Does the EU's ban on RT also ban Tor?

Note: I am not a lawyer. I am writing this not because I have any special qualifications, but because I can’t find anything else about this on the Internet.

Recently, it was announced that the EU is to “ban RT”. I heard you can’t get it on the TV these days, which seems reasonable enough. But I was pointed to the actual text of law, and it seems like it does a bit more than that.

If you want to follow along, the regulation in question is “Council Regulation (EU) 2022/350 of 1 March 2022 amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine”.

(This seems like it was hastily written to alter a sanctions law from a few years ago, to just add “broadcasting” as a prohibited activity and “RT” as a prohibited entity. But when you’re dealing with information control, hack jobs are not ideal.)

The purpose of the sanctions are pretty well explained in section 10 of the preamble: (emphasis added)

In view of the gravity of the situation, and in response to Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine, it is necessary, consistent with the fundamental rights and freedoms recognised in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, in particular with the right to freedom of expression and information as recognised in Article 11 thereof, to introduce further restrictive measures to urgently suspend the broadcasting activities of such media outlets in the Union, or directed at the Union. These measures should be maintained until the aggression against Ukraine is put to an end, and until the Russian Federation, and its associated media outlets, cease to conduct propaganda actions against the Union and its Member States.

From my understanding, “and until” would mean the sanctions end once (1) the war is over, (2) Ukraine wins, and (3) Russia ceases to conduct propaganda actions against the EU. From what I can see, the law does not describe “propaganda actions” any further.

The actual text of the amendment is quite short, so I will paste it in its entirety below:

Article 1

Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 is amended as follows:

1. the following Article is inserted after Article 2e:

   ‘Article 2f

   1. It shall be prohibited for operators to broadcast or to enable, facilitate or otherwise contribute to broadcast, any content by the legal persons, entities or bodies listed in Annex XV, including through transmission or distribution by any means such as cable, satellite, IP-TV, internet service providers, internet video-sharing platforms or applications, whether new or pre-installed.

   2. Any broadcasting licence or authorisation, transmission and distribution arrangement with the legal persons, entities or bodies listed in Annex XV shall be suspended.’;

2. Article 11(1), point (a), is replaced by the following:

   ‘(a) legal persons, entities or bodies listed in Annex III, IV, V, VI, XII, XIII, XIV or XV, or referred to in point (b) or (c) of Article 5(1), in point (b) or (c) of Article 5(2), in point (c) or (d) of Article 5(3), in point (b) or (c) of Article 5(4), in point (a), (b) or (c) of Article 5a, or in Article 5h;’;

3. Article 12 is replaced by the following:

   ‘Article 12

   It shall be prohibited to participate, knowingly and intentionally, in activities the object or effect of which is to circumvent prohibitions in this Regulation including by acting as a substitute for natural or legal persons, entities or bodies referred to in Article 2e(3) or Article 2f, 5, 5a, 5b, 5e, 5f or 5h, or by acting to their benefit by using the exceptions in Article 2e(4), 5(6), 5a(2), 5a(5), 5b(2), 5b(3), 5e(2) or 5f(2).’;

4. the text appearing in the Annex to this Regulation is added as Annex XV to Regulation (EU) No 833/2014.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 1 March 2022.

In plain English:

1. Article 2f bans “operators” from “broadcasting” or “contributing to broadcast” content by “entities listed in Annex XV” - basically RT and Sputnik News.
2. Article 2f explicitly bans “internet service providers, internet video-sharing platforms or applications” from doing the same. (This is an order for ISPs to block RT.)
3. Article 12 makes it prohibited to “circumvent prohibitions in this Regulation”, e.g. get around the ban.
4. The phrase “knowingly and intentionally” applies to “participat[ion] in activities,” not to “circumvent[ing] prohibitions”.
5. The ban isn’t just for intentionally unblocking RT, but participating in any activity, the effect of which is to unblock RT.

My problem here isn’t mainly with the cable news networks, but that the EU appears to have made it illegal to participate in the Tor project in any way. For example

• is it legal to run a node?
• is it legal to contriibute code?
• is it legal to sell hosting services/transit to people who host nodes?
• is it legal to peer with ISPs that host nodes?

This also appears to apply to VPNs - either apply EU censorship regulations on your end, or the EU will block you.

I sincerely pray that I am wrong, that I am proven as a clickbaiter and as a hoaxster, and that the EU has already provided for this outcome, and that the phrase “internet service provider” means something other than what I think, or that “broadcast” only applies to TV, or something along those lines.

If I am made to “take the L,” I shall update this post.

from Hacker News https://ift.tt/eZ5WabE