somebody <x### [at] ycom> wrote:
> Everybody seems
> to make the slippery slope argument, but is it really valid?

  Think about this:

  A large amount of web pages added to the censorship list by the Finnish
police are hosted in servers which are located inside the EU and the USA. By
adding these websites to the censorship list they are proclaiming that they
contain illegal child pornography.

  If these websites, hosted in servers inside the EU and the USA, indeed
contained illegal child pornography, the proper course of action would be,
naturally, for the Finnish police to contact the proper authorities in
those countries so that these websites would be closed and the owners
prosecuted. The Finnish authorities work together with the authorities
inside the EU and the USA (and many other countries) to fight CP, so it
would be natural for them to contact the authorities of the other country.
However, they are not doing that. They are simply adding these websites to
the censorship list and doing nothing else.

  Why? Why would they claim that the websites contain illegal CP but not
contact the authorities of the hosting country so that something would be
done about it? It would be egregiously irresponsible for them to do nothing
about this illegal material, even though they have the means to do something
about it.

  The only possible answer to this question is that they actually know the
material is not illegal, and that contacting the authorities of those other
countries would be a waste of time. And indeed, the vast majority of websites
in the censorship list only contain adult pornography. While it might be
indecent in the eyes of many people, there's still nothing illegal about it.

  The new Finnish censorship law does *not* give the authorities the right
to censor legal material, only illegal. Yet they are censoring legal material
(and they even fully aknowledge that, even if indirectly, by the fact that
they are *not* contacting the authorities of the hosting country to bring
the websites down).

  The reason for this is probably as "innocent" as them just wanting to show
that "something is being done". The censorship list would probably be very
short if they were only censoring material which was truely illegal (and
which is hosted in countries whose authorities don't care), so they
artificially make the list longer by including also legal porn sites, just
to show that the measures are "effective".

  But the reason doesn't really matter: They are already abusing the law
for something which the law does not give them any rights to do. Even if
it's just for shows, and even if there's not really a big harm being done,
it's still an abuse of the law. The law does not give them permission to
censor legal sites to simply give the illusion that "something is being
done".

  So it's not a question of "can the censorship law be abused by
authorities?". They are abusing it *already*. They are already doing things
the law does not give them any permission for.

> Governments
> that are able to force their way down the slippery slope to oppression don't
> need an excuse to implement censorship in the first place, they just
> implement it.

  But governments who are not able to go to oppressive measures right away
because it would be a scandal, need to do it little by little. First apply
a very small and "innocent" measure, let people get accustomed to it, then
apply another, let people get accustomed to it, and so on. Repeat as many
times as necessary. When this is continued long enough, people will not
even notice how far it has gone. They will be too accustomed to the small
changes to see the bigger picture.

> Why not oppose taxes too? If a government can take 25% of your
> earnings, why not argue that it's a convenient excuse for them to eventually
> take 99.9%?

  Funny you would say that, as the Finnish government already takes 60% of
your income here if you earn too much. That amount would be rather outrageous
in many countries. (And this is one of the reasons why Finland is not such
an enticing country for people and companies to search for work.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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