Comment by ChuckNorris89 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ChuckNorris89 | Hacker News Reader

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This is not new in Germany/DACH area due to super weird and archaic privacy, anti-hate and anti-libel laws that could be interpreted in ways which open them to abuse and turned into censorship by malicious actors with enough resources/connections.

Basically in Germany/DACH free speech is heavily policed (ironically to stop NeoNazis voicing themselves) as to ensure it doesn't offend anyone so you end up with everyone only allowed to say either good or meh things in public/online.

Best example is the Austrian politician who had forced Facebook through a court order to have posts on her wall where people called her a corrupt traitor, deleted worldwide, under the argument that unless you can show proof of corruption, you calling them corrupt is libel according to the Austrian law, lol.

Even on platforms like Kununu (basically the Glasdoor of DACH) where employees can review their employers, if companies don't like the negative review employees leave, they can ask to have them removed citing similar laws, which makes the platform pretty much useless in the end as all reviews are either good or meh.

Honestly, Americans don't know how good they have it in the free speech category. Imagine not being able to call Trump corrupt on Twitter or say that Swaggy Bro Tech is an abusive sweatshop on Glassdoor/Google.

I heard a joke somewhere that the internet is just people libeling each other all day.

I personally think that we should be intolerant of intolerance, until of course that message is co-opted by "elites" (billionaires, politicians or whoever you believe is the group(s) pulling the strings) to suppress any criticism of their power.

I know it's more-or-less your point, but I am absolutely tickled by the idea of 'free speech' being 'heavily policed.' There's some doublethink if there ever was some! (Am I allowed to say that?)

What you've described is basically the definition of Libel.

When you're a political leader and you're paid by taxpayers to manage their livelihoods and decide their future you should put up with harsh criticism as part of your job be it proven or not, within reason.

But as it currently stands, the 1% use the anti-libel laws in their favor to censor anything that undermines their power/credibility.

For example, if you're a senator and while I don't have proof that you are corrupt, you can't possible tell me with a straight face that you awarding a lucrative public contract to the company where your daughter is on the board of directors, is a pure coincidence or a meritocracy, even if the paper trail says it's all squeaky clean.

Wait a minute, do you think that could ever happen? That'd be shocking!

> Honestly, Americans don't know how good they have it in the free speech category.

Not for much longer. Everyone supports censoring someone, so it's just a matter of time before it becomes a policy.

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