South African Politicians Want To Ban All Porn Online
from the how-do-you-define-porn dept
What is it with politicians who don't understand basic concepts? Apparently, the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs in South Africa, Malusi Gigaba, thinks that it's possible to ban online porn. When people pointed out that it's just not that easy, he responded thusly:"Cars are already provided with brakes and seatbelts... There is no reason why the internet should be provided without the necessary restrictive mechanisms built into it...."Well, actually, Mr. Gigaba, there are plenty of perfectly legitimate reasons. Brakes and seatbelts have pretty easily defined tasks: slowing a car down and preventing you from flying forward in the event of a sudden stop. You can engineer that easily. What you can't engineer is a definition of porn that works. What is pornography? To each person it might be entirely different. How do you build a system that knows?
Furthermore, of course, there's a question of why you would even want to do so. That's not made at all clear in the article, but if you're talking about consenting adults trying to find some porn online, what's the problem with that?
![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: ban, malusi gigaba, porn, south africa
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"Related documents and the JASA's proposed bill can be found online, one of which has the wonderful title 'A reasonable and justifiable limitation on Freedom of Expression and Right to Privacy.'"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
South Africa and Porn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: South Africa and Porn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: South Africa and Porn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: South Africa and Porn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: South Africa and Porn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: South Africa and Porn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: South Africa and Porn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Eat Da Poo Poo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euXQbZDwV0w
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'll Help ...
Filter: Block the internet, it is all bad
...
PROFIT!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'll Help ...
I think though my collection of South African politician porn is the hottest of em all!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'll Help ...
Ban all nudity! And Sex! Watching it is bad, but participating is worse!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Looking 4 porn job
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I've got an idea...
I don't know. Ask Steve Jobs? Apparently he's decided to protect Apple customers from the porn monster as well. Maybe South Africa can make a business deal and become Apple-exclusive!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I've got an idea...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Good luck with that. Don't bother to keep us posted, we already know the outcome.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Porn???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Porn???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Porn???
Oh, wait, no, the SOLDIERS around there believe that by RAPING A BABY GIRL, you can CURE YOUR AIDS. The AIDS that you were given so you could help reduce 'unwanted' population.
Read: Soldiers with AIDS raping women, children, and BABIES, is cheaper than the bullets to simply shoot them to death. And PORN is a bigger problem to the people in charge.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Porn???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
LOL
www.anon-posting.at.tc
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
learning
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: learning
Just not on camera.
Personally, I think the President is just covering up his appearance in "Behind the Black Door XXVIII."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
RE: South Africa & Porn
Apart from the seat-belt analogy being fairly weak, I think "time" would be better than "porn". Thanks to South Korea & USA we've seen that excessive time spent on the internet causes obesity, kills babies, and causes stupidity.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
He's a busy man
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
so easy
2. Cite Apple as your source of inspiration to legitimize your task.
3. Cite DMCA as an effective way to alter the list via user input.
4. Get job.
5. Spend rest of life browsing the Inteernet for an excessive pay check.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
should be banned world wide
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Jurisdiction
> want to do so.
Furthermost, there's the question of jurisdiction even if you could do so. How does South Africa presume to regulate the entire world?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Humans are already provided with death by natural causes... There is no reason why large corporations based on monopolies should exist without similar mechanisms built into them, as well as something DMCA-style to prevent large corporations from cracking these mechanisms...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So ashamed
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: So ashamed
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Why?
um... apparently, YES! People with brains functioning at an adult level are smart enough to stay the hell away from politics.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just like everyone else in the world we also do not understand the logic of our politicians. With a president that has more than 3 wives, accused of rape and corruption and has completely uneducated underlings: Julius Malema, who publicly makes violent hate speech against whites on a regular basis. They even have a song about killing whites and goes on excursions to Zimbabwe and other countries run by corrupt dictators for "training". With all of this BS, we all (whites, blacks and others) sit here an wonder if there aren't any more pressing issues to attend to.
But I guess everyone has asshole politicians who don't know what the fuck they are doing
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sorry guys!!
The other day, there was an article in one of newspapers that was about how 90%, yes 90%, of PM's in our parliament, and other government officials had NO idea how to use a computer! So please, when you hear one of government officials talking about the electric internet... just ignore them..please
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Can't stop the porn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Africa and Porn sites
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
no worries south african people
Look at the USA. How many backwards people does it have in politics? Too many! Same goes with most every country. It's just part of being a politician. :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
why ban porn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'll help
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
i WLD LOVE 2 BE A PORN STAR
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: i WLD LOVE 2 BE A PORN STAR
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm looking for job to do porn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm looking for job to do porn
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
wtf...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ban porn... carefully....
PS. Let's start converting these soon to be 'white elephants' stadiums into prisons.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Like It Ever!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ditch porn and ditch jesus they are both useless
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
go for it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]