hellodang

Freedom of speech in the US is strong, but its failure to carry over into private contexts makes it largely symbolic in the 21st century. The fact that you cannot make a YouTube video expressing concerns about COVID-19 or election fraud, since it will be censored, is a shining example of the failure of freedom of speech.

Many people think that censorship is something that only a government is capable of doing, and that it doesn’t apply to corporations. But when multinational corporations like Google have more power, and more wealth than the GDPs of half the world’s countries, that thinking falls flat on its face.

This proposed Polish law is the strongest form of anti-censorship that I’ve ever seen.

This isn’t authoritarian in the slightest. If you think having your voice heard instead of silenced is an example of authoritarianism, I’m afraid trying to explain anything would be a lost cause.

All speech should be acceptable, according to the Polish government. It’s not right for a private entity to regulate speech. This law puts the locus of control back in the hands of government, but nowhere does it imply that the government will censor the citizens of Poland. It promises the opposite: that their voices will be heard instead of stamped out by the big tech companies.

> Under its provisions, social media services will not be allowed to remove content or block accounts if the content on them does not break Polish law.

> If a special court rules in favour of the plaintiff and the internet service does not obey the ruling it can subject to a fine of up to PLN 8 million (EUR 1.8 million) imposed by the Office of Electronic Communications.

This is an incredibly progressive move by Poland! Such simple, but powerful, legislation. The United States currently has FOSINO (freedom of speech in name only), but a law like this would actually make freedom of speech meaningful, in a land where online censorship is rampant.

JetBrains products are blacklisted by the DoD (and a growing list of defense contractors) because they have offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

I’m guessing it’s over concerns about Russian backdoors.

Cool, I never heard of frequency illusion. I experience it all the time.

Microsoft is working on the big government cloud solution defense contract, JEDI. Certainly a prime target for state actors.

I question how much buzz about chess lately is the direct result of a certain Netflix Original.

The effects seem to cascade. Chess blog posts on HN... a flood of sales of Chinese chess sets on Amazon... game night pics featuring chess on your social media feeds.

How much of our behavior is dictated, or at least seeded, by Big Ns?