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Germany to censor video games, internet
Germany is apparently hellbent on returning to totalitarianism and censorship. The ministers of interior are pressuring the Bundestag (Parliament) for a nationwide ban on all video games in which it is possible to kill other human(oid)s and the german Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Ursula von der Leyen, nicknamed Zensursula (derived from the german "Zensur", censorship) is trying to establish internet censorship enforced by the government on ISPs. In combination they try to shut out austrian internet video game retailers.
Thank goodness I was born in Austria, else I would mover here right about now. Other destinations would be the Netherlands or Sweden.
Seriously, I could puke.
Thank goodness I was born in Austria, else I would mover here right about now. Other destinations would be the Netherlands or Sweden.
Seriously, I could puke.
Comments
But video games will not be banned in Germany. We've had this debate for a long time, and each time there is a school shooting or violence between youths the press and politicians bring up the topic again, and again, and again. The article linked to is already a few weeks old and the statements were made shortly before the EU elections. Coincidence? Seeing that the election of the German parliament is soon coming up all this talk of video game censorship is just to gain more votes.
This is far worse, since it is already happening...
I even took part in a student protest a few days ago, and the people with whom I spoke there were quite mad about what was going on in German politics. But no one mentioned moving away. These were students at a university, some of which were activists in the left and liberal party, mind you. Germans are in general finally beginning to be proud of themselves again, especially the younger generations. They want change, and don't just want to "run away".
I believe we are facing a dramatic change in German politics and culture.
Mind you, kids are a tech savvy bunch. You need only look at what's happening in Iran, to see that even if the powers that be supposedly shut down the net, there's still ways around it.
Sure, this willl hurt their economy, when ISP experience people closing their accounts. Young people need to rally against this bs, before its too late. I doubt if it would stand though because of the european union.
This is more crap being pushed out, either under the 'protect the children, and to hell with adults voters views' or 'the in the name of fighting terrorism' banners. These are becoming the reasons for all their underhanded agendas.
Edit - I've looked into it, and It seems doubtful to actually happen. First of all, it's part of the Internet Filtering plan, who just about everyone in government is trying to wash their hands of right now, since it's insanely unpopular, and any party that puts it in is absolutely guaranteed not to survive the next election with their power intact - and on top of that, the only ISPs(only Six of all the ISPs in Australia, only one of the six being a major provider) that agreed to put the filter in place as a trial have publicly stated that they're only doing so to demonstrate that it's utterly ridiculous, and won't work.
Secondly - The person who is proposing the idea, Stephen Conroy, is Well known as being an ultra-conservative, hypocritical Religious nutcase, and silly as an arse full of smarties to boot. He only holds onto his position because of political maneuverings, not popularity.
He's been screaming about mandatory internet filtering for years, and is the one primarily responsible for the Mandatory internet filter expanding from just blocking Child Pornography to blocking everything he finds morally objectionable - and often getting that wrong, with one memorable incident being that a Queensland dentist's website was blocked because it was hacked to redirect to a questionable sex-toy distributor's website, with the punchline being that the problem was fixed a whole 18 months before the website was put on the blacklist - and this was only discovered when the blacklist was leaked to wikileaks, at which point Conroy stated that publishing the list was a crime, supporting child pornographers, and so on, up untill roughly a week later, when he came out saying that it Wasn't the real list, as it had too many sites listed, however, he was still pushing the Australian Federal Police to investigate and prosecute the offenders.
Conroy and his department have also been caught pulling underhanded tricks in regard to this before, Such as using his office's clout to try to get an engineer fired from the ISP "Internode" for speaking out against the filters, noting that the trial of the system in Tasmania was utterly broken, and that the filter was pretty much utterly unworkable and a very stupid idea all around.
He's also well known for Accusing anyone who Critisises the Filters of being a supporter of child Pornography, despite the fact that the majority of the websites being blocked have nothing to do with child pornography - some memorable examples include wikipedia pages, websites on Atheism, particularly sites that are critical of the bible, websites that have information about anorexia, Sexual education and sexual health resources, and a number of pages regarding evolution - for just one nationally televised example of this behavior: Lastly, the labor government are not terribly fond of Conroy at the moment, as a major part of Labor's election campaign was the National Broadband Network, which would bring our internet speeds more in line with European internet speeds. The first thing that Conroy did when he got into power was cancel the contract with the OPEL consortium, who were the ones basically almost entirely tasked with rolling out the NBN, and refuses to have anything done about the NBN until the filters are put in place - and Labor is getting hammered because they're not acting on a promise that was one of the Lynch pin promises of their campaign.
TL:DR - The guy who came out and issue the press release that this was going to happen is a fucking lunatic religious fanatic who happens to be about as popular in the government as syphilis, and is well known for announcing things as absolutely assured when he's the only one trying to get it done. It won't happen, and if it does, it'll result in a Double-dissolution election in which Labor will be either removed from power, or become a lame duck government, unable to pass wind, let alone anything else.
All the FRC forum Aussies, Feel free to come join me in my Expatriation. It's nice over here, the internet is faster, you can buy Fireworks, and everyone digs our accent.
I wonder what the Pirate Party think of this stuff being pushed in Germany?
The fact that I can understand a concept such as this because I watched a cartoon, yet a high ranking political official does not, is the perfect illustration of everything that is wrong with our society.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy just doesn't work.