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Comment by znaji | Hacker News Reader

There is no free speech in Germany, so chances are that someone will say something on Diaspora that the government of Germany won't like. Then, if the owner of Diaspora refuses to delete the "illegal" post, he will be thrown in jail, so he doesn't really have a chance not to censor whatever the government forces him to censor.

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People can't say 'fuck' on tv in the US or say 'fire' in a crowded theatre so I guess there's no free speech there as well

And don't get me started on the puritanism

the fire one makes sense though. You're not neccessarily directly forbidden from shouting fire, you're forbidden from creating mass panic which can lead to injuries and death

Of course it does, I'm just pointing out the 'free speech' people's complaints are not much based on practicality.

What are you basing these claims on? Any recent events in german history you could point to?

>There is no free speech in Germany

You might want to read Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

I'm sure somewhere in the Chinese constitution it says Chinese citizens have a right to free speech too :-)

There is no practical right to free speech in the EU, this happened a few weeks ago: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6316567/Woman-corre...

Indeed, Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution is a snowclone of the First Amendment.

What's up with the absurd absolutism? Absolute free speech does not exist anywhere in the world, including the US. That's not the same thing as "no free speech".

BTW, the decision you linked to is about Austria, not the EU. The ECHR merely held that Austria is allowed (not required) to ban certain kinds of speech. Other Council of Europe member states are free to permit them.

I get the impression that Diaspora pods can be anywhere on the planet, so you can pick one in not-germany, if you're truly concerned.

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