Discussion Is it likely that this website will ever be blocked in the US?

[Abyssal]

I'm not the best at knowing legality even in my own country, as shameful as that may be, so I thought I'd ask straight up. I know that the United States has a focus on freedom of speech, and I've heard it mentioned in regard to this site before, but I also don't feel that applies the same way it sounds, so I would like to know whether or not blocking this site would be deemed constitutional.

With SaSu being blocked elsewhere, would it benefit me to make a copy of some of the threads in case of its disappearance? I'm too stupid to understand TOR or other means of accessing blocked sites.

 

[兎の耳]

I feel it's likely since Americans love a good moral panic more than just about anyone. All it will take is for some photogenic young white person with connected parents to take their life with a method that's espoused on this site. If I could find the site with just a few Google searches for painless suicide methods then I'm sure any journalist worth their salt could find their way here and once they do, well...

I know the site has found its way into the mainstream media before. It's only a matter of time before it becomes notorious enough that no one will host it on the clearweb.

 

[Blurry_Buildings]

Freedom of speech in the constitution doesn't extend to speech that aids in criminal actions. Assisted suicide for non-terminally ill individuals is definetely a criminal action in all 50 states. Whether or not speech here constitutes assisted suicide directly is debatable, but there is no doubt it can contribute to it, and that the constitution wouldn't protect you there.

The only thing between us (all of SanctionedSuicide which is hosted in the US) and the sociopaths in Washington is section 9 of Title V (the Communications Decency Act) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Section 9/509 prevents any companies involved with the maintenence of websites from being held liable for user generated content. Luckily repealing it would screw up everything else lol.

https://www.congress.gov/104/plaws/publ104/PLAW-104publ104.pdf

If you press control+f and then type 509 you can see it in there in all of its glory.

If Lori Trahan gets her way though individuals on this forum could be imprisoned or fined.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/9260/text?s=1&r=60

I personally am very liberal but lori is being incredibly evil here. She doesn't care about anyone using this site and this bill will get most of us thrown in prison just to fulfill an objective and increase her desirability to voters. Instead of these family members being dead now they will now be in prison if the bill goes through.

 

[sanlcx]

Even if they do block it, you can still access it through the tor link

 

[Abyssal]

Freedom of speech in the constitution doesn't extend to speech that aids in criminal actions. Assisted suicide for non-terminally ill individuals is definetely a criminal action in all 50 states. Whether or not speech here constitutes assisted suicide directly is debatable, but there is no doubt it can contribute to it, and that the constitution wouldn't protect you there.

The only thing between us (all of SanctionedSuicide which is hosted in the US) and the sociopaths in Washington is section 9 of Title V (the Communications Decency Act) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Section 9/509 prevents any companies involved with the maintenence of websites from being held liable for user generated content. Luckily repealing it would screw up everything else lol.

https://www.congress.gov/104/plaws/publ104/PLAW-104publ104.pdf

If you press control+f and then type 509 you can see it in there in all of its glory.

If Lori Trahan gets her way though individuals on this forum could be imprisoned or fined.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/9260/text?s=1&r=60

I personally am very liberal but lori is being incredibly evil here. She doesn't care about anyone using this site and this bill will get most of us thrown in prison just to fulfill an objective and increase her desirability to voters. Instead of these family members being dead now they will now be in prison if the bill goes through.

Thank you for the detailed answer, I appreciate the explanation. It eases my anxiety of losing this valuable resource of a site, though it's also a shame to hear about the efforts taken to shut this place down and how we could be effected by it. I wonder if these people think they are helping us or if they are aware that they are demonizing the suicidal.

 

[Blurry_Buildings]

Thank you for the detailed answer, I appreciate the explanation. It eases my anxiety of losing this valuable resource of a site, though it's also a shame to hear about the efforts taken to shut this place down and how we could be effected by it. I wonder if these people think they are helping us or if they are aware that they are demonizing the suicidal.

I'm glad I could help someone :)

I can't imagine how fining the people on this site or throwing them in prison for 5 years will help, when much of this information is freely available elsewhere (online and in the real world) but the bill seems likely to pass sooner or later, which means whenever it does people are far more likely to be targeted for anything they say after that point that could be construed as "assisting".

The FBI could also track down the site owners if they themselves happened to say something deemed unlawful after that point (depending on how broadly the law and "assistance" is interpreted). If the site owners are imprisoned the site could possibly go away. Otherwise if the site remains it would become a repository for all US users, who would not be able to discuss methods, but might still be able to talk about other things or see the past methods threads (or threads from non-US users).

I somewhat doubt this forum would be removed entirely while sites like 8chan still exist. It will just have more police officers snooping around, like 8chan. I'm just an idiot with a computer though so please take whatever I say with a grain of salt lol.

 

[penguinl0v3s]

Tbh this site will always be available via Tor, so I'm not too worried. That's what happened to 8chan. I think there's a low chance that this site will get blocked because it's unprecedented.