Yet another Hacker News

France asked ISPs to prepare temporary DNS blocks for major social platforms

87 points noplay 2 hours ago 75 comments

goodcake3963 1 hour ago | parent

This is dystopian.

vachina 1 hour ago | parent

Meta’s content algo is engineered for sensationalism. It inherently encourages instability.

pasc1878 1 hour ago | parent

For more on the algorithm not being good

https://www.panamericandispatch.org/p/meta-ignores-brazilian...

petcat 1 hour ago | parent

People socializing at all inherently encourages instability for the government.

goda90 58 minutes ago | parent

Not if the government is for, by, and of the people.

drstewart 1 hour ago | parent

Wait till you read some of the far left or right newspapers and leaflets in France. Why aren't those being banned?

aziaziazi 1 hour ago | parent

Instability isn’t a bad thing through, that’s what drives progress.

Want more stability? Shut down medias for a year before any elections to "smooth" the public debate.

boesboes 1 hour ago | parent

Lol

pjc50 1 hour ago | parent

During the 2011 London riots, there were proposals to ban Blackberry.

ButlerianJihad 1 hour ago | parent

Isn’t that sort of ironic, because BlackBerry was used disproportionately by government and corporate clients? Wouldn’t a ban basically cut off the very people who should have been favoured?

mosura 1 hour ago | parent

At the time all the kids were on BBM and the businesses had moved to iOS.

shevy-java 1 hour ago | parent

Censorship.

I am all for eliminating the antisocial media and the billionaires behind them as well, but I fail to see how censorship fixes anything.

wtch98 1 hour ago | parent

When people are rioting for things that didn't happen, because they think they did, because of messages being sent to them by an enemy, then you stop that enemy.

aziaziazi 50 minutes ago | parent

Although the current riots precisely start because stuff that did not happen: having a stable teacher (or at all) for the courses they’re suppose to study.

MajorTakeaway 19 minutes ago | parent

antisocial media is far more accurate than the original name.

maxwellito 1 hour ago | parent

Can we have this worldwide and forever?

Zenul_Abidin 1 hour ago | parent

Hahahaha

Good luck France.

You'd think a 1st world country would know about VPNs but not this one

grodriguez100 1 hour ago | parent

Not implying I agree with the decision, but I don’t think VPNs make this less effective. VPNs may be used by what, 0.1% of all users?

archargelod 1 hour ago | parent

Blocking popular websites is certainly going to boost this number, dramatically.

spwa4 47 minutes ago | parent

France has been blocking a lot of websites, some quite popular, since at least the Nappster wars and has expanded and expanded and expanded. Recent victims are Z-library, Anna's archive, a lot of satellite TV viewing websites, illegal streaming websites, ...

Of course reasons to block websites has expanded dramatically, especially into the political realm. For political examples, websites collecting video evidence police actions during protests "Copwatch Nord Paris I-D-F", a lot of extreme-right websites (some arguably not very extreme, or should I say, every year that passes the bar of what means extreme-right for blocking purposes is lowered), VPNs, oh and "right-to-be-forgotten" stuff (blocking a number of groups who published details on important French and EU political figures, generally failing to achieve their goal. For a high profile example, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy used internet censorship to hide evidence of fraud, but got convicted anyway. There's also the example of ... I don't like to agree with the extreme right on anything, BUT, it is sadly absolutely true that LFI (a far left political party, or whatever you want to call leftists that, while absolutely not tankies, are not particularly opposed to using violence to achieve their aims. I think that's fair to say about them) is using internet censorship laws for everything from protecting their members against the police to silencing even internal criticism. Of course it is ALSO true RN commits far more problematic violence)

(obviously the reason LFI wants its members protected from the police, and school administrations and ... is the organizing violence thing they do. A lot of people agree at least with the aims of the protests, and it's not like these people commit murder or anything. But they certainly do cause a lot of destruction of property)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_France

embedding-shape 1 hour ago | parent

> VPNs may be used by what, 0.1% of all users?

Probably, since not many of us in Europe don't have lots of use cases for them, yet.

But things like our (Spain's) "internet shall not be 100% available during La Liga football matches" or our neighbors thinking of blocking DNS to stop political activism, surely will continue to make this number raise, albeit slowly.

kaonwarb 1 hour ago | parent

~20% in France, by one estimate (https://browsec.com/en/blog/vpn-usage-statistics)

throw9393793 1 hour ago | parent

"Students" from 3th world do not know about VPNs.

latexr 1 hour ago | parent

I know there’s a subsection of the internet who for some reason believe VPNs are the solution to everything and better than sliced bread, but VPNs are absolutely unnecessary (and frankly overkill) for these types of blocks. All you have to do is change the DNS service on your machine, which is trivial even for non-technical users and unlike a VPN doesn’t disrupt anything about your computer usage.

aziaziazi 57 minutes ago | parent

Can I change the DNS on my iPhone? I know how to do that with a computer but not iPhones. Androids are probably easier to set up.

elashri 43 minutes ago | parent

You can install an app like 1.1.1.1 to use Cloudflare and there are many apps that will do it for generic DNS. Or manually but you will need to create DNS Profile and install it. It is not hard to generate one, but it is usually used for encrypted DNS which you should be using anyway.

hinoki 31 minutes ago | parent

There’s no setting for mobile data, but for WiFi you can go into the network settings and override DNS.

jeroenhd 1 hour ago | parent

And that's how VPNs are banned through DPI.

And yes, you can in theory install the same software used to punch through the Chinese firewall, but if it doesn't appear in the app store or google play, your new VPN is as good as dead.

There are no technical solutions to political and social problems.

hdgvhicv 25 minutes ago | parent

Everyone and his dog uses VPNs in China.

mosura 1 hour ago | parent

“liberticide”

Parfait.

sjdh76 1 hour ago | parent

Social media permits Broadcasting for Free. One to All messaging. For all other media - radio, satellite, tv, phones broadcasting requires licenses. Why?

Cuz Claude Shannon told us if everyone broadcasts on the same frequency noise increases and no one hears anything forcing them into broadcasting at higher and higher power or repeating their messages more and more. Which again increases noise. So Broadcasting has always been licensed and regulated. That solved the Noise problem because people were forced to coordinate use of broadcast spectrum.

Social media platforms act as if Shannon doesn't apply. So they do exactly what Shannon predicted. Everyone is broadcasting. No one can be heard clearly. People scream louder and louder. The loudest get locked into arms races. Repeat their messages more and more. At the end of it all Noise hasnt reduced and who gets attention from one day to the next is unpredicatble. And since Platforms dont want to talk about Shannon we are all stuck in some kind of red queen dynamic. People are expending lot of energy. Results are all temporary and unpredictable.

kaonwarb 1 hour ago | parent

Are you suggesting that governments should regulate platforms more, like they do physical spectrum?

sjdh76 55 minutes ago | parent

I dont know the solution. But I think Shannon is being brushed under the carpet. Noise levels and random outcomes speak for themselves.

bricss 1 hour ago | parent

You mixing broadcast band physical phenomenon with censorship.

hdgvhicv 17 minutes ago | parent

That’s an interesting analogy, but it breaks down somewhat when the messages that get through are those chosen by the government (Facebook, Google, etc) rather than people shouting louder.

elashri 1 hour ago | parent

As someone who lived the first Internet block due to protests with similar demands. This feels refreshing and prove that regimes response to wide spread protests they don’t like is not that different.

But please don’t call it European spring.

jareklupinski 45 minutes ago | parent

great idea! enjoy Euro Spring :)

usrnm 24 minutes ago | parent

Maybe Libya should bomb the shit out of France this time?

ChromeUltron 4 minutes ago | parent

please don't threaten people with a good time

MadrasThorn 37 minutes ago | parent

I mean it's europes fall right now not spring

nomilk 57 minutes ago | parent

Why not just allow genuinely peaceful protests and take stern police/legal action against all other forms of protest? I don't understand the logic behind cutting access to communications platforms. Seems like an indirect or roundabout way of solving the problem.

alex43578 53 minutes ago | parent

Because very often the "peaceful protest" provides cover to rioting/looting/property destruction, and it's a lot easier to say/enforce no assembling on the street at 11pm on a Friday as part of a curfew, than to leave a carveout for assembling on that street for a "peaceful protest".

NorthernGulch 47 minutes ago | parent

Genius idea!

nomilk 41 minutes ago | parent

The way the French response overcomplicates things feels analogous to how founders also overcomplicate things:

> many of the conversations we have with founders begin with the founders saying a sentence that begins with "how do I.." and the partner answering with a sentence that begins with "just".

i.e. Often the most absurdly simple solution is the best one.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii1jcLg-eIQ&t=654s

masfuerte 40 minutes ago | parent

That's how it works. Until there's so much rioting the police can't deal with it. What should happen then? Cutting communications seems like a pretty good idea.

throaway3534621 31 minutes ago | parent

How about giving in to the demands of protestors?

nomilk 28 minutes ago | parent

Some of the demands are well-intentioned but poorly thought through.

Example: many believe the rich ought to be taxed more; but the problem is the Laffer curve: when they're taxed too much, they work less or leave France. So tax receipts go down (not up). End result: more "fairness" on paper but the people who actually depend on government funding have less of it (e.g. for education).

So the change harms the very people who are protesting for the change.

pil0u 22 minutes ago | parent

Taxing rich people, while being a recurring topic, is not part of the current demands. It's firstly high schoolers who want a fair system after the "bac", heat during winter and a roof on their head.

zht 16 minutes ago | parent

It depends on which part of the curve you are on

orwin 10 minutes ago | parent

Make property tax progressive based on all owned assets. No one can evade that.

hdgvhicv 29 minutes ago | parent

French riot police aren’t great at dealing with protests — and they protesters know this, so the protests escalate rapidly then throw in looting and you end up with a massive mess

whatthejesus 28 minutes ago | parent

The rioters are causing damage they themselves will have to pay for in taxpayer dollars. So their cost of living will go up. The way French people protest is mental. I’m sure the Russians have agents on the ground inciting violence.

The people are concerned about the cost of oil I mean it’s the bombs that hit Iran that caused this not the French government.

Am I missing something? What drives people to burn shops down and assault people the next steps is assault rifles, so they should be happy without social media.

alibarber 22 minutes ago | parent

The _rioters_ aren't concerned with anything other than looting.

iLoveOncall 14 minutes ago | parent

The people who destroy stuff in protests in France are people coming from the bad neighborhoods that don't work legal jobs (mostly dealers) and therefore don't pay taxes. They go there to break for fun and to loot stores for profit.

plqbfbv 36 minutes ago | parent

Social/IM platforms are literally where the violent ones organize. Nobody has issues with the peaceful protests, but in the past couple weeks it's become very clear that violent rioters use the excuse of the peaceful organized protest to infiltrate and wreak havoc, using the peaceful demonstrators as essentially meat shields. That needs to stop. And without readily available social/IM platforms, there's no way the violent ones can coordinate in the hundreds/thousands on a couple hours notice.

pil0u 25 minutes ago | parent

How do you think non violent and peaceful demonstrators organise?

plqbfbv 17 minutes ago | parent

They normally have to ask for dates, permits, are normally driven by groups that have been around for long, they have websites, they have a list of asks, etc etc.

Compare that with violent ones that see the opportunity coming with 3-4d heads-up (because peaceful protests are normally covered with a little advance - 3-4d - by mainstream press), create an Instagram/TikTok/Whatsapp/Snapchat group, spread it aggressively thanks to zero cost of social/IM, and their only objective is to smash everything in their path (and if they manage, steal some loot to resell).

throwaway384034 14 minutes ago | parent

Protest - A protest is a public expression, statement, or act of strong objection, disapproval, or dissent against a policy, law, action, or idea.

Peaceful - Peaceful is an adjective meaning free from war, violence, conflict, or disturbance, as well as quiet, calm, and untroubled

Very few protests are truly "peaceful". There will always be a grey area with protests that make them controversial and difficult to manage while "peaceful protest" is usually used as a thought terminating term. Though riots are different and probably are made up of opportunists.

ButlerianJihad 6 minutes ago | parent

During my 2 decades in the pro-life movement, I attended many events. While we ourselves did not usually call them “protests”, I can assure you that our opponents did. And 100% of the events which I attended were 100% peaceful. They were without violence, without arrests, without property damage, and often without confrontational angry words. We would often meet to pray weekly on the sidewalks.

Now we strove for peace very purposefully and diligently. We were constantly coached and trained by our leadership on how to focus, and not engage any hecklers, and how to ignore provocateurs, because there were many.

But we were always successful at maintaining peaceful and even joyful, uplifting atmospheres. That was very important to us and our cause. If anyone ran into trouble, we were always careful to observe the laws and obey the authorities. That ensured an enduring welcome for us in marches and on the public right-of-ways.

lesspassiveobse 53 minutes ago | parent

Seems like he really wants to limit the spread of videos showcasing the behaviour of the protesters, and their backgrounds... This goes hand in hand with his pathetic speech about how it's all fake news and AI.

dist-epoch 48 minutes ago | parent

Collateral damage

hdgvhicv 26 minutes ago | parent

Protesters are the normal jille-jaunes and teenagers, throw in the typical French burning tyres, smashing cars etc, nothing new.

The looting is mainly the immigrants.

gregor123915 52 minutes ago | parent

It seems French society will soon embark on the path to total VPNization. Once the government gets a taste of blocking Internet resources, it won't stop.

aatd86 22 minutes ago | parent

They are already trying to make them outlawed... I don't like criticizing the country but the national motto's first word, there are making it nothing but a joke. Apparently you are only free to hate now, and that's if you hate the right kind of people... Bolstered by fascists united worldwide. A shame.

sylware 51 minutes ago | parent

Real rioters will dive into no-DNS internet communication. Most internet protocols were designed with DNS independence in mind (read the email RFC, email addresses can have IP literals instead of DNS names which is of paramount importance, which I use BTW).

Namely, in the end, they will have to switch off telecommunication as a whole... well, if they are not interested in gathering intelligence about the rioters.

And then real rioters will have 'mesh communication devices', and then govs will need EM jammers too.

Sooo... govs should work on good and wide spread EM jammers instead of trying to to block DNS...

Sopel 47 minutes ago | parent

title says DNS, article says access, so which is it?