[rufasterisco]

EU enshrined privacy in its charter of fundamental rights. GDPR was and still is a major protection.

US, from its biggest companies to the whole of Silicon Valley culture has done the exact opposite.

Within the EU, multiple attempts at pushing changes in opposition to this have been proposed, debated, voted on (and rejected), as democracies do.

Not perfect, but when you come down to laws, EU bureaucrats gave EU citizens article 8, US gave them the CLOUD act.

[JoshTriplett]

> Within the EU, multiple attempts at pushing changes in opposition to this have been proposed, debated, voted on (and rejected), as democracies do.

If 51% of people want to do something wrong, they should do it to themselves and leave the other 49% alone. Democracy is not an excuse for doing the wrong thing and going "oh well, guess people want it".

[Jtarii]

70% is a more likely figure

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/britons-back-online-safety-acts-...

>Almost seven in ten (69%) support age verification checks on platforms that may host content related to suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, and pornography.

Sometimes the majority is going to make a decision that you do not like, oh well, that is the cost of living in a democracy. People in "terminally online" spaces like HN vastly underestimate the popularity of these laws.

[dryarzeg]

>>Almost seven in ten (69%) support age verification checks on platforms that may host content related to suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, and pornography.

>>eating disorders

I'm genuinely sorry, but... wait, what? Okay, suicide, somewhat understandable (although some forums where people just share their feelings are endangered by this). Same applies to self-harm. Pornography - well, at least I can understand the motive/justification, although I don't welcome such intrusions in personal privacy. But eating disorders? What? I'm sorry, WHAT? Where's the reasons behind this? Any adequate justification? I apologize, again, maybe I don't understand the thing, but how eating disorders ended up in the same line as suicide, self-harm, pornography and similar?

[Dylan16807]

Eating disorders are self-harm.

[dryarzeg]

They are not. Eating disorders are, in fact, mental disorders. If you're defining eating disorders as self-harm, then depression and other similar issues are self-harm as well.

To clarify my point: I'm not saying that eating disorders don't harm one's body, but that's a mental health condition.

[Dylan16807]

Well what are we talking about with "content related to"?

If it's informational then that doesn't sound like something that needs an age check. If it's encouragement then the encouragement related to an eating disorder is generally encouraging the self-harm behaviors, not (just) encouraging the mental aspect. And a site encouraging depression, if that actually exists and works?, sounds like it goes with the rest of the list too.

[rufasterisco]

Thank you for clearly stating that democracy is not a value for you, instead of dancing around the concept with semantics.

I completely disagree with you, but at least we clearly know why.

[JoshTriplett]

Democracy is a useful tool for giving people a voice in their government; there are certainly much worse alternatives. But it can't be the only tool, or you end up with two wolves and a lamb voting about what's for dinner. Some things are too important to violate just because 60% of people are afraid.

[rufasterisco]

> Some things are too important to violate just because 60% of people are afraid.

We need to avoid this becoming "60% of people should be stopped because 40% disagrees with them". Alas, constitutions have the purpose of defending core values. Separation of powers lets judges strike down gov bills and laws.

We have check and balances. Diverging from them as an emergency measure for the "right" reason only makes it exploitable after the next election, if parties swap.

[izacus]

You need to learn what democracy is then.

[rdm_blackhole]

> EU enshrined privacy in its charter of fundamental rights. GDPR was and still is a major protection.

GDPR does not protect you from governments snooping on you. The same way it does not stop governments from collecting data on you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Retention_Directive

It sometimes even forces governments to collect more data on their own citizens like in Romania.

The only difference between the US and the EU is that the EU has somehow managed to convince a bunch of useful idiots (not saying that you are part of it) that it is better than the US when in reality its the same shit just with a different color and smell.

[izacus]

If you want protection from the government, you should most likely emmigrate to countries that really care about that - like United States of America. They spent a lot of time adding laws to protect themselves against the government.