Well, apparently Western Europe is not only buying Russian oil and gas, but they decided to buy some ideas from Wowa Putin. Who cares... until European Union will try to make that their regulation.
UK already did their "prove your age" act, EU is well on the way of doing it, every year they try a new chat control law, and sooner or later they'll force some kind of "real name" online, requiring identifying yourself when registering an account. And that's just the new stuff, france was pushing key escrow for many years, UK can jail you if you forget (or not give) your passwords, germany can fine you you if you use nasty words against a politician, etc.
All of this is terrible, obviously, but this one has a silver lining. The web will be such a nicer place when people can't hide behind anonymity.
Yes, most people don't say what they think in person.
But on the internet, you can say that your boss is an idiot, that the company produces crap products, that you eat before visining a friend, that the government worker at XY office is incompetent and lazy, that peopl playing loud music in public are idiots, that men should have legalized paper abortions, and that the professor has no idea what he's teaching, because his knowledge was outdated in the 80s when he got his tenure. All of that because you can be ghusto here and not "John Smith" with your real name and anyone being able to google you. Or more realistically, even if you're alloed to use nicknames but have to register with your real name, you'll never be able to safely critique the government, because they'll always be able to get your data.
For example:
> If there's a group of young men playing loud music on a bus, do you tell them that they're idiots
Why would you tell them they're idiots? How would that help anything. If you do that online anonymously, are you trying to better the situation, or vent your own anger and thus making the world that much more negative?
That's one of the depressing things about sites with "real" (whatever that even means) name policies: turns out people will happily be virulently nasty trolls just as readily without pseudonymity
Yay! /s
If you had to anonymously describe your workplace, your bosses, your company, their products, etc., would you really say the same thing anonymously online and in person or with your real name attached to the text?
EU and the member states are nothing but thugs and terrorists. Very powerful ones, but terrorists nonetheless. Putin or russia has not once threatened me, stolen from me under the threat of throwing me in jail, yet EU does. Russia has never tried to steal money from other citizens to try bribe me, yet an EU state has.
EU and its member states are an enemy of the people.