

Twitter blocks neo-Nazi account to users in Germany - dominicrodger
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19988662

======
darklajid
Well, what I really hate about this is the 'local' filtering. Please bear with
me while I sidestep into a short one paragraph rant.

Every. Single. Use. Of. Geolocation - is either useless, hindering,
infuriating or all of that. Google redirecting to a local domain, blogger (a
trend, right? Google?) showing all UI in a language that you cannot read
unless it guesses your location right. I could go on, but based on my usage
I'd mostly bash Google again and again for doing that (their openid
implementation used to helpfully ask me for consent in Hebrew while I was in
Israel. etc.). This ban is insane on the same level.

What other commenter lament about is 'free speech' - which is a concept that
isn't absolute in the country in question and this particular citizen of that
country is happy about it. I think most here don't get the 'I don't agree with
what you're saying, but I'd defend your ...' quote. It doesn't make sense
here, it just doesn't apply.

Now how do we handle these differences in culture on an international level?
Twitter is a US company and might stand for the US values. Here in Germany
you're limited by law in your expression in certain ways and the government
has the power to punish you for things that might be considered 'free speech'
elsewhere.

And from what I understand this is what happened, locally. The organization is
totally insane (incidently we have a bunch of nutjobs like that. 'Pro NRW' and
'Pro Koeln', are playing the same game). The German media presents them as
assholes, their values are crazy and their methods and goals illegal. They
should be forbidden/dismantled, just as happened on Tuesday, because that's
what this country agrees on. Comments about 'free speech' just really don't
apply on this local level.

But why oh why would you now filter access to a feed based on a limited,
useless technology? IF there's a case to be made that Germany has a right to
'ban' social media accounts (I'm .. not sure.. Locally I'm 100% behind every
sanction against these .. idiots. Online? Not so much), then accounts should
be deleted or hellbanned globally.

This particular 'solution' is just bullshit, neither refusing the request nor
fulfilling it.

------
im3w1l
[https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169222-country-
withhe...](https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169222-country-withheld-
content)

"With hundreds of millions of Tweets posted every day around the world, our
goal is to respect our users' expression, while also taking into consideration
applicable local laws."

No more twitter revolutions?

------
Udo
How about deleting the account instead? How is promoting hate speech not a ToS
violation?

~~~
icebraining
Are they promoting hate speech on Twitter? The article doesn't say that, and a
cursory read of their feed (through Google Translate) doesn't show anything
I'd consider "hate speech" either.

Personally, I'm always sad when they ban these neo-nazi feeds and such. It's
hilarious to read their complaints on the "intolerance" of current western
governments, or calls to "ban repression".

(Well, it's hilarious because I'm fairly confident they won't regain power any
time soon)

~~~
Supreme
It's equally hilarious that the western governments use terms like free speech
in the same sentence that they announce censorship. I'd lump them in the same
category as far as contradictions go.

