> I was worried for a second there that it was the American government.

Midterms are coming up and the regime has spoken openly about "rigging" them so... just give it some time (and download a copy!).

But how far are they from such a headline do you think?

Something like this would be basically impossible in the US, and it wouldn't even matter what kind of administration tried it. The US government doesn't even order ISPs to block websites. They just have the FBI seize a domain after a court order.

Honestly I would think something like this would come from the EU or UK. UK is trying to ban VPNs, EU is trying to ban private chat completely. EU countries routinely block whole swaths of IPs and websites, etc.

The UK for now have given up on trying to ban vpns

'This is the right call' — VPN industry praises the UK’s decisions to leave VPN alone | TechRadar https://share.google/CyBImh95bt3VTubJV

Oh boy , this is American exceptionalism at its finest. The US has by far the most authoritarian government of all mentioned entities. Really you should protest against your government.

What a mix!

Yes, it is American exceptionalism (and quite foolish) to make the claim that "This could never happen in the US".

No, the American government is NOT more authoritative than the UK in the way they handle freedom of websites. The grandparent comment is correct: the US government does not (currently) order ISPs to block specific websites.

Yes, those in the US should protest the current government (many of us already are doing so).

I think maybe there is more than one way to quantify authoritative.

Just looking at the percentage of the population in prison, or murders by cop per inhabitant, that are also good indicators of "repression", and the US might rate first worldwide.

First worldwide? Are you on crack? Are you familiar with the country called North Korea? Or Saudi Arabia?

As a note, I think you meant authoritarian; authoritative means “preeminent/most trustworthy”

I thought the USA have more murders by cop per capita than both of those

Sorry OPs first sentence mentions this is basically impossible in the US and then compared to EU or UK. There is a certain tone and I don't think this comment was a good faith criticism on EU or UK policy

The American government censored a Dutch porn site (Motherless) just last week.

How many people has the US sent to jail due to saying naughty things on Twitter vs the UK? If were going to speak of authoritarianism. Just due to ensuring free speech and right to bear arms the US is possibly the least authoritarian developed nation outside of maybe Switzerland.

The US government killed two people protesting against their migration policy. Oh boy, MAGA is deep into America. Thanks for reminding me.

Alex Pretti would like a word.

Henry Nowak would as well.

This is 100% not true. On multiple measures of freedom the US scores around the 75th percentile if I remember correctly; I believe the category is something like “flawed democracy” on the economist’s democracy index, and that’s not even an publication that I particularly like. It’s not even in the top 30.

Most europeans love their chains, they call it freedom as a coping mechanism

say what you like but at least in Germany when you say free Palestine, they bring you to a court instead of a summary execution

Will there be a headline?

Few months.

I was fully expecting that was about Trump administration, and was a bit disappointed that my prediction turned out to be wrong. I do not support this; I expected the first federal court and then all the appeals to serve a verdict cementing the right of encrypted communication to exist in the US.

Be careful what you wish for. Bringing a test case to the current supreme court is playing with fire, and we are far more likely to end up with precedent rejecting a right to encrypted communications, given the current make up of the court. They have already shown a willingness to show deference to national security, and our fifth amendment protections are already eroding (State v. Andrews in NJ, government can compel the production of a password under the foregone conclusion exception). For now this is still state dependent, but its only a matter of time before a case reaches the supreme court.

We're much safer not opening that can of worms for now.

At least then we'd have hard proof of what kind of country the USA is.

You’ve got mountains of proof at this point. Recent Supreme Court rulings on presidential immunity should be enough.

Not everyone believes it, because it's too complicated for them to understand.

I get it but you shouldn’t assume everything is about the USA. YC may be based here but it’s a big world out there.