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EU Exploring Idea of Using Government ID Cards As Mandatory Online Logins (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Softpedia: Fears that fake online reviews might ruin the consumer market and damage legitimate businesses are making the European Commission consider the idea of forcing all EU citizens to log into online accounts using their government-issued ID cards. Details about these plans can be found in a proposal named "Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market Opportunities and Challenges," announced on May 25, 2016. According to this document, "online platforms should accept credentials issued or recognized by national public authorities, such as electronic or mobile IDs, national identity cards, or bank cards." The reasoning, according to the EU, is that "online ratings and reviews of goods and services are helpful and empowering to consumers, but they need to be trustworthy and free from any bias or manipulation. A prominent example is fake reviews."
Any British citizens that don't vote for Brexit with this sort of shit going on must be masochists.
First they came for the reviews, and I did not speak out,
Then they came for the online blogs, and I did not speak out,
Then they came for the shoppers, and I did not speak out,
Then they came for slashdotters, and I did not speak out,
And there was nobody left to speak for me.
...to make sure reviews are accurate. They aren't (nor should they be) the ones running the websites which record and display these reviews. Those websites are the ones who are responsible for making sure the reviews are real. The ones who do the best job are most likely to gain the most users.
It's called the free market. Let it happen, EU.
Of course I'm completely aware that review quality is not the reason behind this proposition, but it makes no sense that they would think that such a justification would make sense.
"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session." -- Judge Gideon J. Tucker
If Amazon or eBay or Google wanted to adopt true name policies for online reviews, they could already do that (in fact, a few of them have "verified identities" and identify reviews with them). No national ID is needed, they just get it from the credit card info and verifying purchases. Obviously, they have decided that allowing pseudonymous reviews is better.
And unless you are a total idiot (like, apparently, Eurocrats are), you ought to be able to distinguish fake from true reviews fairly easily.
Is Hollander a Jew?
You guys are despicable, totally despicable
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Don't worry -- as evidenced in comments earlier about Ted Cruz's DNS stewardship bill, European elites would *never* do something like limit Europeans' online rights over something like criticizing religious zealots (Germany), or use their security apparatus to snoop virtually all Internet activity (UK), or outlaw the use of encryption (France), or require a three-strikes policy where someone can allege you pirated things three times to ban you from the Internet (France again). Only the American government does things like that. European governments are enlightened!</sarc>
Shut the fuck up!!!
Why don't we go all the way back, and make people wearing the Star of David for easy identification?
Europe criticizes China when the Communist Regime mandated that everyone who register for their weibo services must use their real name
The European parliament mourned for the loss of free speech in China, and poured money to support 'Chinese dissidents', even to the tune of awarding the noble prize to a certain Chinese writer (I read his books, in the Mandarin language, they were pure trash) just because he happens to be a 'Chinese dissident'
And no, I am not a supporter of the Communist Regime of China. I was an opponent of the CCP, and still am
The thing is, if Europe criticized China for the death of freedom they (Europeans) better don't repeat what the CCP has done
sigh!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Terrorism, drugs, pornography and other criminal activities were not enough to justify this. But threaten the bottom line of big business and suddenly Something Must Be Done.
Have gnu, will travel.
The cure is worse than the disease, and Orwell would be really shocked.
We have Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Brave new World and THX all in one huge pot controlled by a few in Brussels that in turn are controlled by lobbyists.
I'm starting to think that Brexit is a great idea.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Please.
They will make this system, and they will make it optional.
For a while.
Then to 'streamline' and 'improve efficiency' it will be harder and harder to do anything online from the EU without using that system.
Eight, ten years down the line it WILL be mandatory because no ISPs will be left that don't require it to let you connect - but from a LEGAL standpoint it is still 'optional'.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Of course it solves everything, since the purpose is the destruction of unwanted opinion. Anything they don't like (such as cricicism of the EU, immigration, islam, etc.) and wham - it's hate speech, and you are gone. Disappeared from the internet, which in this day and age of electronic communication is about as good as being disappeared to Siberia.
Did you think Juncker was joking when he said he would do _everything_ before 'allowing' a right-wing party to govern in any European nation?
Internet has been the uncontrolled factor, the thorn in the globalists hide, the one thing they couldn't get their fingers on. It allowed people to discuss and organize themselves, away from their control zones. And here we have the first attempt at putting an end to all that. If we allow this, we will be their slaves for all eternity.
We desperately need a bill of rights in Europe, and it needs to contain things like the right to privacy and the right to anonimity.
Europe, or rather, the EU, in its current form, is not really much more than a concentration of bribes. Instead of having to bribe a lot of small nations, you have an easy central hub where to insert your bribes.
Aside of that, there is little benefit.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Riiiight. I suppose the vacuum manufacturers who complained bitterly about the new EU regulations and mandatory testing/labelling standards that finally allowed consumers to accurately compare models just didn't bribe them enough to avoid getting it passed.
And poor Microsoft, fined billions of Euros over the years, surely it would have been cheaper to just up their bribe budget a little. Maybe once the scandal broke in the US, it became impossible for VW to maintain it's on-going bribery that allowed it to cheat on emissions. Those mobile phone companies too, surely the losses from having to remove ridiculous roaming fees must outweigh the size of the bribe the EU demanded... If not, clearly the EU is doing bribery wrong.
What really surprises me is that Switzerland, a country with plenty of money and a history of dodgy dealing, didn't manage to bribe its way into the EU's financial markets. They tried to negotiate a deal but the EU wouldn't make any concessions on banking rules, so I guess the brown envelope just wasn't fat enough.
Hmm, none of this makes much sense. Could it be that the EU isn't totally corrupt?!
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
With the UK in the thrall of EU referendum I can't help think this would be a non story at any other time.
Its alarming how keen the media is to stoke racist devisions , please treat them with the suspicion they are trying to make you feel about other races instead of accepting it as valid.
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Then explain how the regulations regarding curving of cucumbers ended into a legislation in the EU
The country which pushed it through (the UK, so it's deeply ironic that the Brexiters keep bringing it up) already had various regulations governing the appearance of Class I, Class II and Class III vegetables. So did the rest of the EU, but as always everyone had different regulations.
The so-called silly regulations simply made them the same Europe wide, so what was a class I banana in England could be sold as a Class I one in Germany.
So tell me, what's worse, having 1 rule about the curvature of bannnannanaas or having 28 different and incompatible rules across 28 countries that trade a lot?
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Plus, the next data breach, everyone has your official government password!