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Spain's Crackdown on Catalonia Includes Internet Censorship (internetsociety.org)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the damage-to-be-routed-around dept.

Spain's autonomous Catalonia region wants to hold a referendum on independence next weekend. Spain's Constitutional Court insists that that vote is illegal, and has taken control of Catalonia's police force to try to stop the vote. They're deploying thousands of additional police officers and have seized nearly 10 million ballots. And now the Internet Society has gotten involved, according to an announcement shared by Slashdot reader valinor89: Measures restricting free and open access to the Internet related to the independence referendum have been reported in Catalonia. There have been reports that major telecom operators have been asked to monitor and block traffic to political websites, and following a court order, law enforcement has raided the offices of the .cat registry in Barcelona, examining a computer and arresting staff.

We are concerned by reports that this court order would require a top-level domain (TLD) operator such as .cat to begin to block "all domains that may contain any kind of information about the referendum."

13 of 363 comments (clear)

  1. Generalismo Fransico Franco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ain't dead yet!

  2. Well that is one way of ensuring a loss by Carewolf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Trying to suppress people's freedom is the surest way of pissing them off. How many went from pro-union to pro-independence due to this nonsense?

    1. Re:Well that is one way of ensuring a loss by valinor89 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Quite a lot of people are very enraged by the actions of the government that were not thinking of voting.

    2. Re:Well that is one way of ensuring a loss by marcansoft · · Score: 4, Informative

      The vote was already illegitimate; this is just going to slant it further. They already tried a non-binding "referendum" in 2014 with predictable results: 80% pro-independence (even though fair polls show more like 40%). The only way to have a fair referendum is to do it in a way that is approved and legal; the moment it becomes dodgy in any way, it severely biases the results because of course participation is going to be severely skewed towards people who want to vote yes.

      This is why the central government only really has two choices: they can either support a completely legitimate referendum (whether this can actually be done legally or not based on the Constitution is unclear), or they can wholly suppress attempts. They can't allow an illegitimate referendum to go through because the result is going to be obvious and not representative of the citizens' will. The pro-independence regional government has stated they intend to declare independence within 48 hours after a "yes" victory; this would be ridiculous in this case given that result would in no way be accurate with the current circumstances surrounding the referendum.

      (Note: I don't approve of the censorship part, just trying to explain what is going on.)

    3. Re: Well that is one way of ensuring a loss by Faluzeer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Who is able to vote? All of Spain is affected by this, should they not all have a chance to vote?

      Hmmm

      That is the same argument that so many little Englanders expressed over here in blighty when Scotland wanted an independence referendum, of course those same people would have been outraged if it was suggested that the UK leaving the EU required a majority vote from all the EU countries. It should be the vote of the majority of people in the region/state/country that decides on independence.

  3. This is the slippery slope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you start condoning Internet censorship for political reasons (for example, what has been going on with the Daily Stormer), it will never stop where you think.

    1. Re:This is the slippery slope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Don't play word games and call yourself anything other than an oppressor.

      It is political speech, suppressed on the basis of politics. It used to be that any company who deigned to offer communication services to the public understood itself to do so on a non-discriminatory basis as to the ideological content of that communication.

      Any business that thinks it has the right NOT to take that business should not be in the communication business. It makes no difference whether censorship is carried out by government, or corporations. The people are neither.

  4. Not smart, but it is right by alexborges · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Cataluña has no reason to secede. Nationalists, who are basically localist fascists are the ones pushing for an impossible exit of cataluña from the Spain, when by the way, they werent anexed. Cataluña entered Spain voluntarily, more than 500 years ago. Now the spanish government though is anything but smart. Prime Minister Rajoy could almost qualify as a sea sponge if we are talking about intelligence. This is why this move on the Spanish part is sad, stupid, but not unforseen. It plays into the hands of the fucking cataluña nazis, which is what nationalists are.

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    NO SIG
    1. Re:Not smart, but it is right by johanw · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Repressive governments don't like that. Look at the US and see how it reacted when some parts didn't want to belong to the US any more.

    2. Re:Not smart, but it is right by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It plays into the hands of the fucking cataluña nazis

      Witness the new political norm in action, people. Just label your opponents Nazis or fascists and then anything you do to them--be it censorship, assault, or even murder--then becomes justified. Such is modern political discourse.

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      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  5. Re:There is more by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Isn't Spain in the EU? How the hell is this allowed to happen?

    I mean, Brussels has so little to do they can micromanage the length of carrots and the yellowness of bananas. Clearly they must have the big stuff like free speech guaranteed everywhere.

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    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  6. The US had no reason to secede from the Empire by ffkom · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Driven by local nationlists, the north American territories of the British Empire did absolutely illegal things when they seceded. How could those people dare to question the legal rule of their central government?

    And by the way, lot's of European countries would still be under the despotic rule of some emporer far away in Rome, had they not been "disobedient" to Roman law.

  7. Re:Hey Quebec, by dryeo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since the last referendum, the federal government has passed the clarity act. Has to be a clear super majority rather then 50%+1. Quebec leaving also means amending the Constitution, with an amendment that requires 100% of the Provinces agreeing. There also will need to be a discussion of how much territory Quebec can keep. What they entered Confederation with? Or what the Feds bought from the Hudson's Bay Company. Of course the natives won't want to go either and they're a Federal responsibility.
    Quebec leaving is not as simple as the separatists have preached.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism