So Germany has a list of domain names that are banned — and it’s public. I didn’t know that until a Hacker News user (“elcapitan”) dropped the source.
Let’s dig into this.
The list is mostly what you’d expect: piracy-heavy domains like LibGen, Sci-Hub, and Anna’s Archive (academic paper sharing), plus a bunch of sports live-streaming sites.
I’m not here to cheer piracy. But I am uneasy about the precedent: a government maintaining a nationwide blocklist of domains. Today it’s copyright and streams. Tomorrow it’s “extremism,” “misinformation,” or whatever label is convenient — and then it starts drifting toward political opponents and dissident media.
That’s the part that should make people nervous, even if they never pirated a thing in their lives.
If you want to read the thread yourself, the original discussion is linked here.