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[XXSockXX]

I'm a bit baffled by some of the reactions I've seen. German privacy laws are even stricter than in other EU countries, so many politicians demand explanantions. There will be demonstrations when Obama comes to Berlin this week.
On the other hand the secret service has anounced plans to extend their own surveillance programs, they currently can read only selectively and can't store much of the data.
An opposition politician has proposed the government should just invest several hundred million to found "our own Google and Facebook", which shows how much of a clue politicians tend to have about the internet. 
I've seen a poll where 49% of german internet users didn't worry about PRISM, and 40% thought it was a good thing. Don't know how representative that is, but when you consider the number of casual users and non-users, I think public outrage will remain limited.

[misko27]

An opposition politician has proposed the government should just invest several hundred million to found "our own Google and Facebook", which shows how much of a clue politicians tend to have about the internet. 

Please, please, please, give me a link. This man is my favorite kind of crazy. It's like, pointless, useless, impossible hilarious crazy. There is far too much extreme, possible, doable crazy.

[Sheb]

the only thing that surprise me is that this guy ain't French.

[Mech#4]

An opposition politician has proposed the government should just invest several hundred million to found "our own Google and Facebook", which shows how much of a clue politicians tend to have about the internet. 

Please, please, please, give me a link. This man is my favorite kind of crazy. It's like, pointless, useless, impossible hilarious crazy. There is far too much extreme, possible, doable crazy.

"Fine! I'll make my own Google and Facebook. With blackjack and hookers!"

[XXSockXX]

An opposition politician has proposed the government should just invest several hundred million to found "our own Google and Facebook", which shows how much of a clue politicians tend to have about the internet. 

Please, please, please, give me a link. This man is my favorite kind of crazy. It's like, pointless, useless, impossible hilarious crazy. There is far too much extreme, possible, doable crazy.

I could not find any links in English, but several german newspapers have reported it. After further reading - it is not just one guy, it's two domestic policies experts, one from the government and one from the biggest opposition party.
Some conservative newspapers are in favour of it, most call bullshit because a) Facebook alternatives exist in Germany, but have lost users at a rapid pace and b) we already invest millions of government money in such projects, but nobody uses them (like De-Mail, a government developed secure Email-alternative.
This article is in favour of it, this one points out that bureacratic solutions haven't worked so far, because that is not how the internet works.

Relevant quotes, poorly translated by me:
Hans-Peter Uhl (CSU, administration): "So that the communication of our state and our businesses cannot be read along by american, or even worse, by chinese or russian services, we have to develop our own secure IT-communication technology, be it a german or european one." He wants to invest a three-digit million euro sum per year.

Dieter Wiefelspütz (SPD, opposition): "If Washington abuses the market power of american businesses in the internet sector, we have to create appropriate alternatives."

EDIT:
There was also a small demo in Berlin when Obama arrived today, maybe 50 people with funny slogans:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[GlyphGryph]

Are you sure he's not talking about developing your own European based network backbones? Because that would... actually be a pretty good idea. Right now America controls the internet, and I assume many coporations would be happy to make use of a more secure alternative.

It's an incredibly complicated issue though.

[XXSockXX]

Are you sure he's not talking about developing your own European based network backbones? Because that would... actually be a pretty good idea. Right now America controls the internet, and I assume many coporations would be happy to make use of a more secure alternative.

That's part of it, but the articles I have read are explicitely talking about alternatives for search engines and social networks, that would be created and regulated by a national or european bureacracy. Which is why I was so baffled by the idea.

[Sheb]

Especially since secure alternatives exist already. Stuff like DuckDuckGo for search (which is brilliant if only for its !bang syntax) or secure mail clients.

The one thing that is hard to replace is Facebook and other social networks, because no matter how horrible Facebook is, as long as your friends are on it, there is no point in switching networks. And since it's the same for your friends, no one will switch and everyone is stuck on FB.

[XXSockXX]

The one thing that is hard to replace is Facebook and other social networks, because no matter how horrible Facebook is, as long as your friends are on it, there is no point in switching networks. And since it's the same for your friends, no one will switch and everyone is stuck on FB.

Exactly. A few years ago german social media sites were doing better, but in the meantime everybody migrated to Facebook, just like what happened to Myspace. StudiVZ (a Facebook 2005 - clone aimed at university students) should be in the negative user-numbers by now, if people weren't too lazy to delete their profiles. It had better privacy settings, but but no Farmville and stuff like that. Wer-kennt-wen still exists, but is mostly for old or very young people who don't know much about the internet.

People go with what is popular, not with what is good. National sites are uninteresting anyway, as they are usually very limited in scope.

[Sheb]

Yeah, and nothing is going to change that. We're stuck with Facebook for the foreseeable future, so what we need is really stringent regulation on it.

[XXSockXX]

Right, the EU and national governments can pressure Facebook & co into respecting our laws, and have done so in the past. This is the way to go IMHO, and not relying on people being careful on their own or absurd ideas like government-provided alternatives.

[Sir Finkus]

I also find the idea of a social network run by the government as a solution to governments spying on social networks hilarious.

[Sheb]

Well, I actually would be more comfortable with my government spying on me than with the US doing the job. For one thing, I don't trust my government with being a competent panopticon, and then I can actually try to influence them and they actually have to pretend they care about my privacy, whereas the US government seems to consider that if's you're not a US citizens, your rights barely are worth the Hellfire missile they'll use to end them.

[XXSockXX]

Just watching the press conference with Obama in Berlin. Basically he says we shouldn't worry about PRISM, it's a narrow search under court supervision. They're not reading all our email. He said there were 50 cases where threats were discovered through internet surveillance, some also in Germany (Merkel mentions the Sauerland cell.) He says he welcomes the debate. Merkel seems diplomatic in response. So I guess we love you Big Brother?
Journalists asked about drones, Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Syria, the economy, not much new to hear about PRISM. Didn't really expect anything either, they are both politicians, good at saying nothing in lengthy terms.

At least the press got a twitter trend out of it:  #Neuland. Merkel said "Das Internet ist für uns alle Neuland." (The internet is unchartered territory for all of us). Which pretty much sums up the governments understanding of modern technology.

[Tarqiup Inua]

Yeah, he sure had a courage when he started speaking about "court order" in front of Germans... which is something he doesn't to spy on them, they are not U.S. citizens...