Global Web Freedoms Tumble

Global internet freedom declined for a 15th consecutive year, according to Freedom House's annual report. Semafor: "Always grim reading," this year's is particularly sobering, Tech Policy Press noted, with the lowest-ever portion of users living in countries categorized as "free." Conditions declined in 27 of the 72 countries assessed, with those in Kenya -- where anti-corruption protests were quelled, in part, by a seven-hour internet shutdown -- deteriorating the most. China and Myanmar tied for least-free, and the US' ranking dropped, while Iceland retained its top spot for the freest digital environment. Bangladesh improved the most. The most consistent trend observed over 15 years, Freedom House noted, is the growing digital influence of state actors: "Online spaces are more manipulated than ever."

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[Iamthecheese]

lgbtqrstuv people are free from feeling judged. Slavery is freedom. War is peace.

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[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

Forced acceptance and respect of Islam.

This one is the strangest to me. The most liberal, most feminist and atheistic people are *absolutely enamored* with this religion that seemingly is against all of what these individuals espouse. They hate religion until the moment Islam come into the conversation, then they all pour out of the woodwork to defend it.

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[Murdoch5]

Yep, and for the record that point regards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org], which makes it a crime, to be critical, to any degree, of Islam, regardless if your points are based on fact. Simply if a person of Islamic faith could take offence, accidentally, and intentional through misrepresentation, you violate Motion 103. We see governments taking the knee constantly for Islamic nonsense, there was a BC minister kicked out of office because some Muslims disagreed with her, to spite her making a factual

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[DarkOx]

Everyone needs to pick up a Koran and read those sword verses at the very least.

Islam isn't just a religion it is also a political system and it hell bent on conquest. We are at war with Islam, it is wholly incompatible with western culture. Islam does not make any room for pluralism, unless subjugation of people 'of the book' counts and you are alright with death for everyone else.

That is what the text says, there ain't any getting around it. Anyone who especially if they claim to be islamic either actual

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[Murdoch5]

I'll be more generic, I don't mind what you believe or follow, no delusional state should be preferenced, or, given special protection. All religious faith is just a mental illness, ranging from very mild, through to extreme. Even if your flavour of religious faith turned out to be true, it's still a mental illness, since you have to believe in something outside of reality.

That leads into the discussion regarding how do you tell when something is hate speech vs free speech? Which is something Canada doe

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[smooth wombat]

The most liberal, most feminist and atheistic people are *absolutely enamored* with this religion that seemingly is against all of what these individuals espouse.

Nice trolling. Why would an atheist be "enamored" with this religion? Or any religion? They're atheists.

As for the rest, considering Catholicism and Christianity are also religions which are seemingly against all of what "those people" espouse, is it any wonder they "hate" these religions as well.

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[Frank Burly]

The subtext of the right-handed circle jerk above you is because years ago the Canadian government didn't let truckers obstruct the streets for months on end and because a licensing board thought Jordan Peterson was preaching out of his depth. Meanwhile, for the US these people cheer people being jailed for weeks for insulting the regime [arstechnica.com], journalists being deported for covering protests of the regime [usatoday.com], the President and his appointed head of the FCC placing their own restrictions on the news [msn.com], and and the g [wbez.org]

Useless article linked

[ThumpBzztZoom]

The summary is the complete text of the linked "article". It is just a badly written short summary of the other articles it links to. I don't know why it exists.
Here are the actual information
:
https://freedomhouse.org/repor... [freedomhouse.org]

US slid three points to 73, ranked #15 between South Africa and Armenia. Iceland is tops with 94.

Meanwhile Wisconsin wants to ban all VPNs

[BeaverCleaver]

The USA is not immune. The state of Wisconsin has already voted to ban the use of VPNs. The vote has already passed the State Assembly and is moving to the Senate: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/... [eff.org]