Yep. In today's world where everything is polarized to the extreme this seems to be unifying people. I don't think anyone had it on their bingo cards for 2024.
If you want to change your neighbourhood, you could start every morning by sweeping the pavement. Or you could leave a random dog turd. Both will accomplish your stated goal.
Sure, if you admit that the information and the entertainment available in one's country should align with that country "interests", then there is no doubt about it. However the West markets itself exactly as the place where such thing doesn't happen, so that's where the problem lies.
The marketing and the reality are somewhat different. Ignoring the fact that “the west” isn’t one political regime, it is about balance. While the US prides itself in allowing people to run around cosplaying as nazis under the guise of freedom, other countries consider that to be offensive and would legislate against it.
It’s a wide spectrum. Any extreme of censorship and a complete lack of censorship and control will quickly lead to the decline of society. Nuance is where everything is. No absolutes.
Not the West, just the US. Free speech outside of the US isn’t really a thing. The UK in particular has been very aggressive in censoring speech recently.
As I understand it, he was making a pro-Hamas speech (not pro-Palestine). Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.
The UK had a particular problem with preacher Anjem Choudary [1] indoctrinating followers to be militant islamists. He is reckoned to the be linked to up to 40% of terrorist incidents in the UK (including the 7/7 attacks in London).
Following this period the anti-terror laws were made stronger and "inviting support for a proscribed organisation" became illegal. Presumably that means recruiting either directly or indirectly through speeches.
So, I can understand how this happened. But your summary really only belies your bias I'm afraid, this: "arrested a jewish son of holocaust survivors for hate speech after he denounced Israel as behaving in a genocidal manner" isn't true. Even the article you link states that he was arrested for inviting support for a proscribed organisation. He wasn't arrested for denouncing Israel as behaving in a genocidal manner.
The issue is very emotive and charged. I am not taking sides. But it's often the case that whenever anyone falls foul of laws, that have been designed to protect the people of the UK, either directly from abuse because of who they are, or indirectly via terror, then those affected complain about a lack of freedom of expression.
It seems they didn't charge him, so maybe the police overreached in this instance. I haven't seen the speech, so I can't comment, and certainly I wouldn't defend the UK police as they could certainly do with some reform. But, it's also possible that this was quite a difficult tightrope for the police to walk in terms of the law.
Some of these laws may seem draconian, but the people of this country who are not racially abusing people, or targeting people because of their sexual orientation, or gender, or inviting support for a proscribed terrorist organisation (which is 99.999% of us), will never fall foul of this legislation.
How does that follow? The main problem with freedom of expression in Iraq isn’t the censorship of video games that include actions against Iraq. If that was the only censorship in Iraq, the UK and Iraq would be on the same level.
Neither follows. Of course the UK is nowhere near Iraq in terms of censorship. Yet, here the UK prescribes to their standards on grounds just as hollow.
Think about what makes this case different, why it was treated as such, and what the motivations were (Hint: Not related to counter-terrorism).
UK is turning into Oceania. Police are knocking on people's doors for tweets. And in a way in Iraq chances are you will have greater freedom of expression because the state capacity is low. UK can enforce shit.
If you’re referring to the faux outrage whipped up by Daily Telegraph ‘journalist’ Alison Pearson, then that too isn’t accurate [1]. A member of the public reported a crime (inciting racial hatred), the police followed up on that, as is their duty.
She lied to suit her own divisive narrative.
Free speech absolutionists are whipping up fervour with divisive rhetoric. It’s as simple as that. In the UK we have free speech rights but also responsibilities. That’s how it should be. Unfettered free speech without a thought to the public and social consequences is reckless imho.
For those that care for facts rather than the divisive rhetoric of twitter: this is a decent overview of the freedom of expression rights and responsibilities in the UK [2]
"In contrast, freedom of speech does not protect statements that discriminate against or harass, or incite hatred or violence against, other persons and groups, particularly by reference to their race, religious belief, gender or sexual orientation. In the UK, this includes laws specifically designed to protect people from suffering abuse on account of who they are."
No, I'm not. I don't read the Daily Mail. Are you trying to imply that was just one case and police don't spend time on them at all?
"My Lords, so-called non-crime hate incidents may have been introduced for perfectly good reasons after the Macpherson inquiry, but last year the police recorded more than 13,000, including some against schoolchildren and others for utterly absurd reasons—I myself was investigated for calling Hamas Islamists" [0]
No one has been specifically prosecuted for speech as far as I am aware of. The individuals locked up were quoted as being prosecuted for speech by less than accurate media and were persistent offenders and violated their release or suspended sentence terms.
Britain hasn't had a sovereign interest in the Levant for over a century. Their citizens deserve access to uncensored media to form their own opinions, even if the media is satire that would make Matt Stone and Trey Parker blush.
"I think we can probably make do without a game that glorifies the 7th of October massacre. Or any as a matter of fact."
The developer of the game is complaining about a double standard. Given the fact that we have shooter games glorifying some abhorrent us activities, and we are okay with that, we do have a double standard. We could discuss for ages whether it's wrong or right, but we can't hide behind "oh no it's a terrible thing" because we have been representing terrible things since decades, but this time apparently it's bad because it's not our faction doing the funny (it's not so funny anymore, isn't it?)
Double standards happen in international politics. Things are regional and promoting certain events are considered a security threat as it’s not exactly as if there isn’t a problem with terrorism from radicalised Islam in the UK.
Also worth noting that the content of this is considered distasteful among the Muslim community here as well. It makes them look bad too.
Stuff like this sows the seeds of division between the communities.
Yes, 2019. Without any insider knowledge, I remember a Google update at the end of 2019 where they really went to shit, gone from "don't be evil" all the way to evil
It was actually later than I expected it to happen but it seems like distinct enough event that it's had reverberation all the way to the present.
Every time Ed Zitron is mentioned on this site someone shows up with a hateboner, it's getting super old.
Everyone has a bias, it's not a crime to let it show. I know it's Silicon Valley's dream to flatten all human experience into emotionless 0s and 1s but they need to knock it off and you need to stop enabling them.
Besides clearly being outdated guidance (see election 2024 + "substack is the new journalism"), not even "unbiased" journalism is merely a bland recitation of facts, and there's a world of difference between that, an article with an obvious slant, and straight-up dog-barbecue levels of bullshit and lies.
It IS frustrating, beyond frustrating, that Google nuked the web for ad money. The idea that you have to report that by neutrally dictating a string of facts or else forfeit all credibility is stupid.
Does this strike you as a source where one would expect unbiased journalism? Does it claim to be such? It strikes me as a personal blog of opinion pieces.
On the other hand, Xbox consoles these days sell with a "free trial" of their online services that automatically starts charging after 3 months.
It's at a minimum a dark pattern.
A free trial implies that you can use a service for a limited period without cost. It's only because they have normalised it that you expect to get charged if you forget.
You _can_ use it for a minimal period without cost.
As for the normalisation argument, if there's a common understanding that "free trial" means "X months free followed by being charged", then that's what free trial means.
Its only a common misunderstanding with these tech companies.
If I had a free trial with a sports club, or many other things, they will not charge me at the end of the trial. They will ask me if I want to join.
If I take a car for a trial drive, they won't bill me the entire price of a car if I forgot to mention explicitly that I don't want it after I return it.
Exactly. My ahme club do a 3 week free trial, nobody new is paying until the 4th week (and even then you have wiggle room), you can just stop showing up, nobody will charge you.
I agree about monopoly abuse but I do believe it's acceptable to charge a fee for access to your audience.
Microsoft and Epic don't want to pay the fees for using Google's payment system, which is a requirement here for Googles ecosystem (Apple too btw). I don't see an issue with that. It's not monopolization, Microsoft can build their own ecosystem (for the 3rd time try at least) and distribute apks to Android.
The alternative 'spiteful' approach Google could make is what Microsoft wanted to do with Unity : "For each user over 1Million, you pay 1$ per download".
Yeah, its nice to see MS finally get a taste of their own medicine for a change. If they really cared about "breaking walls" and openness, they're more than free to release an Xbox app for Linux.
