Catacomb Resident Blog

Censorship Steps Up

01 September 2023

Maybe it's only half alarmist: "A Draconian New Law Went Into Effect On August 25th That Institutes Extreme Censorship Of The Internet On A Global Basis" by Michael Snyder.

He's referring to the European Union's Digital Services Act. He says this is a way for European bureaucrats to dictate to the rest of the world what is and isn't permitted information. If anything you write could be seen by a European, the service that displays that writing is accountable to take it down if some Eurocrat doesn't like it. I suppose it depends on whether that particular service provider can effectively filter European eyes from what you write.

There are some details here at the Verge, regarding the services affected and their likely response. This second article appearing on the Verge website is a little less bombastic. It's mostly about targeted advertising and allowing Europeans to opt out on a list of platforms. Given what we know of Eurocrats, I suspect Snyder is simply jumping the gun. Once this business of tweaking advertising becomes normal, other forms of censorship are altogether likely.

Is the Verge telling the whole story? The European Conservative says it covers much more than just advertising, that it will affect all content. Further, it will affect the content on that list of services for now, but others will be added as the bureaucratic whims develop over time. Either way, the line has been crossed.

It's possible sometime in the near future blogs like this one will start getting hit with take-down orders from Eurocrats. No, the US government will not defend the First Amendment; it has already assisted the European Union on this new law. The US government couldn't pull this stunt, but encouraged the European governments to do it for them, since the latter lack the restraints that hinder the US.

It's been my standard warning that you should always be ready to see this blog taken down for any number of reasons. It happened once already; the previous edition of this blog shut down because of a very real threat of harassment against the provider. Long time readers probably recognize that the content on this platform is just a little more restrained than it was on the previous one.

I'm not willing to take the obvious step of closing this blog to paid subscribers only. That would make this content "private", but the whole point is that I believe I am obliged to address the world at large. The gospel is for everyone or it's for no one.

On that note, let me encourage you to ask those unanswered questions while we can still talk about things that matter to you, because they may matter to others. Ask questions here in the comments or via email at catacombrez@proton.me.


Comments

DarkMirror

If it makes any difference, I'd pay to subscribe to this blog.


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