As time passes on; I get happier that I know the existence of FOSS social media (and the fediverse).
Old enough to remember how the west derided Chinese firewall.
But this is different! It’s privatised, which signifies American freedom!
Er… it is different. The Chinese firewall also includes massive censorship of what can be said internally, and it’s far beyond whether links can be shared and discussed.
What do you mean by “what can be said internally”?
Doesn’t the free market Great Firewall of USA do that? There are lists of topics that, if you express support for them, will get you automatically banned from facebook etc. Social media sites sell information about your activities to data brokers who in turn sell services that help decide what jobs or loans are available to you. Reddit blocking an entire ccTLD is pretty over-the-top but demands for more censorship have been in vogue in the USA since 2016.
Actually not 2016, censorship trend increased when GamerGate happened. Things went off the cliff on the internet ever since, of course accelerated by the specific kind of people Trump in USA and India’s Jio mobile internet democratisation mobilised.
This is pure insanity. Cold War stuff.
Considering the magnitude of what has happened - a full fledged invasion of a sovereign country - I’m more impressed that this shows no signs or true escalation beyond some bluster from Putin. I just hope it remains contained and is resolved soon. Unfortunately, that’s going to be cold comfort to the people whose lives are now bombed out apartment buildings.
Ukraine stopped being sovereign in 2014. Check the Nuland-Pyatt leaked call, and for more context the relationship between Kolomoisky and Zelensky, and how the democratically elected Yanukovich was forced to flee.
I read through that transcript. There’s no hint that the US has any role more than helping the democratically elected leaders to come to an agreement on forming a government. And they were apparently working to freeze the Svoboda party, which has been accused of Nazi ties, out of the political process. Meanwhile, they’re now being invaded by a man who hasn’t experienced a free and fair election in what, two decades?
Then how is Svoboda and Right Sektor active and thriving now? Nazi Black Sun medal soldiers must be also a coincidence, right?
Because Ukraine is a sovereign state and people will vote in ways that the US wishes they wouldn’t.
And Ukraine stopped being a sovereign state since 2014. See, you are using circular loop logic now.
