a state.

              The difference between seatbelt laws and the incandescent bulb ban is that not wearing a seatbelt causes no harm to anyone. Using incandescent bulbs is inefficient and contributes to pollution via energy generation. A similar analogy would be marijuana, which does not harm the the environment, and an invasive plant that spreads and chokes off native plants, which is harmful.

              If you define freedom as broad as the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want, no matter what, then any law that puts restrictions on something, it is by definition taking away your freedom.

              Freedom is that broad, and stops only where freedom does harm to others, as it takes away the freedom of those harmed thereby.

              However, the purpose of the justice branch of the government is to try to navigate that fuzzy area of what you are and aren't allowed to do, and that line shifts around.

              The justice branch is not the legislature.

              • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mtrycz on Saturday February 22 2014, @06:09PM

                by mtrycz (60) on Saturday February 22 2014, @06:09PM (#4893)

                It saddens me that freedom is so often spoken of (and thought of) only and exclusively as personal freedom.

                "Your freedom ends where other people's starts" - that's a negative definition of freedom; defined by what it's not, rahter than what it is.

                If we went as far as to immagine freedoms that is shared? Freedom of groups, of communities. Of the entire human race even?

                An idea of freedom where an offence to your freedom is a direct offence to mine. Not because it pushes bounderies which put my freedom at risk, but because we're bound by a double bond, a pact of solidarity if you want.

                You may scale your group of refence as much as you want, there's one that includes all: our common humanity.

                I actually think this type of freedom is all too often overlooked.

                --
                In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @02:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @02:49PM (#4332)

      That is what many "old" dystopian sci-fy films portrayed

      Dystopic, indeed. More dystopic would only be sy-fy films.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Friday February 21 2014, @03:00PM

        by BsAtHome (889) on Friday February 21 2014, @03:00PM (#4338)

        Shall we call that a slip-of-the-finger error? Not all of us are native English speakers and we all make mistakes.

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by GeminiDomino on Friday February 21 2014, @04:07PM

      by GeminiDomino (661) on Friday February 21 2014, @04:07PM (#4390)

      Yet, for some reason, I still can't get a goddamn datajack implant. Why does only the shitty part of Science Fiction ever come to fruition. :P

      --
      "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by captain normal on Friday February 21 2014, @06:13PM

        by captain normal (2205) on Friday February 21 2014, @06:13PM (#4442)

        Shouldn't we have a big mod up for pure comedy? I've been having a grumpy morning started by google changing the UI of chrome this morning, but this post brightened my morning. ROFL

        --
        When life isn't going right, go left.
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by NecroDM on Friday February 21 2014, @02:50PM

    by NecroDM (376) on Friday February 21 2014, @02:50PM (#4333)

    If it weren't for the ridiculous IP laws Twitter wouldn't have to worry about people posting torrent links to content that may or may not be infringing someone's rights.
    It's a sad state for freedom of speech.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Open4D on Friday February 21 2014, @03:24PM

      by Open4D (371) on Friday February 21 2014, @03:24PM (#4355) Journal

      I suspect you're right that Intellectual Property law is the real reason behind this.

      But I can't bring myself to condemn Twitter for having these blocking mechanisms in place. If they gave spammers free reign, their system would be significantly less usable & less popular. And since my industry doesn't seem to be able to produce secure software products for end users, Twitter should be applauded for trying to block 'unsafe content'.

      It doesn't help that a lot of URL shortening services don't seem to have any equivalent to tinyurl's preview feature [tinyurl.com].

      Ideally Twitter would have an opt out, "I know what I'm doing so don't try to protect me". But that would cost them some money to implement & maintain - so it's difficult to criticize them for not having it.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by RobotMonster on Friday February 21 2014, @05:30PM

        by RobotMonster (130) on Friday February 21 2014, @05:30PM (#4429) Journal

        Nah they're blocking these links because they're jealous of the advertising revenue :-)

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Xenex on Friday February 21 2014, @02:53PM

    by Xenex (564) on Friday February 21 2014, @02:53PM (#4335)

    Perhaps even stranger, KickassTorrent's old domain Kat.ph gets the same blocking treatment.

    This isn't strange. It's exactly what you'd expect. Clearly Twitter have begun blocking links to things they deem unsavoury.

    It's not unprecedented; they've been blocking links in direct messages for a while now, with a very limited whitelist of exclusions. And of course there's loopholes, as described in this wonderfully snarky-titled blog post: Twitter's DM Link Block - Work Around It The Way Spammers Do! [justunfollow.com]

    Blocking KickassTorrents feels like a move from 'dealing with spam' to 'censoring communication'.

    --
    I am from the future.
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by cubancigar11 on Friday February 21 2014, @03:26PM

    by cubancigar11 (330) on Friday February 21 2014, @03:26PM (#4357) Homepage Journal

    what is that "copy of the soon to be published book" :)

    • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by cubancigar11 on Friday February 21 2014, @04:14PM

      by cubancigar11 (330) on Friday February 21 2014, @04:14PM (#4393) Homepage Journal

      Okay, how is that offtopic?

      I am seeing some overzealous modders here. What is going on?

      • (Score: 1) by RedGreen on Friday February 21 2014, @04:24PM

        by RedGreen (888) on Friday February 21 2014, @04:24PM (#4402)

        "

        Okay, how is that offtopic?

        I am seeing some overzealous modders here. What is going on?"

        Probably the use them or lose them, rather quickly I might add, mod points system at play. I know I have had them a couple of times only to end up wasting some of them just for the sake of using before they expire. BTW anyone know where the quote parent button is or was it ever here?

        --
        "I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
        • (Score: 5, Insightful) by snick on Friday February 21 2014, @04:31PM

          by snick (1408) on Friday February 21 2014, @04:31PM (#4408)

          I am seeing some overzealous modders here. What is going on?"

          Given the number of active users, mod points are being given out like candy. Given the fairly low number of posts, folks are dumping mod posts on random comments in whatever story they haven't commented on.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by hubie on Friday February 21 2014, @04:28PM

      by hubie (1068) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 21 2014, @04:28PM (#4405) Journal

      I'm still wondering what Kickass.to is anyway. I gather it is a torrent site from the comments. Is there something unique about them, such as are they the only torrent site being blocked by Twitter? A little more background in the summary would have helped me.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by bucc5062 on Friday February 21 2014, @05:16PM

        by bucc5062 (699) on Friday February 21 2014, @05:16PM (#4422)
        would this help [kickass.to] or maybe this will help [wikipedia.org] or if we just don't want to type [lmgtfy.com]. After reading posts from another article I started using DDG, but it was not as good about finding what I wanted for KA.t so it was back to google. You do remember google (said with a smile)
        --
        The more things change, the more they look the same
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hubie on Friday February 21 2014, @06:51PM

          by hubie (1068) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 21 2014, @06:51PM (#4455) Journal

          I do welcome your snarkyness with good humor, and of course I could start tracking this stuff down myself, but my comment was more feedback for writing better article summaries. I still don't know whether there is anything special about this site causing it to be singled out by Twitter, or whether it is because of the kind of site it is (none of which are answered by the links you provided :) ).

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @10:46PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @10:46PM (#4585)
        It's a torrent site. http://kat.ph/

        It has pretty much all of the content of the pirate bay. And many other torrent sites.

        All in one place. With an active userbase that removes garbage torrents.

        And comments that are more than 'thanks for uploading' repeated 1000 times.

        It's become pretty much the top and best torrent site out there.
        Public anyway. No login required. Even to comment.

        And full use of magnet links. You never have to actually even download a .torrent from them.

        The latest stuff you could want. On a site that doesnt suck. On top of all that. it's free.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by number6 on Friday February 21 2014, @08:05PM

    by number6 (1831) on Friday February 21 2014, @08:05PM (#4513) Journal

    Personally, I don't get worked up about the policies of any popular website; as long as I can implement a technical workaround, then I am happy.
    If the site tries to block every possible workaround, then I just take my bat and ball and leave for good

    In this case, I would do this:

    This literal URL string is not acceptable to them:      http://kickass.to/after-the-dark-2013-7 20-720p-brrip-x264-yify-t8794659.html
    If I convert it using ROT13 transformation I get:         uggc://xvpxnff.gb/nsgre-gur-qnex-2013 -720-720c-oeevc-k264-lvsl-g8794659.ugzy

    SO... I post the ROT13-transformed string instead of the literal string ...AND I freely give out information on a cool Greasemonkey script which will auto-convert ROT13 strings to literal strings on any web page.

    FURTHERMORE... If I was the Kickass site admins, I would generate a ROT13 version of the URL string and have it pasted as plain text at the page location.

    IF Twitter site admins decide to fight and block such workarounds then the gloves are off; I am going to treat them as "hostiles" in a war.

    • (Score: 2) by Hell_Rok on Friday February 21 2014, @11:10PM

      by Hell_Rok (2527) on Friday February 21 2014, @11:10PM (#4593) Homepage

      I don't really get why they bother linking the page, just shoot through the magnet url.