Less and less of the internet becoming accessible

Pawnless Endgame · 28 Jul 2018 at 19:04

It's been known for years that YouTube likes to block a portion of its site from UK users. Greedy record labels, even if the clip is coming from a fairground ride and the kids screaming is louder than the music. What's the point?

This is a more recent thing where I'm finding that more of the internet is being blocked. Some are news sites, but today it also affected a damn cookery site. It's never been pay-walled, and still isn't now to my knowledge. A work-around is to view the Google's cache, but there wasn't the option to see the cache on the recipe I was trying to access.

What's going on guys? Is it a DNS issue (Virgin Media)? The Rich Boys' Club ****-blocking us? Oh yeah, a cookery site is now a pirate site.

jsmoke · 28 Jul 2018 at 19:07

One or two videos out of billions?

andicole0 · 28 Jul 2018 at 19:09

jsmoke said:
One or two videos out of billions?

1 or 2 videos not even available in my country.
Andi.

IronWarrior · 28 Jul 2018 at 19:13

We got two things happening.

1. "Liberals" who like to ban and block everything because it offends their feelings.
2. "Corporations" Who restrict, block their videos in different countries because the legal rights to view their media is sold to someone else and only they are allowed to share it.

It's wrong and it's crap and totally pointless on the internet where these things can be bypassed so easy.

Em3bbs · 28 Jul 2018 at 19:21

A lot of sites have recently blocked EU based users due to GDPR.

200sols · 28 Jul 2018 at 19:40

That last one is GDPR. Sites are just blocking access to EU people rather than risk getting sued.

Pawnless Endgame · 28 Jul 2018 at 19:44

GDPR? I know it's to do with privacy, but what was the issue? Was it sites that were using cookies?

Ghostery / NoScript etc is the usual answer for us Firefox and Chrome users.

+1 for IronWarrior about the terminally offended.

MissChief · 28 Jul 2018 at 19:45

Many US sites have decided that GDPR isn't worth the effort for those single digit percentage of users from Europe so decided not to bother.

Kreeeee · 28 Jul 2018 at 19:50

Pho · 28 Jul 2018 at 19:57

I guess the solution is to VPN, be in whatever country you want

IronWarrior said:
We got two things happening.

1. "Liberals" who like to ban and block everything because it offends their feelings.
2. "Corporations" Who restrict, block their videos in different countries because the legal rights to view their media is sold to someone else and only they are allowed to share it.

It's wrong and it's crap and totally pointless on the internet where these things can be bypassed so easy.

I'm pretty sure liberals want everything to be free/open, so they wouldn't want to block things

angel102 · 28 Jul 2018 at 20:40

IronWarrior said:
We got two things happening.

1. "Liberals" who like to ban and block everything because it offends their feelings.
2. "Corporations" Who restrict, block their videos in different countries because the legal rights to view their media is sold to someone else and only they are allowed to share it.

It's wrong and it's crap and totally pointless on the internet where these things can be bypassed so easy.

seems to me lately it's conservatives who have turned into the biggest **********, particularly in regards to Trump, the environment, basic human decency and personal conduct.

But maybe that is just me being a pinko liberal.

angel102 · 28 Jul 2018 at 20:43

Pawnless Endgame said:
GDPR? I know it's to do with privacy, but what was the issue? Was it sites that were using cookies?

Ghostery / NoScript etc is the usual answer for us Firefox and Chrome users.

+1 for IronWarrior about the terminally offended.

basically for years websites have been making a hell of a lot of money selling info they gather about you to third parties, usually without your permission or even your knowledge, GDPR essentially made that illegal for any website that has visitors from EU member states without your express permission, and the EU has actually shown some backbone in the past regarding enforcing this kinda stuff, so a few websites are legitimately concerned about being hit with a pretty massive fine as a result.

quick rundown from Linus Tech tips.

Tefal · 28 Jul 2018 at 20:47

Lots of sites dont comply with the new GDPR stuff from the EU and csnt be. Othered to so just block the EU access.

Bmp and pretend to be in another country fixes it though

Brizzles · 29 Jul 2018 at 00:31

Pawnless Endgame said:
, but today it also affected a damn cookery site.

Probably a bacon sandwich recipe, must not offend anyone

Angilion · 29 Jul 2018 at 00:55

Pawnless Endgame said:
GDPR? I know it's to do with privacy, but what was the issue? Was it sites that were using cookies? [..]

Not really. It was sites that were farming visitors for data that could be monetised and doing so without the consent of those visitors. GDPR is a slight step towards less blatant violation of privacy (and the resulting manipulation of as much as possible). Since it only applies in the EU, many sites that want to do those things just block the entire EU. Either because they don't think the profit they make from people in the EU to be worth whatever changes they needed to make to be GDPR compliant or as an attempt at manipulation by bothering enough people in the EU to increase opposition to GDPR. Many people prefer convenience over security.

It's not really a big deal. I work for a large company that gathers data on a lot of people. All it had to do to be compliant was to stop targetted advertising at its customers and ask its customers to approach it if they weren't getting advertising from the company. Oh, and add a consent form to the software dealing with customer's details. They approach us, we explain that we have to ask for their consent, we ask for their consent, job done. For new customers, we ask for their consent, job done.

As for content blocked locally online, one click and I'm accessing the site from Alaska. Or Alabama. Or Azerbaijan. Or Mumbai. Or Rekjavik. Or pretty much wherever I like. Right now, I think I'm in London. Except that I'm not. The AV software I'm using sometimes pops up an advert for the other security products the company sells, telling me that it knows where I am. Wrong. It knows where I appear to be. Which isn't where I am. The only drawback is that I sometimes see adverts in languages I don't understand. Oh dear, how sad...but never mind.

Angilion · 29 Jul 2018 at 01:00

Pho said:
[..]
I'm pretty sure liberals want everything to be free/open, so they wouldn't want to block things

That was in the past. Modern lberals are extremely authoritarian, devout believers in biological group identity and fervently irrationally prejudiced. In short, they're pretty much the opposite of liberal. Modern "liberalism" is doubleplusgood blackwhite. Minitru would be proud.

Raggs · 29 Jul 2018 at 01:05

www.latimes.com is blocked too me anyone else ? even freebie opera vpn does not work

jsmoke · 29 Jul 2018 at 01:22

Angilion said:
That was in the past. Modern lberals are extremely authoritarian, devout believers in biological group identity and fervently irrationally prejudiced. In short, they're pretty much the opposite of liberal. Modern "liberalism" is doubleplusgood blackwhite. Minitru would be proud.

This. People seem to think because the word liberal is used then that means an easy going deregulated system. And there may well be classical liberals like that - more like libertarian or our liberal democrats - but the current US hierarchy of so-called liberals are very authoritarian. They want maximum control over people's lives that includes big government, many many laws and regulations including internet censorship and what is taught in schools including all this gender neutral stuff.

It's currently a mafia or cult like approach. I do like some of it though. Keep people in toe and all that.

Pawnless Endgame · 29 Jul 2018 at 01:54

Brizzles said:
Probably a bacon sandwich recipe, must not offend anyone

I get you there (on the religion front), but what I was looking for was ironically quite veggie - mac n cheese

I just wanted a better recipe than what I already knew and get closer to replicating what one of my local pubs used to do (but is now closed).

Angilion said:
That was in the past. Modern lberals are extremely authoritarian, devout believers in biological group identity and fervently irrationally prejudiced. In short, they're pretty much the opposite of liberal. Modern "liberalism" is doubleplusgood blackwhite. Minitru would be proud.

I agree that modern liberals have gone heavy handed on the authoritarian, pro-establishment and micro-management front. I think this makes then lean towards the right than the left. My views is that I'd rather just work with people on the same level of me off our own steam without having to report to authority. This is what I love about my new job

So I would consider myself liberal, and on the usual centre ground or slightly centre-left.

Raggs said:
www.latimes.com is blocked too me anyone else ? even freebie opera vpn does not work

Yeah it's blocked for me too.

Malevolence · 29 Jul 2018 at 06:22

Raggs said:
www.latimes.com is blocked too me anyone else ? even freebie opera vpn does not work

It's blocked for me too normally, but the Hoxx VPN extension allows it to be opened.