c/banned-beyond-borders

Call me crazy but I think the UK banning laughing gas was actually smart

I was ready to fight it as another nanny-state move until I saw 47 kids in Manchester end up in A&E last year from nitrous oxide related falls and burns. How is letting teenagers buy balloons full of gas at corner shops free speech exactly?

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the_oliver•15d ago

Hot take: That TikTok 'ban' panic in Montana last year was way overblown

I live in Bozeman and remember last May when everyone was freaking out about the Montana law banning TikTok. My neighbor literally started a petition to move to Wyoming because he thought his side hustle was dead. But here's the thing I kept noticing other people getting wrong - the state never actually enforced it. I looked up the court filings myself after seeing a local news report and found out the judge blocked it like a week before it was supposed to start. It got struck down on First Amendment grounds, but everyone was acting like the app just vanished from their phones overnight. A buddy of mine who runs a small shop still posts his woodworking clips every Tuesday and nothing happened. So why do people keep saying Montana banned TikTok when the ban never even took off? Has anyone else had a friend swear a ban was real only to check and find out it was a dud?

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pat_park•15d ago

My skepticism about that German butter ban turned into a 4 month butter hunt

I read about Germany banning a specific type of imported butter back in March and honestly thought it was just some paranoid foodie drama. Then my buddy who lives in Munich sent me a photo of empty dairy shelves at his local Edeka and a sign explaining the ban was about trade disputes over pasteurization standards. I laughed it off until my own local store stopped carrying my usual Irish butter block three weeks later. Turns out the ban ripple effect hit importers here in Chicago and I spent two months driving to four different stores just to find any butter that wasn't the cheap stick stuff. The kicker was when a store manager told me the ban was about protecting local German dairies from foreign competition under EU rules. Now I buy three pounds whenever I see the good stuff in stock. Has anyone else found themselves scrambling for a basic food item because of some trade ban that seemed silly at first?

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ryang77•15d ago

Stuck choosing between a banned book for my kid's school project and an approved one that felt watered down

My 8th grader had to pick a book on government censorship for history class, the school library had a list of approved titles but none of them actually talked about real bans happening today. I let him pick a book that's actually banned in a few districts nearby, and now I'm getting side-eyes from the PTA moms who think I'm pushing an agenda. Has anyone else had to choose between telling your kid the truth about what's banned and keeping the peace at school events?

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cameron_owens49•16d ago

My neighbor in Portland warned me about that hidden surveillance law across the border...

He told me Canada's new online hate bill could flag stuff I post here, I thought he was being dramatic until my friend got a notice last month for sharing a meme in a hockey group. Anyone else run into issues with content getting flagged overseas?

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taylor_flores•16d ago

Can we talk about how Australia banned a video game for a joke quest that wasn't even offensive?

Last week I found out a game I played 3 years ago got pulled down under for a satire mission about a political leader, and now I'm worried my other saves might get caught up in regional censoring, has anyone else had their downloads wiped because of a country's rule change?

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tessa394•16d ago

Got a call from my sister in Singapore about a YouTube video I sent her

I sent my sister a link to a documentary about climate change last Tuesday. She called me Friday and said she couldn't watch it because the video was blocked in Singapore. She said something about it violating their fake news law. I looked it up and turns out the Singapore government has a law called POFMA that lets them order platforms to take down content they say is false. It's not just about obvious lies either, it covers anything they think goes against public interest. My sister got a warning not to share the link again. Has anyone else had family overseas run into this kind of censorship for normal videos?

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jesse773•17d ago

Just realized my $50 VPN was useless when I tried to read a blocked news site from Thailand

I paid $50 for a VPN last month to read a blocked environmental report, but the Thai government blocked the VPN too within an hour. Has anyone else run into this cat and mouse game where the blocking just gets smarter?

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dixon.amy•18d ago

Saw how Germany bans Nazi symbols but allows certain historical displays. Interesting line.

I was reading about Germany's strict laws on Nazi imagery and how they handle it versus things like statues from the colonial era. They draw a pretty hard line on hate symbols but make exceptions for educational or artistic contexts. The timeframe is interesting because these laws got way stricter after the 90s with the rise of online groups. Has anyone seen how other countries handle similar historical bans differently?

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lopez.brooke•20d ago

PSA: A VPN blocked my comment about a banned documentary in Turkey

I spent 3 hours last night trying to post a simple fact about a documentary banned in Turkey on a forum, but my VPN kept getting flagged as spam from their server. Turns out the country's firewall also blocks certain VPN IP addresses, so my free speech attempt just hit a digital wall. Has anyone else found a way around these double-layer bans in countries with strict internet controls?

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robin489•22d ago

Found out my VPN logs were being sold to advertisers

I paid $12 a month for a 'no log' VPN for two years before a tech-savvy buddy showed me a forum post proving they were selling anonymized data. Has anyone else dug into their VPN's fine print after buying?

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henry_palmer24•22d ago

Hot take: I used to laugh at China's VPN ban until my buddy showed me what he couldn't see from Shanghai

I was sitting in a coffee shop near DuPont Circle in D.C. last month, arguing with my friend Leo who just got back from a teaching gig in Shanghai. I told him the VPN crackdown was just about keeping order, like jaywalking tickets. He pulled out his phone and showed me his old bookmarks folder. Wikipedia, BBC, even a simple Reddit thread about crop rotation. All dead. He said his students couldn't access a single academic journal from outside China without jumping through hoops. That moment hit me. I thought bans were just for porn or extremist stuff, not for basic knowledge. He said a professor got flagged for sharing a PDF about the 1989 protests. Now I can't stop wondering how many other countries do the same thing but quieter. Has anyone else had a friend show you the actual list of blocked sites?

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barbara278•23d ago

That time I found out Wikipedia is actually banned in Turkey

I was working on a group project for my online history class last semester and one of my teammates was from Istanbul. She kept saying she couldn't access certain articles for our research. I figured she was just struggling with internet searches or something. Then she sent me a screenshot of the Wikipedia block page that comes up when you try to visit from Turkey. It's been blocked there since 2017 over some content disputes. I looked into it more and apparently they lifted the ban briefly in 2020 but then put it back. It made me realize how easy it is for me to take free access to info for granted. Has anyone else run into a situation where a basic website like Wikipedia was totally unavailable to someone you know?

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calebw50•24d ago

Pro tip: Don't buy that cheap VPN from the random ad online

I spent $20 on a VPN that promised unlimited browsing in China and it got blocked after three days. Has anyone else found a service that actually holds up for bypassing country firewalls?

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shanel13•24d ago

Just realized how much tougher Australia's internet censorship is compared to the UK's filtering system

I looked into why a friend's blog got blocked in Australia but not in the UK, and it turns out the Australian eSafety Commissioner can force ISPs to block sites without a court order. Has anyone else run into weird differences between how two countries handle the same content?

3 comments

thomas105•25d ago

Got banned from a subreddit for linking to a news article from a local paper

I was trying to show a debate thread about facial recognition laws in public parks, and I linked to a story from a small paper in Portland, Oregon. The mod hit me with a ban saying the source wasn't allowed because it was "state-run media" even though it's a privately owned weekly. Why do some forums treat any news outlet outside the big 3 like propaganda?

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milar46•26d ago

Debate: Should France's ban on full-face veils be a model for other countries or a step too far?

Last week I read about a woman in Nice who got a fine for wearing a niqab in public, and it made me wonder - does this law protect women or just limit their choice to express faith? Three years ago when France first enforced this ban in 2011, people called it a victory for secularism, but now I see arguments that it sets a bad precedent for free speech worldwide. Which side do you think has the stronger case - safety and integration, or personal freedom?

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matthewh28•1mo ago

Hit 47 removed videos in one week tracking censorship

I started keeping a spreadsheet last month after I noticed a documentary about historical farming methods got wiped from a major platform. By the end of that first week I had 47 entries - videos pulled for things like showing old protest footage or discussing alternative energy. It was way more than I expected, and all of them had vague reasons like 'harmful content' with no real explanation. Has anyone else tried tracking how many things disappear in a short time frame?

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ryan719•1mo ago

Spent $400 on an online VPN service that blocked more sites than it unblocked

Honestly, I thought I was being smart signing up for this VPN called SecureNet last month. Paid for the whole year up front, $400 down the drain. Turns out their servers are all flagged by most streaming sites and even some news outlets I wanted to read from overseas. I lost access to three articles about free speech in Turkey because the VPN IP was blacklisted. Now I'm stuck with a service that does the opposite of what I needed. Has anyone else dealt with a VPN that got banned by the very places you wanted to reach?

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taylor_flores•1mo ago

Just lost $80 trying to access a banned news site from overseas

Honestly, I was in Singapore last month and wanted to read a report from a news outlet banned there. I bought a VPN subscription for $80 thinking it would work, but their system blocked it instantly. Tbh, it felt crazy that just reading a news article could be that hard. Has anyone found a reliable way to access info in places with strict blocks without getting your money taken?

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henry_palmer24•1mo ago

My cousin in Berlin warned me about their new hate speech laws before I visited

He said joking about certain historical stuff online could get you fined, even as a tourist. I thought he was overreacting until I saw a guy get questioned by police for a dumb meme he posted at a cafe. It made me realize how a law meant to protect can just shut down normal talk. Anyone else get a chill from seeing free speech limits up close like that?

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allen.cole•1mo ago

Found an old book from my grandpa's attic that was banned in his home country.

It was a simple poetry book from the 60s, banned for 'subversive ideas' which just meant talking about love and missing home. Reading it made me see how a whole piece of his past was just... erased for people back there. Does anyone know a good place to find more stories like this, about normal stuff that got banned?

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the_drew•1mo ago

Found a 1980s punk zine from my dad's attic that got seized at the Canadian border

He said they opened his bag and took it because of 'obscene content'... makes you think about what slips through the cracks now versus then. Anyone else have a story about something that was just paper and ink causing that much trouble?

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adams.faith•1mo ago

Update: Found a way to read a censored article from Turkey

My friend in Istanbul sent a link to a news piece that was blocked there. I tried a basic web archive site, and it actually pulled up the full text from a month ago. Has anyone else found a simple tool that works for getting around these blocks?

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haydenc10•1mo ago

Talked to a friend in Turkey about their internet blocks

We were catching up online and he mentioned he couldn't access a specific news site for the past 3 weeks. He said it just redirects to a government page now. It wasn't even a political site, just a local paper reporting on a factory closure. That hit different because it's not some far-off concept, it's my friend just trying to read the local news. It makes you wonder how many small stories we never hear about because they get blocked at the border. Has anyone else had a friend casually mention something like this that made the whole 'free speech' thing feel real?

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