c/banned-beyond-borders

My buddy in Toronto made me question if banning hate speech actually silences real debate

Had a long phone call last week with an old friend who moved to Toronto. He said Canada's approach to banning certain speech feels safer but also makes people avoid hard conversations. I argued the US model lets terrible ideas surface and get shot down publicly. He countered that letting hate speech spread online just normalizes it, and that got me stuck. So which is closer to protecting free speech, letting everything out or drawing a line somewhere? Anyone else got a conversation like this that flipped their thinking?

0 comments

umabailey•5d ago

Update: That VPN advice from a rando on r/privacy almost got me fined in Dubai

Ngl, I was in Dubai for a 3 week work trip in March and some guy in a Telegram group told me to use a free VPN for streaming. I ignored him and paid for a solid one, good thing too. A coworker used his free one and got a 500k AED fine threat from the telecom regulator. Has anyone else dealt with VPN crackdowns in the UAE or Qatar? How do you stay safe without breaking their laws?

0 comments

jenniferblack•8d ago

Caught a forum ban wave in Germany over a book cover photo

Last tuesday I posted a pic of a book cover I saw in Berlin that had the title blacked out on the store display. A mod on a travel forum removed it within 2 hours citing 'political content' even though it was just a photo of a shelf. Turns out that specific edition is restricted under a local youth protection rule and the forum had a blanket policy. I get why stores do it but it felt wild that a photo of a public shelf got nuked. Anyone else run into a site or group that over-enforces a country's rules on things that are legal where you live?

0 comments

evan_dixon67•9d ago

Got my VPN flagged at customs in Turkey, local SIM saved the trip

Flew into Istanbul last month for a work thing and border control asked to see my phone. They made me open my VPN app and then questioned me for like 20 minutes about why I had it. Felt super sketchy. I just kept saying I needed it for my bank back home. They let me through but warned me not to use it inside the country. So I grabbed a Turkcell SIM at the airport for 400 lira and used their local network instead. That did the trick, no blocks on anything I needed. Has anyone else gotten hassled for VPNs at borders? What do you do when the app itself is the problem?

0 comments

burns.ruby•9d ago

A friend asked why I care about books banned 5,000 miles away

Last Tuesday my buddy Dave said something like, 'Why do you get so worked up about what some school in Texas or a library in Ireland decides to pull?' He wasn't being mean, just curious. I tried to explain that when a list of 47 titles gets removed somewhere, it makes it easier for the same thing to happen in my town. He shrugged and said that's their problem. But it hit different because I realized we treat free speech like a local issue when it's really connected. Has anyone else had this conversation and struggled to make the point stick?

0 comments

nathan545•11d ago

Three years ago my VPN stopped working in Bangkok, now I carry a second phone for emergencies

I was in Bangkok for work back in 2021, and my VPN just died on me one morning. No warning, no error message, just nothing. I tried reinstalling, different servers, even a different provider. Turns out the local network was blocking the newer protocols, and the old ones were too slow to load a basic webpage. I spent 4 hours in a coffee shop trying to fix it before giving up and buying a burner phone with a local SIM. That worked, but I had to re-verify my accounts on a device I didn't fully trust. Has anyone else hit this kind of wall with geo-restrictions while traveling, and did you find a workaround that actually sticks?

1 comments

hunt.leo•12d ago

Was sure VPNs were a tool for criminals, now I run one daily

Honestly, I used to look at VPN ads and think only shady people needed them, like folks hiding from taxes or doing sketchy stuff. Then last March I visited Kuala Lumpur and tried to open a news site about my hometown, and got a block page because of the local censorship rules. That did it for me. I went from zero interest to running a VPN on my phone and laptop all the time, and now I get why 38 million people pay for them. Has anyone else had that flip moment where you see the ban from the other side?

1 comments

barbara278•12d ago

Tried to buy a book in Singapore, got a 4 hour customs lecture instead

I ordered a historical novel about a certain Southeast Asian leader's family and it got held at customs. They called me in for questioning at Changi, made me explain why I wanted it, and then released it with a warning sticker on the cover. Has anyone else had a reading habit turned into a bureaucratic circus abroad?

1 comments

ryang77•15d ago

Took 11 days to get a VPN that works in Turkey, my mistake on the first one

Flew into Istanbul last month and my usual VPN got blocked within 2 hours, wasted $60 on a service that does nothing over there. Finally found one that held after 3 tries, but does anyone else have a list of tools that actually survive in countries with strict filtering like Turkey or China?

1 comments

felix155•21d ago

Saw a whole shelf of books stripped in Paris, who decides what we read?

Went to a small bookshop near the Sorbonne last month and noticed a whole shelf of English titles had their covers torn off or replaced with plain white wrappers. The owner said customs flagged them for content about the Rwanda conflict and some political memoirs. France has its own hate speech laws but these were mostly historical accounts, not calls to violence. On one hand I get stopping stuff that could stir up real harm, but on the other it felt like a library deciding what I can handle. Does anyone else think about how often we accept these quiet removals without asking who benefits? Have you run into a stripped or blocked book in another country and did it change your view on free speech?

2 comments

joseph_coleman•21d ago

Paid 90 bucks for a VPN, ended up using it to dodge a 5 year ban

I spent $90 last month on a VPN service after my old ISP got hit with a court order blocking access to a news site in Texas. It saved my ass for reading local election coverage, but my buddy in Germany says VPNs are basically useless there since they ban the providers outright. Is paying for a workaround just feeding the censorship machine, or is it the only real tool we've got? Anyone else drop money on this and regret it or swear by it?

1 comments

jaken23•22d ago

Comparing Canada's block list to the UK's made me see the gap in transparency

I was looking into why my favorite indie news site got blocked in Canada last month, and I found their government actually posts a list of what they restrict. The UK doesn't do that at all, you just wake up and a site is gone, no explanation. I spent three hours cross-checking the Canadian list against the UK's silent removals, and it hit me how much power comes from just being open about it. When you can see the list, you can argue, you can fact-check, you can hold someone accountable. With the UK, it's like fighting a ghost, you don't even know what you did wrong. Has anyone else tried comparing these lists side by side, or is it just me who gets this obsessive about it?

1 comments

claire64•22d ago

The time my favorite cookbook got pulled from shelves in Germany

Back in 2018 I went to Berlin for a work trip and stopped by a bookstore to grab a gift for my mom. She loves this older baking book by a Swedish author, full of traditional recipes. I found it on the shelf but the clerk told me it was being recalled that very day because of a new EU rule about food labeling photos. I stood there holding it while they put them all in a box. I asked if I could still buy it and they said no, store policy. Ended up ordering it online from a seller in the UK a month later, but it cost me double with shipping. Has anyone else run into a book getting banned or pulled over something that seemed more about paperwork than real harm?

1 comments

elliotr39•22d ago

Saw the UK's new protest law in action last weekend, should we be worried?

I was in London visiting friends when a small group got moved along by police for standing near Parliament with signs, and they weren't being loud or blocking anyone. The law allows cops to stop protests if they think the noise might be annoying, which seems to flip the idea of peaceful assembly on its head. Do other countries have these kind of limits and where do we draw the line between order and free speech?

1 comments

tara700•22d ago

Internet filters in Australia blocked a recipe site I use

I was reading about how Australian internet filters block stuff like gambling and some health sites, and then I saw a post from a food blogger there saying her recipe page got flagged by mistake. It made me wonder how many innocent sites get caught in those nets, and if that kind of over-blocking is worse than the stuff they're trying to stop. Has anyone else run into a legit site being banned somewhere for no real reason?

1 comments

tessa394•23d ago

Warning: My kids' coloring books got seized at the Osaka airport, here's what happened

Took a family trip to Japan last month and packed a few US coloring books for the 8 hour flight. Customs pulled me aside for about 45 minutes because one had a page with a cartoonish gun in a detective scene. They said it violated their weapons depiction rules, even though it's clearly a toy for a 6 year old. They kept three books and gave me a receipt, which was weirdly specific, like itemized confiscation. Has anyone else had harmless kids' stuff flagged at border control, or did I just hit the wrong agent that day?

2 comments

taylor_flores•23d ago

My Mexican cookbook got pulled at customs in Toronto, so I scanned every page before my flight

Last month I flew back with a 1970s Oaxacan recipe book from a market stall, border agents in Toronto kept it for 'cultural property review', but I'd already snapped photos of all 214 pages on my phone, so now I'm wondering if anyone else backs up their banned reading material before crossing borders?

1 comments

cole_robinson•24d ago

Just realized our banned book list is way shorter than my aunt's in Turkey

Was chatting with my cousin's wife from Istanbul over video last week, and she listed 12 authors banned there right now, most I'd never heard of. She said even checking the list is risky, and that hit me because here we argue about what to ban, there they just do it. Does anyone else think we focus too much on the wrong fights, or is talking about it the only real defense we have?

1 comments

skylercooper•27d ago

Realized I was using a banned VPN app from my own country without knowing it

I live in the US and travel a lot for work, but last month I was in China for a conference. I always use this VPN app called TunnelBear to check my email and social media. Turns out, TunnelBear is actually banned in China because it uses weak encryption that the government can crack, so they block it on purpose. I only found out after my phone got locked out of a bunch of services and a local tech guy pointed it out to me. He said I was basically broadcasting my data to anyone who wanted to see it, which feels like the opposite of what I thought I was doing. Now I'm wondering if I should just switch to a different VPN or if there's any way to use banned tools safely when you're abroad. Has anyone else dealt with accidentally using restricted software in a different country?

2 comments

johnthompson•27d ago

A librarian in Ohio told me they quietly removed 6 books from the shelves last spring without any public notice

She said it was 'just routine weeding' but when I asked what got pulled it was all titles about local labor union history, and now I wonder how much of what I grew up reading just quietly vanished without anyone batting an eye.

2 comments

wren826•27d ago

TIL Germany blocked a YouTube video I made about accounting errors

Last month I posted a simple walkthrough showing how a missing decimal in a tax form can cost a business thousands. Nothing political, just numbers and screenshots. YouTube told me it was blocked in Germany because of some local law about financial advice without a license. It hit different because I was just trying to help a buddy avoid a $2k mistake, not give official advice. Has anyone else had a harmless tutorial flagged in another country for weird reasons?

2 comments

umabailey•28d ago

Pro tip: don't try to ship a drone to India without checking the rules first

I bought a DJI Mini 3 off eBay for $380 last month and shipped it to my cousin in Mumbai for his birthday. Customs seized it at the airport because drones over 250 grams need a permit from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. He spent 3 weeks running between offices trying to get it released, but they kept asking for import licenses he couldn't get as an individual. Has anyone else dealt with customs grabbing electronics because of local bans on certain tech?

1 comments

maxmurphy•29d ago

Visited Quebec last month and noticed the English signs feel like a rebellious act.

Every storefront in Montreal's old town has this tiny English text hidden under the big French version, and I heard from a shopkeeper that they could get fined $1,500 for not making French twice as large, has anyone else seen this kind of language law enforcement up close?

2 comments

thomas105•29d ago

Vent: That library in my hometown got rid of every book from before 1990 last spring

I went back to visit my folks in Austin last month and stopped by the library I grew up at on Oak Hill. The whole reference section was gone. The librarian told me they cleared out "outdated material" to make space for computer terminals. 3 years ago I used some of those same books for a school project on local zoning laws. Now you cannot find any record of how things used to be. Everything is digital and some of it is behind paywalls or just gone. Has anyone else watched their old local library gut their physical archive like this?

1 comments

clark.iris•29d ago

The librarian who pulled me aside and whispered about a hidden database of banned books

Has anyone else stumbled onto a hidden restriction list in their own town, or am I just lucky enough to have a librarian with a conscience?

1 comments