Rubio orders US diplomats to launch lobbying blitz against Europe's tech law | Hacker News Reader

Rubio orders US diplomats to launch lobbying blitz against Europe's tech law

reuters.com

8 pointssaubeidl10 comments

An egregious violation of our sovereignty, driven by foreign capital interests.

Not only has US democracy been captured by capital, it is also being used as a tool to harm democracy in other countries.

Not disagreeing with the capital part (though it feels a bit mixed with evil), but... don't countries with a big enough embassy do this sort of thing all the time?

They do, though the U.S. generally has heavier corporate connections and lobbying. Given this administration’s relationships in tech, it wouldn’t be surprising to see attempts to nudge EU policy in ways that loosen some constraints.

Harm democracy? People in EU get arrested for tweets. I'm glad the US is trying to do something about it.

> Germany Launches Nationwide Raid to Arrest Those Who Insulted Politicians, Or Spread ‘Hate Speech’ Online

> Federal Criminal Police (BKA) conducted raids across Germany targeting 170 people accused of online hate speech or political insults.

> The raids were based on Paragraph 188 of Germany’s Criminal Code, which criminalizes certain types of political criticism and hate speech.

> Devices like phones and computers were seized in multiple homes during the raids.

> Similar “days of action” are increasingly frequent, with over 10,700 such cases recorded last year—four times higher than in 2021.

> Cases include a pensioner raided for calling a minister an “idiot” and a 14-year-old raided for posting a banned hashtag on TikTok.

https://tfppwire.com/germany-launches-nationwide-raid-to-arr...

As they should be.

That is what we democratically decided on as a society - as is our good right

It's undemocratic for foreign powers to try to undermine that and it is treason for you to conspire with foreign enemies against the will of the people.

I am not a fan of censorship either, like most people, but what you are saying is true. This kind of alibi talk built on the premise that “propaganda is just an opinion” is naive. It is a total refusal to face reality because it avoids seeing the world in a more complex way. In the Middle Ages there were pogroms against Jews based on the claim that they ate small children. That too was someone’s opinion, deliberately spread to kill and rob people. Today we call it propaganda, not an opinion. A weaponized word in the hands of an attacker is a weapon.

And even with all that said, I am uneasy about the growing power and reach of potential censorship. Particularly the part when politician's it self are exempted from these rules. This proposed solution with "think about the kids" argument is absurd.

With people like you in it no wonder the world is speed running towards total dystopia.

Total dystopia is Nazis freely spreading their propaganda unchallenged. We've seen where this leads before and have learned the historical lesson.

The fact that your source claims to fight an imagined left wing bias tells me all I need to know - this is exactly the sort of propaganda that needs to be banned before more people fall for it and it hurts our society more.

Ban speech even more! Before it hurts us!

Exactly. Hate speech is violence.

> When our enemies say: well, we gave you the freedom of opinion back then- yeah, you gave it to us, that's in no way evidence that we should return the favor! Your stupidity shall not be contagious! That you granted it to us is evidence of how dumb you are!

-- Joseph Goebbels, 1935

Let's not make the same mistake again.

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