Critics warn the vaguely worded proposal could have a chilling effect on internet freedom

The Danish government has ignited a firestorm of criticism after proposing a new bill that would make it illegal to use a VPN to access geoblocked streaming content or bypass restrictions on illegal websites.

The proposal, which is part of a larger legislative effort to combat online piracy, has alarmed digital rights advocates who fear it could have far-reaching consequences for internet freedom in the country.

The proposal was immediately condemned by privacy advocates. Jesper Lund, chairman of the IT Political Association, expressed deep concern over the bill’s ambiguous language, stating it has a “totalitarian feel to it.”

“Even in Russia, it is not punishable to bypass illegal websites with a VPN,” Lund told Danish broadcaster DR, pointing out that the proposed Danish law could go further than measures seen in more authoritarian states.

  • biofaust@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    As a non-Dane living in Denmark since 5 years, and having lived in Sweden before that for 9, I can tell you the idea that I am forming due to the data at hand and anecdotal but first-hand experience:

    what from abroad, including within the EU, is seen as the splendid example of Scandinavian society is mostly constructed on small, ethnically and culturally uniform, isolated populations, in which social control is actually seen as natural (like in a small town).

    Passing a law in Denmark or Sweden is nothing like having the same iter happen in France or Italy, due to these factors, and justice systems are kept dangerously simple, with no special court for minors in at least civil cases in Sweden and no possibility of one-sided appraisals.

    This realities, in the last years, have met with a surge in migration from immigration basins such as Germany, France and Italy, in addition to the influx of people who took the chance of the limited “good gestures” towards the populations of Syria and Afghanistan.

    Once you touch those stability factors, the whole thing crumbles, reason why you have Malmö becoming a hellhole and Sweden a narcostate.

    From Denmark, a much smaller market than Sweden, gangs such as the Black Cobra were exported across the bridge, only to come biting back in recent years.

    The parties that call themselves socialist here in Denmark completely adopted the agenda and the talking points of what elsewhere is called Far Right, which is something I see not as a corruption but as a logic consequence of the above.

    You have to think that 10 years ago in Sweden and again when I moved to Copenhagen, I was met with the exchange: “Oh you should move to this area of the city!” “Why, is it a place you recommend?” “Don’t know, but those from your country all move there”

    , which is something that horrifies me.

    In the same way the big titles in the newspapers about the latest local elections in Copenhagen were on the motif of “Danes always less likely to vote at local elections, which means foreigners will represent a huge portion of the electorate!”

    Lately, in Denmark, Hummelgaard, Ministry of Justice, got probably bought up by Palantir, which is why the police uses Gotham and he pushes for a backdoor in encrypted communication .

    But apart from that, 5 years ago Fredriksen was attempting her own Madagascar Plan and now she applauds the (actually failed) one deployed in Albania by Meloni, so no need for big tech money to let them talk that shit.

    And they are the good ones (I mean, not really, but still better than the actual Right.

    Should I call this racism? Maybe, but it would not help to see things clearer.

    tl;dr Scandinavia is a simple place. Reality hit with complexity and they panicked.