With ‘blocking’ they likely mean at DNS level, unless France invested a lot of DPI censorship infrastructure.
France orders internet providers to block access to Polymarket prediction site
Submitted 1 day ago by Lemmynated@lemmy.zip to technology@lemmy.zip
Comments
eleitl@lemmy.zip 10 hours ago
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 day ago
This is the wrong way to do things. The government should not be dictating what its citizens are allowed to access on the Internet. It seems like so many countries go after ISPs and DNS providers to solve their problems for them, and I think it’s mostly just laziness.
What France should be doing is making it illegal for Polymarket to operate in their country, and fining them for violations.
snooggums@piefed.world 1 day ago
Blocking sites that are doing something not legal to do in the country is how you do things. This isn’t blocking information or anything worthwhile, just a shitty betting site that isn’t allowed to do business in France.
The move aims to enforce an existing ban on financial transactions to the site.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 day ago
This isn’t blocking information or anything worthwhile
The government should neither know nor care what its citizens access on the internet, any more than they should have control over what books its citizens read.
Censorship is censorship regardless of what is being censored.
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 20 hours ago
No, that’s not, or at least shouldn’t be and used to not be, “how you do things”. Blocking websites because they aren’t complying with national laws used to be the domain of authoritarian countries like the PRC or Thailand or Russia. Now it’s “how you do things” in so called liberal democracies? Has that really become so normalized?
Ethalis@jlai.lu 1 day ago
And what happens when they refuse to pay the fine, or consider that those fines are an acceptable cost for doing business in France? If the goal is protecting the french public, blocking the site as soon as it is made illegal is the only option
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 day ago
Control is never relinquished voluntarily, it only expands. If the government has the power to block access to one site they will do it with more, for increasingly less justifiable reasons, until they eventually don’t bother justifying it at all.
Government censorship is not permissible in a free society, period.
taiyang@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
I think it’s a good step while the rest of the world seems to just let it and other “prediction sites” operate. Gambling itself should be at least heavily regulated because of a variety of reasons, but this is even worse because gambling is the best possible use. The worst cases being things like betting a wildfire will start on a specific day and then… starting a wildfire. That’s closer to a website hiring hitmen, something more dark web than new tech.
Now is it a slippery slope? Maybe, especially since it’s not a direct way to stop the problem. Dark web services are there because they are illegal, they aren’t just blocked by an ISP. Laws need to clarify how much of this is gambling (which is legal in France and subject to rules) and how much of this is dangerous activity. Legally clarifying these rules is essential to a long term solution, but again I think it’s ok to take a quick first step while that process plays out.
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 hours ago
I was going to say it shouldn’t matter whether they block the website because Polymarket is largely decentralized and runs on smart contracts, and so should be accessible through a third party frontend even if the main site is blocked, but it seems that they did it wrong and set things up so that all user wallets must be explicitly approved by the company to use it and so it has no properties of permissionlessness, if I am reading this right:
/// @notice Adds a new operator /// Can only be called by a current admin /// @param _operator - The new operator function addOperator(address _operator) external onlyAdmin { require(!operators[_operator], AlreadyOperator()); operators[_operator] = true; emit NewOperator(_operator, msg.sender); }
Hairyfishnuts@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Only the privileged get to play these games. They’re just trying to protect the little people from those nasty millions that burden the privileged.
WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
You do realize these prediction markets only exist to enable insiders to commit fraud and steal from morons, right? They are a scam. There is no difference between supporting them and Nigerian scammers.
Hairyfishnuts@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
Yes, I’m fully aware of their function in society.
kakekongen@lemmy.zip 20 hours ago
Blocking is harsh, but honestly there seem to be limited different actions that can be taken, but will not really have a great impact. These prediction markets sell themselves as putting your money where your mouth is, which sounds great on paper but without regulation opens up for a select few to do «inside trading».
Most users are still primarily using it for sports betting which is very heavily regulated. For good reason. Regulating these in the same way would be the right action but, I guess we could see if this actually will have an impact. I’m sceptical.
7toed@midwest.social 10 hours ago
I feel like too many people have the general impressing that this is some normal gambling. For example, on polymarket, if a bet defaults, such as a gane being cancelled, the pool is split 50/50. Most users do not know of this, and it can be gamed until you get banned, what other platform (or hell if Im betting with friends) does that?
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
It’s not a fucking market, it’s a gambling site and the worst type of it. Its gambling on if a human being will die, if somebody will suffer, if wars will be won or lost
This website is the absolute anus of the internet, only shit comes out of it, aside from the eventual dick head coming in
Mubelotix@jlai.lu 10 hours ago
This is the worst argument you could have thought of. French definition of human rights imply not judging based on morality and beliefs but on strict well defined rules. Polymarket is problematic because it’s used for fraud, insider trading, corruption and money laundering. Not because we don’t agree with its content
blarghly@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Idk, I have very little interaction with this site, but perusing just now, it seems quite innocuous. Topics seem to be some sports things (like what team will so and so be on), world events (several references to the Iran- US war, all worded in terms of when peace will be declared), and politics (looks like they think the Dems will take the house handily).
I imagine someone could get addicted to it the same way they get addicted to any gambling. But to me it seems less problematic than sports betting apps or video slots in the gas station. And as someone who has no intention of using it to gamble, I can become a bit more informed about what will probably happen in the world soon.
alekwithak@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Betting on politics and world events is not innocuous, as if there wasn’t enough corruption already. My quick perusal showed, aside from that garbage, an entire category for air quality (gee, what could possibly go wrong there??) and a category that’s just the number of times Rich Asshole is going to tweet during set periods, like he’s not cashing in on that regularly. The rich get richer, and, to revive an ancient meme, every day we stray further from god’s light.
kakekongen@lemmy.zip 20 hours ago
I don’t like the unregulated part of it regardless, but I would agree with you by principle. But only if they remove the sports betting component. I don’t know if we have data on gambling addiction to this kind on non-sports betting, but research would be interesting!