just gonna paste their "find out why?" bit in here lol. my fave part might be the claim that censorship is only censorship when applied to pre-existing information, so since these people can't access the site in the first place, they're not being censored :very-smart:
Isn't blocking entire nations 'racism' or 'xenophobic'?
No. The nations blocked contain individuals of all races. Nations are not races. We block hostile nations because it is the most effective way to stop the abuse coming from their IP space online. “Racism” has absolutely nothing to do with IP addresses or preserving a quality community within CounterSocial. Additionally, any nationals from any of the blocked countries are welcome to participate on the network so long as they are not currently inside a blocked nations borders.
Now seems like a good time to mention that CounterSocial has built in direct one-click translation into over 80 languages.
Surely that's 'nationalistic'?
No. Currently, at the time of writing there are 195 nations on planet earth. We block 7 of them. 'Nationalistic' is defined as "having strong patriotic feelings, especially a belief in ones own countrys superiority." Again, we block 7 of 195 countries. So ask yourself: which country of the remaining 188 countries free to access the site is CounterSocial 'nationalistic' about?
Well then it MUST be 'censorship'? Right???
No. Censorship is defined as the act of redacting or altering ‘unacceptable’ parts of an existing communication. Therefore, “censoring” can only occur to content that has already been written and submitted to our platform. Bad actors are prohibited from creating content on CounterSocial in the first place, therefore blocking hostile nations is not “censorship.
What about my 'free speech'?
Freedom of Speech is a First Amendment right defined in the UNITED STATES Constitution. It guarantees that the U.S. Federal Government cannot infringe on an individual’s right to say whatever they’d like. CounterSocial is not the federal government, therefore it is impossible, by definition, for CounterSocial to be in violation of an individual's 1st Amendment rights to ‘free speech’. Sidenote: the UNITED STATES Constitution is relevant in the United States and to United States citizens, where our servers are based. US 'free speech' law is inapplicable elsewhere.
Nations are not races
Hey who else remembers "Islam isn't a race:stupidpol:"?
ok important update: it's run by a troop called The Jester (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jester_(hacktivist)), who previously had a plan to hack the fire alarms at the Ecuadorian embassy so Assange would have to leave & be in "ello ello ello, what do we have here then?" range of the police
okay i hate calling everything feds, but these are actual feds. you can tell because they're fucking stupid.
Also while some people support Assange and others dislike him, nobody with meaningful values feels that strongly about catching him. Only feds and bottomfeeder fed sympathizers do that. Literally no one else.
Anyone trying to get Assange is a psychopath and a danger to all journalists, everywhere.
This site is vastly more dangerous than musk is.
yeah, I figure any actual credible journalist using that site will get mysteriously doxxed pretty quick. maybe even a lil visit from the various 3/4 letter agencies too
Well then it MUST be ‘censorship’? Right???
No. Censorship is defined as the act of redacting or altering ‘unacceptable’ parts of an existing communication. Therefore, “censoring” can only occur to content that has already been written and submitted to our platform. Bad actors are prohibited from creating content on CounterSocial in the first place, therefore blocking hostile nations is not “censorship.
And the gold medal for mental gymnastics goes to...
Well, what else can we expect from the mental gymnasts who think that Russian bots swung the Trump election but also that the FSB can't rig up a VPN server?
Turns out, free speech is when you shut someone up before they even get the chance to complain. But if you're too slow and the words leave my mouth, it's now SENSOR CHIP
My "My program is not racist due to rules lawyering" t-shirt is getting a lot of questions already answered by my shirt.
my FAQ about how I'm not racist is provoking a lot of questions already answered by the FAQ
CounterSocial is not the federal government, therefore it is impossible, by definition, for CounterSocial to be in violation of an individual’s 1st Amendment rights to ‘free speech’.
Are these guys even Republicans? Mask off liberals? I don't know.
it's hard to tell - they talk a lot about Fake News & Foreign Influence Ops, and that can go either way. They also talk about accessibility elsewhere on the frontpage, specifically using the term "neurodiverse", which I don't think most rightwingers would do? edit: should specify republican rightwingers lmao, obvs whoever's running this is right wing by any reasonable definition
its not nationalistic but ya we follow exactly what the US state department says are the "bad guys"
I love how even if you assume this is entirely benevolent it still is completely pointless.
Step 1: Make new propaganda network under the guise of combatting misinformation.
Step 2: Ban everyone from the bad countries from using your network, because they are misinformed.
Step 3: Dismiss any criticism of the fact the people you were meant to be helping are now barred from even using your system.Golly, Pakistan is now a hostile dictatorship too? Why don't we add Serbia to the list while we're at it? Cuba? Venezuela? Vietnam? Belarus? Libs were gleefully cheering for Armenia getting invaded because they're a CSTO member - better add them too.
Libs were gleefully cheering for Armenia getting invaded because they’re a CSTO member - better add them too.
Me rn, considering this, and how a president-for-life declared war on a region attempting democratic self-determination...
...and wondering if libs were the real campists all along.
Well their website doesn't block my connection through Mullvad VPN so it's basically worthless.
Unsure if this makes me think of fascists pulling the "akchually the only nazis were the members of Germany's NSDAP party" card or of fedoralords explaining that "strictly speaking, it's ephebophilia." 100% certain tho that this has the potential to become the preferred echo chamber for the most insufferable kind of radical centrist.
There's also a good chance this is funded by the same clintonite fossil fuel sponsored think tank that brought us r/neoliberal.
