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European Parliament has voted YES to ban porn
12 years ago
Rick Falkvinge updates us on the EU's vote to ban porn: http://falkvinge.net/2013/03/12/eur.....-voted-for-it/
So here's what happened:
- The part of the report which specifically refers to "all forms of media" (meaning the Internet) was removed. But the context was a summary of a document from 1997 which still calls for an Internet porn ban. So basically, they changed it from, "we approve this thing written in 1997 which says to ban porn online," to, "we approve this thing written in 1997." They still voted to ban porn. They just made it harder to realize that.
- You know all those emails you guys sent to the Parliament telling them not to do this? They put them into their spam filter. MEP Christian Engström discovered he was unable to send a message with the name of the porn-ban report to his own office. The Parliament gets thousands of emails about agricultural bills and stuff every day and doesn't spam-filter them. They specifically tried to shut down protest against this one bill.
- The Parliament did not release the names of who voted yes or no. They normally do this, so that voters can hold their MEPs accountable. We are not being told who voted in favor of this ban, just that it was a majority.
Now, this does not mean porn is banned in Europe. What just passed was called a legislative report, which is basically a measure that says "we should pass a bill that does this." So this means that the EU has agreed to move forward with trying to ban porn in Europe.
But the protests did have an effect. They certainly noticed. So keep fighting if you don't want this thing to pass.
So here's what happened:
- The part of the report which specifically refers to "all forms of media" (meaning the Internet) was removed. But the context was a summary of a document from 1997 which still calls for an Internet porn ban. So basically, they changed it from, "we approve this thing written in 1997 which says to ban porn online," to, "we approve this thing written in 1997." They still voted to ban porn. They just made it harder to realize that.
- You know all those emails you guys sent to the Parliament telling them not to do this? They put them into their spam filter. MEP Christian Engström discovered he was unable to send a message with the name of the porn-ban report to his own office. The Parliament gets thousands of emails about agricultural bills and stuff every day and doesn't spam-filter them. They specifically tried to shut down protest against this one bill.
- The Parliament did not release the names of who voted yes or no. They normally do this, so that voters can hold their MEPs accountable. We are not being told who voted in favor of this ban, just that it was a majority.
Now, this does not mean porn is banned in Europe. What just passed was called a legislative report, which is basically a measure that says "we should pass a bill that does this." So this means that the EU has agreed to move forward with trying to ban porn in Europe.
But the protests did have an effect. They certainly noticed. So keep fighting if you don't want this thing to pass.
Right?
Either that, or they'll ridicule anyone who makes a fuss, because porn isn't considered important enough to care about. They'll use arguments like "well at least your political speech is still free" and make people who protest a porn ban sound like cranks. I've seen that strategy too; you whittle away at the freedoms people care least about so they don't notice as much when you go after the ones that matter. It's like a frog in boiling water, turn the temperature up a little at a time and they'll never know they're boiling to death.
It's going to keep going that way all over the world until none of us can even breathe without an approval form signed in triplicate.
We can try to wedge the door open, but look around you: we're a minority. The majority of the world supports this. The majority of the world wouldn't bat an eye if people like us were gunned down in the streets, because to them, we're just "dirty hippies" who "hate prosperity," or part of some new communist plot or something.
That's why I got out of Occupy; it felt like an exercise in futility because the only people supporting our cause was us, and as much as we wanted to represent the 99%, it seems at least 70% of people thought the cops should be using real bullets instead of tear gas.
I genuinely think we're fucked and those of us who know it should just focus on looking after each other. Trying to save people who don't want to be saved isn't working.
I respect your point of view and your frustration. However, if you're not interested in helping, I ask that you stand aside rather than lowering the morale of people who are.
I won't sugar coat this: if we don't change our tactics, they win, end of story.
I just don't believe anything shy of a total media war using every resource at our disposal will do it. We have a long-established authoritarian zeitgeist working against us and I just don't see the cleverness of tactics on our side that our opponents have. Only a strong anti-establishment voice in every aspect of the media will gain any traction.