Potential Rule 8 Question: Regarding the Recent Anti-NSFW Content Bans...

[NumberSix]

I've always thought the idea of using a VPS for a VPN odd. In a way it makes sense business customers expect more privacy, but still I find hard to to believe they won't log your every connection. If only to make sure they don't get in trouble or comply with some random law.

With reputable VPN in a privacy friendly jurisdiction like proton or mullvad you can at least breath somewhat easy, I'm not so sure about VPS though. Their reputations don't hinge on being privacy friendly ether.

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VPS literally just means Virtual Private Server, aka any and all Iaas, you just need a VM you have root access to, preferably not an LXC or other container since you might need to install kernel modules or mess with network config in ways that might not work properly with a container type setup.
The VM can run on any hyperscaler(like AWS) it can run on the infra of some shitty Latin American hosting company.

 

[humon]

Well, this is depressing. Any chance that thing will get better in the future?

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You may remember that in the Terminator movies, there was a message that John Connor made Kyle Reese memorize, so he could relay it to Sarah Connor after traveling back into the past.

The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.

Or as the coach in Miracle put it:

Now go out there and take it.

Yeah the self-censorship and control governments get is probably the biggest problem.

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I'm not particularly religious, but I've been getting more and more interested in the Bible in recent years, looking for ancient wisdom that might help make sense of things, and there was something Jesus said about not hiding your light under a bushel but being like a city on a hill, visible to everyone. I'm convinced that this is the antidote to self-censorship and control through fear. The antidote is to say what must be said, regardless of what punishment is going to come to you for it. That's not to say be inflammatory or slanderous, as that would be pointless and foolish, and the very thing that rule 8 is designed to prevent. The goal is not to simply punish your enemies in a game of 5th generation warfare, but rather... the goal is truth. I advise everyone to tell the truth when your conscience demands it of you, to always test what you believe and make certain that what you speak is actually truth and not just propaganda or the voice of your own base appetites, but the thing that actually needs to be said to improve the situation... and to then speak it without fear... and be prepared to be crucified for it. The world needs people like that right now, and it might be the only way for the average person to make a real difference.

Most people will self-censor and hide their light out of fear of being punished. Those people don't matter, because they've willingly taken themselves out of the game. The people who matter are the ones who don't just go away when threatened.

 

[XF Factor]

Most people will self-censor and hide their light out of fear of being punished. Those people don't matter, because they've willingly taken themselves out of the game. The people who matter are the ones who don't just go away when threatened.

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I have but one rebuttal. The option to "delete all posts by member" in the click of a button as is standard in most moderation control panels.

Doesn't matter how empowered by the grace of god you are. Bad moderation and petty cliques are going to censor and silence you no matter what. Persistence just leads to a thing called "ban evasion".
The only thing you can do is go elsewhere or build the temple yourself. Its not a matter of personal failings or faith when its a systemic problem.

 

[Laath-]

Edit: seems like this information is wrong? Sorry if its incorrect, relaying what people on reddit have been posting.

By the way, apparently they banned Wikipedia and some VPN sites.

...And some platforms like Spotify are also adopting new policies in the name of "protection."

I feel safer already

Please someone wake me up

 

[NumberSix]

By the way, apparently they banned Wikipedia and some VPN sites.

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And this is why I suggested rolling your own or at least learning how to.
The skills are a good building block that would let you do other things like set up your own blog or forum outside of the big aggregstors and social media junk.

Please someone wake me up

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It will get worse before it gets better.
Adapt, learn, fight.
Do not get desperate, get angry and get smart.

 

[Flux Casey]

By the way, apparently they banned Wikipedia and some VPN sites.

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In the spirit of Wikipedia. [citation needed]

I can reach Wikipedia. I'm not going to check every VPN site but I definitely checked the two everyone has probably heard of. No problem.

 

[NumberSix]

In the spirit of Wikipedia. [citation needed]

I can reach Wikipedia. I'm not going to check every VPN site but I definitely checked the two everyone has probably heard of. No problem.

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I thought you were American.

 

[Flux Casey]

I thought you were American.

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Welsh. Though lived just on the wrong side of the border all my life.

 

[NumberSix]

Welsh. Though lived just on the wrong side of the border all my life.

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Interesting, maybe your ISP just hasn't gotten around to implementing the block yet or does that whole devolved parliament thing you and the Scots have require thet it ratifies and implements this stuff after the UK one does?

 

[Flux Casey]

Interesting, maybe your ISP just hasn't gotten around to implementing the block yet or does that whole devolved parliament thing you and the Scots have require thet it ratifies and implements this stuff after the UK one does?

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Wrong side of the border. I live in England. And I'm going to repeat this again for the people in the back because it was never addressed? [citation needed] All I've got is some guy saying "apparently this happened" and absolutely nothing backing it up despite doing a search. If this was happening, people'd sure as hell be talking about it elsewhere.

 

[Cherry Lover]

I've always thought the idea of using a VPS for a VPN odd. In a way it makes sense business customers expect more privacy, but still I find hard to to believe they won't log your every connection. If only to make sure they don't get in trouble or comply with some random law.

With reputable VPN in a privacy friendly jurisdiction like proton or mullvad you can at least breath somewhat easy, I'm not so sure about VPS though. Their reputations don't hinge on being privacy friendly ether.

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Depends who owns the server and who has access to it.

 

[NumberSix]

Depends who owns the server and who has access to it.

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That is valid for VPN providers, too, and I am pretty sure that some of them probably use other cloud providers to scale their infra.

And a bunch of them have somewhat nebulous ownership and can be honey pots.

 

[Count Nebula]

Depends who owns the server and who has access to it.

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Yeah, but VPS hosting provider are in the business of hosting, not privacy. It's in the best interest to keep logs, for optimization, compliance, troubleshooting/debugging, etc.

You can do a lot with a VPS but I'm not sure if a a private VPN is one of them.

 

[Count Nebula]

And a bunch of them have somewhat nebulous ownership and can be honey pots

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Yep, privacy sometimes seems like a far fetched dream...

 

[Cherry Lover]

Interesting, maybe your ISP just hasn't gotten around to implementing the block yet or does that whole devolved parliament thing you and the Scots have require thet it ratifies and implements this stuff after the UK one does?

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Wikipedia isn't blocked, and it's unlikely it will be, simply because the government knows (from past experience) how bad it would look. They did take the government to court over the laws, though.

 

[AussieWriterGuy]

I live in a country where I can literally go to jail because I've written about underage girls being fucked, so I have no plans to give anybody my identity. We'll see how the Australian government implements all their stupid boomer bullshit. I know their last attempt at blocking sites was a hilarious joke. They blocked a bunch of torrent and porn sites, but all you have to do is change your DNS to a public one (like Google's) to completely circumvent it. That's the level of competence we're dealing with here, so I'm not going to worry before I have to, but either way the scale is tilting in a really bad way.

 

[NumberSix]

I live in a country where I can literally go to jail because I've written about underage girls being fucked, so I have no plans to give anybody my identity. We'll see how the Australian government implements all their stupid boomer bullshit. I know their last attempt at blocking sites was a hilarious joke. They blocked a bunch of torrent and porn sites, but all you have to do is change your DNS to a public one (like Google's) to completely circumvent it. That's the level of competence we're dealing with here, so I'm not going to worry before I have to, but either way the scale is tilting in a really bad way.

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I'd recommend you also use DNS over https or tls.
https://quad9.net/service/service-addresses-and-features/
https://cleanbrowsing.org/encrypteddns

In the event they decide to try and block public DNS resolvers like google's, log DNS queries and so forth.

 

[NumberSix]

Yep, privacy sometimes seems like a far fetched dream...

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Like all things it will be proportional to the amount of effort you put in to safeguard it.

 

[D'znn-Xy'lll MetaChthonia]

Been getting bombarded with Videos about YouTube going to be doing the Age Verification thing. Using AI. Claims to have exemption criteria such as "longevity" whatever that means. Mine is almost old enough to drink so hopefully that will be enough but would be surprised if they're not blatantly lying and will be rolling it out for everyone.

Bet they're doing this now because they found another end to the Infinite Growth in a Finite Universe and now are expanding into the illegal side of Information brokerage this time selling Credit Card Info and Government Info.

This is more a borderline thing falling into the same Idea of "parents outsourcing parenting to corporations and governments" given it's for a place already disallowing NSFW stuff but this time using the recent trend as an excuse.

It will get worse before it gets better.

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And the Better will be Subjective to the Worse. And not even half as good as it was. Taking comfort you're alive while sitting in the ashes of what used to be your home is not better then no fire burning anything down. But when that home is remodeled into a prison it ends up being indistinguishable beyond now starting from zero.

Do not get desperate, get angry and get smart.

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Been fighting in the same war for expression since I reached adulthood. Now I find its been a Cold War the entire fucking time. I am tired. So tired. And it always gets worse and never gets better and now everything has been constructed into a prison to prevent anyone from being able to escape, to be able to do anything but fall in line. And they keep succeeding. I just have rage and justifications. Soon it'll just be impotent rage if they go any further. But it'll always follow the same: they make the change, the public whines and complains, the corporation/government tells them to shut up and deal with it, the whining eventually dies down as it's normalized, and then the next change comes to enshitify everything more.

This year almost tastes of it specifically targeting me but I know it's just because of the niche I occupy. Tried to divorce myself into Single Player Games and things like Music and ASMR Videos and Stories on QQ and AO3 to escape the Despair from the shit going down in Politics earlier this year... and now everything is coming for some of that and open up to potentially threatening the rest almost the literal second I get comfortable again, like the Idea of me not being in a constant edging was a personal affront.

It's like they looked to the Internet, saw it was an escape from how awful they made the world... then decided that's a big no-no because Earth is supposed to be Hell- no relief allowed only torture.

[Edit]
Gonna go lie down. Probably need a nap or something... My god I'm getting fucking old.
[/Edit]

 

[IHev9Sun]

And they keep succeeding.

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You forget that a lot of the restrictions in internet freedoms nearly always fail.

SOPA and PIPA were going to turn the internet into cable tv with throttled internet sites.

It failed because people found out about it and stood up to protect the freedom of the internet.

Payment processors and govts made a mistake in that they tried to rush us with censorship laws. People noticed and now everyone is talking about it.

I am tired too, but being pessimistic about it online can actually harm more than help.

This kind of attitide is contagious and the people in power know this. And this is my conspiracy theory, but I feel like some of those pessimistic comments(not you specifically but many posts I see on yt videos and tweets) are coming from bots who were sent by the ppl trying to pass these laws to discourage revolt.

"Let's not bother resisting, nothing is getting done. Its all fucked."

Yet, we just found out Itch.io is relisting free nsfw games and is talking to alternative paynent processors to handle their payments.

The authoritarians know they can't win if we stand united, so they actively discourage us to not resist or fight back.

Don't lose hope guys. I know its easy to do so, but giving into despair is how they win.

If we are all pissed off about these laws being passed, bombarding the parties in charge with "concerned" calls will be more effective than petitions.

It's only been a week. Keep fighting.

 

[D'znn-Xy'lll MetaChthonia]

You forget that a lot of the restrictions in internet freedoms nearly always fail.

SOPA and PIPA were going to turn the internet into cable tv with throttled internet sites.

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Do you have any other Examples that aren't almost two decades old? Might as well be an entirely different Era of US Politics from how wildly things have changed within the last four years alone let alone the last ten. KOSA failed solely because it took too long and the end-of-session bill wipe kicked in right when it was going to be signed over to the President. While it hasn't moved much beyond being put on the calendar for consideration again it's only kept at bay by everything else getting in the way.

Now Age Verification is the hot new thing for Censoring alongside forcing a heavier cost onto sites subject to such Laws, doing it at state level till it's effectively national while constantly throwing out equivalents in the Federal Government is popular in the US, and most recently SCOTUS ruled back in June that while Porn is protected for adults they can still do the Age Verification because it "only incidentally infringed on adults rights" effectively air gapping protected content from those who are allowed to view it in a "I'm not touching you" type of violation. It's also just obtuse enough to be allowed and seen as okay (as one Justice tried arguing "it's just like showing your ID for alcohol" ignoring how they're just checking to see if your face matches the picture and not literally storing a copy of the ID while checking against a non-existent public database of such IDs. They also tried arguing that AI based face scanning is somehow less intrusive) but Sites like this one are unlikely to be able to afford such things. Basically making NSFW Content Illegal by making it too expensive to Host and a security risk for the Users and a target for those who would want such things even if it deletes the Info and applies a whitelist token to the Account. Forcibly making a parasitic increase in running costs enforced by Law. It also makes it so it's set up for an increase in authoritarian control by already having the foundation of tracking what content is being used. It's not even a fear driven hypothetical, the purityrannicals have literally been openly gloating and planning about using it that way for almost three years now.

It's a death by inches. Every "victory" is consistently pyrrhic and that's all the purityrannicals want, those small gains. Being pushed back little by little. I can only hope that the current push causes such an uproar it sours the entire Idea of using "think of the children" as a defense alongside the Age Verification but I highly doubt it will. Doesn't help that everyone in US Politics basically are in the same Party when it comes to NSFW Content, it's the fear of it being turned on their Content that actually keeps them off it.

...suppose in more positive note people have finally noticed SCREEN Act 2 (but not 1 weirdly). Although the GovTrack notice of those passing have dropped from 1% and 2% to 0% and 1% which is at least a relief. Still shouldn't be counting chickens so best to constantly be bashing that into anyone and everyone's faces still.

Did think of something earlier this year that bringing up the Censorship is a double edged sword. It could help fight it but it might also bring to attention to those who would support such measures that weren't aware they had something to rally around alongside motivating those who already are.

 

[NumberSix]

https://reclaimthenet.org/us-lawmakers-block-beard-bill-website-censorship-piracy

Great, what a YouTuber I follow calls the MAFIAA is trying to "protect creativity" by letting any retarded, senile, paid for judge block websites.

Honestly, given the quality of dumpster slop the members of these two organizations produced I am wondering how they have money to keep functioning, let alone lobby people for bullshit.

 

[D'znn-Xy'lll MetaChthonia]

https://reclaimthenet.org/us-lawmakers-block-beard-bill-website-censorship-piracy

Great, what a YouTuber I follow calls the MAFIAA is trying to "protect creativity" by letting any retarded, senile, paid for judge block websites.

Honestly, given the quality of dumpster slop the members of these two organizations produced I am wondering how they have money to keep functioning, let alone lobby people for bullshit.

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Been hearing about that one since Thursday but I have yet to find the Bill Number and Searching Congress.gov doesn't help and the Name only brings up reporting on it and only if I use the full one not the Acronym. I can only assume it's one being talked about but not properly introduced. Trying to check GovTrack but pretty much only using the number works for using that.

 

[NumberSix]

Been hearing about that one since Thursday but I have yet to find the Bill Number and Searching Congress.gov doesn't help and the Name only brings up reporting on it and only if I use the full one not the Acronym. I can only assume it's one being talked about but not properly introduced. Trying to check GovTrack but pretty much only using the number works for using that.

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They got lots of egg on their face in the past few months and people are not happy with that save the chillinz bullshit.

M maybe this is a trial balloon to see if people will oppose it before the idiots sign it and file it, dunno.

 

[NumberSix]

You know what, more and more ancient but classic movies, fiction and people are becoming "public domain".

I really hope that with improves CGI, A.I. generated imagery and the explosive development of both infrastructure and NPUs people will be able to make a sewuel to Casablanca or Forbidden Planet than looks better and is more interesting than your average Hollywood slop in their garages or via a few rented EC2s.

Or make their own Star Trek with Humphrey Bogart as the ship's captain.