Cory DoctorowGod Did the World a Favor by Destroying Twitter
https://www.wired.com/story/god-did-us-a-favor-by-destroying-twitter/
OldeNaturalist@pluralistic here in the UK, operation of a mastodon instance will soon be a minefield, thanks to the ill-conceived, all encompassing "online harms" bill.
The duties imposed upon even the smallest operators are extremely onerous, and come with significant penalties. Crazy.
zeruch@oldenaturalist @pluralistic thats because the UK, when it comes to tech policy, is more idiotic than any other EU state. It's the blind leading the easily led.
@zeruch @pluralistic oh yes. I suspect the only reason Nadine Dorries championed it is because she wanted to be able to stop people being mean about her.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic as a yank, my knowledge of Dorries is basically limited to the hullabaloo around her visit to Equatorial Guinea, but now that I'm reading up on her more I can honestly say she seems adorable in the same way that head-butting the ass of a porcupine is adorable.
Jonathan McKeown@zeruch @oldenaturalist @pluralistic /any/ EU state. Britain infamously (and almost certainly catastrophically) left the European Union.
@thetruejona @oldenaturalist @pluralistic sorry, bad habit, I'm meant any European state. Obviously the EU is only a subset.
Virtue signal 💉💉💉🇺🇸 🇺🇦Well, Rupert Murdoch can have all of your minds to himself.
Rob Randtoul@oldenaturalist @pluralistic this shower aren’t competent enough to enforce it.
eons Luna (Eonity)@oldenaturalist @pluralistic this reminds me of a similar-in-principle law passed not too long ago here in Singapore which dictates that social media platforms take down material considered “harmful” by the government, regardless of where they are hosted; the government can direct ISPs to block access to that platform if their directions are ignored. It would be interesting to see how this could work for Mastodon/Fediverse.
Singapore can now order social media sites to block access, as 'online safety' law kicks in
Effective from February 1, Singapore's Online Safety Act comprises a new section that regulates online communication services--specifically, social media platforms--that must comply with directives to block local access to "egregious" content or face potential fines.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic eg: suppose material deemed harmful by the Singapore government is found on a particular Mastodon instance. Would the government then direct only that particular instance to take down that content, or direct it to all Mastodon/Fediverse instances? If that instance refuses to take down the content, would the Singapore government block access only to just that instance? Direct everyone to block that instance? Or block ActivityPub altogether?
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic I can already see that law being difficult, if not outright impossible to enforce on decentralised social media platforms like Mastodon and other Fediverse-enabled platforms. To be honest I myself find it a pretty stupid law; while the intentions are good, it could be very easily abused to silence rightful criticism and more, not to mention the difficulty in enforcing it.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic thing is, this is just the latest in a series of laws recently passed here that have been widely seen as trampling on free speech. While I’m no free speech absolutist, and while I agree with the intentions of these laws, the way they are implemented are just potential cans of worms waiting to be opened; the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) has already been proverbially opened several times these few years.
@eonity @pluralistic it's clearly aimed entirely at censorship, under the time honoured tradition of "protection". It solves nothing, whilst handing over vast sums of money to age verification companies and vast troves of personal data to who the hell knows.
A bill that the CCP would be proud of.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic it’s really upsetting that more and more governments around the world are implementing such laws, even those in countries traditionally seen as being quite open on free speech. It’s one thing to see my own country of Singapore passing such laws (free speech is generally not, and has never been a thing here), but it’s another when countries like the UK and Australia passes similar laws.
Elliot@oldenaturalist @pluralistic @ianbetteridge great. Even more legislation that creates barriers for everyone except the mega rich.
DNAvinci@elliot
Pretty easy to just let any other nation run Mastodon instances then, right? The ol' Schengen gang actually run an official instance themselves.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic @ianbetteridge
Pretty easy to just let any other nation run Mastodon instances then, right? The ol' Schengen gang actually run an official instance themselves.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic @ianbetteridge
The Vampire Fish Queen@oldenaturalist @pluralistic Well that if they can even get it up and running, the bill is a unworkable mess that it is likely to collapse under its own weight just look at the last UK age verification law that was delayed over and over again until it was quietly scraped.
There also the fact that the UK is about to enter a recession meaning Ofcom is likely to be super underfunded and unable to enforce 90% of the bill.
Dark Sage Torunka 
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic Would any of that nonsense apply to single-user instance operators? I doubt the UK intended to criminalize *blogging*.
On the other hand this is also a country that never had free speech. And not in the "omg you can't be a Nazi in Germany anymore!!1" sense, but the "I'll sue you in England! You are so sued!" sense.
At any rate should I start installing GeoIP rules to ban England