c/banned-beyond-borders

My VPN stopped working in Thailand until I switched to a different protocol

I was in Bangkok for 2 weeks last month trying to get around their strict streaming blocks, and my usual OpenVPN setup just got throttled instantly. Finally tried WireGuard on a whim and it jumped through without any lag. Anyone else hit a sudden block like that in Southeast Asia and find a fix that actually stuck?

Used to swap bootleg VHS tapes in the parking lot behind the mall back in 92

I remember when getting a banned movie meant meeting some guy named Jerry at the back of the strip mall in Phoenix. He had a whole trunk full of Faces of Death and Cannibal Holocaust tapes that he copied from his friend who worked at a video store. Now I just pull up a VPN and watch whatever I want from my couch in 5 minutes flat. The difference is CRAZY to me because back then you could actually get in trouble just for owning that stuff. Now the internet lets you see basically anything but governments are still blocking whole websites in places like India and Turkey. Makes me wonder if the free speech fight just moved from the parking lot to the server room. Has anyone else noticed how the banned stuff just changes formats but never really goes away?

That video essay guy from Australia got his whole channel pulled down for talking about Taiwan

Three weeks ago a creator I followed for years had his entire archive deleted after he posted a deep dive on Taiwan's media blackouts and now I'm seeing the same content warnings pop up on other channels talking about the same region.

Found out India banned 59 Chinese apps overnight in 2020

I read this article from BBC that said TikTok and UC Browser were among them. Over 200 million users lost access just like that. How does a government decide what information you can't see?

Just realized my hometown library banned a book I read in school

I was talking to my mom on the phone last week and she mentioned the local library in our small Michigan town pulled “The Hate U Give” from the shelves. I read that book in 10th grade for a class project and it honestly helped me understand a lot about police shootings and protest movements. My teacher even brought in a speaker from Detroit to talk about her experience with activism. Now the library board says it’s too political for kids and they don’t want it in the teen section. I guess I never thought about how a book I just read for school could get flagged like that in another part of my own state. Has anyone else had a book they used in class get banned somewhere else?

That time I got dinged for sharing a documentary link in a closed group

I used to think any link sharing was fine until my membership in a private film club got suspended for posting a BBC documentary that's banned in India. It was about the 2002 Gujarat riots. Now I check the country restrictions on every source URL before I share anything. Has anyone else run into a situation where a documentary or article got someone in trouble just for existing online?

TIL my old high school teacher had a book banned in Singapore for 12 years

Ran into my history teacher at a coffee shop in Portland last month and he pulled out a worn copy of his own novel - turns out it was banned there for mentioning the 1964 race riots. Made me wonder how many little stories like his just quietly disappear from shelves without anyone here even knowing.

Why does nobody talk about how Finland banned anonymous speech online

I was reading up on internet laws last week because my cousin moved to Helsinki for work. He told me that Finland basically requires you to verify your identity before posting on forums or social media. I thought he was exaggerating so I looked it up and sure enough, since 2011 they have a law that forces platforms to collect your personal info. The weird part is how few people in the US even know about this. I hit a milestone of 50 different sources confirming that Finland has one of the strictest speech laws in Europe despite being seen as so free. It matters because if a Nordic country can do this without much fuss, what stops other governments from trying the same thing? My cousin says most locals don't even think about it, they just comply. Has anyone else run across a country that quietly restricted speech without people noticing?

Rant: I used to defend TikTok bans as protecting kids, now I see it differently

After China blocked TikTok in 2020 and then rolled out their own censored version, I realized banning a platform just gives the government more control over what you see. Has anyone else had a shift like this after seeing how bans actually play out in other countries?

Got a cease and desist for posting a recipe last Tuesday in Pennsylvania

I run a small food blog and last month I posted a recipe for a traditional dish from a country that has strict food copyright laws. Last Tuesday, I got an email from a lawyer representing some company there saying I had to take it down or face fines. The recipe was something my grandma taught me, not something I copied from anywhere. It took me a week to realize they were claiming I stole it because the dish has a protected name under their cultural heritage laws. I had to change the title and remove certain words to keep it up. Has anyone else dealt with food or recipe bans from other countries? It feels like free speech gets real messy when you cross borders with something as simple as a list of ingredients.

Compared two VPN services side by side after my country blocked Reddit

Ngl, I was using a free VPN for months and just put up with the slow speeds. Then last week the government here blocked Reddit completely, so I shelled out $40 for a paid one my buddy in IT recommended. The difference was insane - my connection barely dropped and I could actually load videos. Makes me wonder how much of the free speech fight is about paying for decent tools instead of relying on junk. Has anyone else noticed paid services work way better for getting around blocks?

Heard a librarian say Finland bans political ads on buses and trains

I was at a coffee shop last week and overheard a librarian telling someone Finland straight up doesn't allow political ads on public transit. She said they treat buses and trains like shared quiet spaces, not campaign billboards. I thought about it and man, that would stop a lot of the shouting we get here on our city buses. Has anyone else seen a ban like that work to calm down public spaces?

TIL that a specific TikTok dance trend got banned in India last month

I was scrolling through random news sites on my lunch break and found out India banned the "Chal Tera" challenge on TikTok for being too vulgar. It was like a 15 second hip thrust move that went viral with over 2 million posts. The government cited obscenity laws from 1860 to take it down. Thing is, similar dances on Instagram Reels are still up and running fine. Has anyone else run into random bans that seem super inconsistent like this?

Saw Wikipedia get blocked in Turkey back in 2017 and the internet felt hollow for 2 years

I used to check obscure history pages all the time, then one day it just vanished. No warning, just a blank screen from my ISP in Istanbul. It stayed gone for nearly 30 months until they finally lifted it in 2020. Did anyone else notice how much harder it was to fact-check arguments during that time?

Update: that reddit post about a banned book in Texas actually helped me find it

My local town board just hit 30 agenda items I wrote that got voted down

I started going to my town board meetings about a year ago to push for more transparency on what our library is allowed to keep on the shelves. Every month I'd submit a proposal or a comment about why certain books shouldn't get pulled just because one person complained. After 30 rejections I finally got one passed last Tuesday it was a simple rule that requires a 3 person review before any book gets flagged. It's just a tiny step but it shows persistence can actually grind down the system a little. Has anyone else seen a small rule change make a real difference in their local censorship battles?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?