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[Ed. Note: Behind the invective and political slant in this story is a subject that I think could lead to a fruitful discussion. "The price of liberty is constant vigilance." SoylentNews is a little corner of the 'net that tries to provide a venue for open discussion. Are our days numbered or threatened? What can be done? Just keep doing what we are doing?]
France has turned into one of the worldwide threats to free speech
Just over one year ago, French President Emmanuel Macron came to the United States to import two potentially invasive species to Washington. One was a tree and the other was a crackdown on free speech. Ironically, soon after the tree was planted, officials dug it up to send it to quarantine. However, the more dangerous species was his acorn of speech controls, a proposal that resulted in rapturous applause from our clueless politicians.
While our politicians in the United States may applaud Macron like village idiots, most Americans are hardcore believers in free speech. It runs in our blood. Undeterred, however, Macron and others in Europe are moving to unilaterally impose speech controls on the internet with new legislation in France and Germany. If you believe this is a European issue, think again.
Macron and his government are attempting to unilaterally scrub out the internet of hateful thoughts. The French Parliament has moved toward a new law that would give internet companies like Facebook and Google just 24 hours to remove hateful speech from their sites or face fines of $1.4 million per violation. A final vote is expected next week. Germany passed a similar measure last year and imposed fines of $56 million.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Sulla on Wednesday July 10 2019, @06:11PM (13 children)
This can only benefit the United States (and non-EU countries). Large companies will be forced to move their servers stateside (or at the very least, out of Europe) so they can avoid theft of their assets by the government for non-compliance. If a company like Google were external to Europe projecting in the only recourse by the authoritarians would be to shut off traffic from Google from coming into the EU if Google chose not to comply. The people would be able to very clearly see that they are losing services because their government is choosing the murder of free speech over them continuing to use services they have come to depend on.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday July 10 2019, @06:29PM
Wishful thinking. In their dream net I expect HTTPS would be backdoored and just the individual pages would be censored instead. Of course the politicians don't know the technical terminology for this, but they'll probably be civil servants behind them that do.
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Wednesday July 10 2019, @06:42PM
I'm somewhat less sure of that. If say Google or Facebook wants to enjoy profits in/from Europe they kind of have to follow the Europeans rules. Moving back to America and then desire to have their services used but not following any rules or regulations will probably not fly. I'm sure Europe could survive without them both, and they in turn could probably survive without Europe even tho it might take a definite hit on the financial side considering there are about twice as many potential customers there as compare to the US. Not to mention speed, latency, serverfarms etc.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Wednesday July 10 2019, @07:32PM (1 child)
Probably a little too late for that. But in any case, this sort of open defiance is usually not how leaders of giant corporations handle a conflict with another entity. More often, they apologize, suck up, pay lip service, and appear to negotiate, all the while lying, cheating, and bribing to continue doing the same objectionable things that became the source of conflict.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:22PM
yes. to pretend these mega corps aren't run by whores is absurd.
(Score: 2) by Mer on Wednesday July 10 2019, @07:34PM
Large companies LOVE this. In fact, they're the ones feeding lies to the french parliament so they can grab more data.
After digital rights movements (that have successfully attacked french law in the past for being unconstitutional or breaking european law) have pointed out to lawmakers that:
>even facebook and google's algorithms are not able to spot hate speech
>the laws remove judges from the censorship circuit
>propagating hate speech is good for the big platforms because they make money out of clicks
>the whole affair is delegating the state's job to the initial culprits
several macron loyalists have expressed that yes, they are aware, and they think it's the right thing.
The same group (la quadrature du net) is already preparing to attack the new law, as it's breaking several european laws.
France is a terrible place to be in right now, it's pushing bad laws at the european level and ignoring the few good european laws. Every single one of these laws goes through the accelerated procedure.
Shut up!, he explained.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:01PM (5 children)
Have we forgotten so soon how the US government extends it's laws into everyone else's jurisdictions?
Do a quick search about the Microsoft Ireland case.
Your government is as authoritarian as any other.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @10:54PM
Bbbbut patents and copyrights are the cornerstone of the free market!!
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday July 10 2019, @11:07PM (3 children)
Is 'laws' a new synonym for bombs? (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday July 10 2019, @11:43PM (1 child)
Laws that go boom.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday July 11 2019, @12:22AM
Yeah... I still like better the things that make you go hmmmm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday July 11 2019, @12:23AM
Is 'laws' a new synonym for bombs?
No, money is.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Insightful) by driverless on Wednesday July 10 2019, @11:59PM (1 child)
It's a very US-centric view of things. (Some) people in the US believe that it's perfectly acceptable to promote anti-semitism, racism, homophobia, nazism ("there were good people on both sides"), and so on. A lot of people outside the US believe that this should be limited in some way. I've seen a number of posts here taking the US-centric view, typically taking rather extremist views of the rest of the world (one example being someone claiming that the police in Australia? were throwing people in jail for watching the Christchurch shooting video). It'd be just as easy for me, as a non-US observer, to post a similar story about the US, perhaps "In the US it's acceptable to promote nazism and genocide". I don't mind debates over free speech, but claiming the other side has a ridiculous, extreme position just so you can attack them... well, actually, that's US politics isn't it?
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @04:09AM
Fuck you. There were good people on both sides of the statue issue and to state otherwise shows just how biased you are. It's impossible to be here on soylent and not be intelligent enough to know the truth. At the Charlottesville March there were neo-nazis and KKK in attendance, there were also people who don't believe statues should be removed for other reasons. Promoting the retention of statues of our leaders is not racist, it is a backstop against the insane practice of demanding that Jefferson and Washington also be removed from everything in the states. Fuck you and fuck your lies. The constitution will always stand even if it was written by shareholders, you can't change our history so you can steal our freedom.