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EU Presidency Calls For Massive Internet Filtering, Leaked Document Shows (edri.org)

An anonymous reader shares a report: A Council of the European Union document leaked by Statewatch on 30 August reveals that during the summer months, that Estonia (current EU Presidency) has been pushing the other Member States to strengthen indiscriminate internet surveillance, and to follow in the footsteps of China regarding online censorship. Standing firmly behind its belief that filtering the uploads is the way to go, the Presidency has worked hard in order to make the proposal for the new copyright Directive even more harmful than the Commission's original proposal, and pushing it further into the realms of illegality. According to the leaked document, the text suggests two options for each of the two most controversial proposals: the so-called "link tax" or ancillary copyright and the upload filter.

10 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. New internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Those of us in the tech sector need to be seriously talking about building a new layer of internet on top of the old one.

    Human expression and dignity is under assault by fascists cloaked in the sheepskin of virtue.

    Google, Facebook, Cloudflare, are now marching lockstep with the oppressive regimes of China and the EU.

    1. Re:New internet by MikeDataLink · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Those of us in the tech sector need to be seriously talking about building a new layer of internet on top of the old one.

      Agreed. I have been thinking about this for some time. There's got to be some kind of Virtual Internet (maybe based on VPNs) that we can build over the top of the current Internet. One where all traffic is encrypted and the sources are untraceable. Similar to TOR, but without all of the hops.

      --
      Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
    2. Re:New internet by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 4, Funny

      You are being fed a diet of propaganda designed to protect the 0.01% and their wealth at the expense of 99.01% of the people.

      SO, what about the other 0.98% who are neither the wealthy nor the people? That's what I want to know!

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  2. Re:Brexit is the right decision. by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wait, the country that has one of the most aggressive pro-filtering stances outside of the Middle East is now a beacon of reason? ROFLMAO!

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  3. Fascism spreads by evolutionary · · Score: 5, Insightful

    there is only one reason for using China's system for control data/opinions shows: To guarantee the status quo and minimize or eliminate any threat to your current power structure. Unless the world wants their governments run like China, those that don't like it need to speak up, openly, now....because once it's in, it will be a lot harder to remove. (as per design)

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  4. Re:EU by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Since the presidency of the EU is not "big government", it's literally just a rotating position that gives countries an opportunity to propose an agenda. Estonia has pissed it's opportunity away by proposing something that seems to violate the human rights of EU citizens (the right to privacy in particular) and which has no hope of ever being adopted or even influencing the legislation.

    Before you complain about the EU, note that it has some of the strongest privacy protections in the world. They have been used to stop government spying, they have been used to force massive multinational companies like Google to respect individual privacy. And those are actual, written and enforced law, not some random proposal that has zero chance of ever being enacted.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  5. Re:EU by barc0001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And the wingnut alarmists think that the next president will bring it in. It still has to go through the Commission, the council and then parliament. Which it won't. Several groups already have this in their crosshairs and are making noise about it. Not to mention ECHR - who literally yesterday gave a ruling that your employer has to notify you of monitoring of your work email - would torpedo it in an instant.

  6. Re:Brexit is the right decision. by lgw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here's a revolutionary idea: perhaps moral blame is not heritable? Maybe, just maybe, the grandson is not to blame for the sins of the grandfather.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  7. Re:Brexit is the right decision. by nukenerd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What about the UK invading almost every country on the planet and ruining it beyond repairs being the cause of all these immigrants in the first place?

    What BS.

    Britain colonised some places and these ended up being some of the best places to live (eg North America, Australia, NZ). Other places they did not colonise (in the sense of settling large numbers of people there) but administered (eg India, African nations, parts of the Middle East); some of these latter are hell-holes today. But they were hell-holes before - that is why Britain stepped in and administrated them. Britain would start with trading posts, but when trade stopped because of warring between different tribes inland, the British would go in and bang heads together to stop it. This led to taking over high-level internal policing and administration. In these cases the local native rulers were usually allowed to retain their positions under British protection. This was a different approach from some other European colonial powers (notably France) which tried to stamp out the local cultures.

    Eg gradually most (not all) of India became administrated in that way, including the building of infrastructure such as railways, ports, and government buildings often superior to those back home. While many British administrators and engineers and their families lived for long periods in India, they were not settlers like in North America and would always be talking of the day they would go back home. In fact settling was only done where the natives were clearly primitive (usually stone age in culture) and the climate was temperate.

    It was Britain withdrawing from some of these countries that was a disaster for them. India was a blood-bath in the late 1940's (but recovered eventually), and some of the old African colonies still are. The reason the UK is sought by immigrants is that Britain had given these ex-colonies a taste of how life could be better than in a shit hole, and of course the English language which remained the official one in many of these ex-colonies.

  8. Re:Ah, Estonia - the country of SS by dunkelfalke · · Score: 4, Informative

    Bullshit. These marches honour WaffenSS veterans explicitly. Also those who happily participated in the Holocaust.

    --
    "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap