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It's very visible to the population when a regime blocks a popular site or app. That shines a bright light on the regime's censorship. It also puts pressure o
by panarky 9y ago
It's very visible to the population when a regime blocks a popular site or app.
That shines a bright light on the regime's censorship.
It also puts pressure on the regime to relax their iron grip, since it makes them look bad to their own citizens and to the rest of the world.
But implementing the regime's censorship inside your app or site hides the censorship. It reduces the pressure from citizens and the international community.
You're now collaborating with the regime against your customers.
Doing the right thing is almost always better than collaboration.
I will not use my engineering time and talent as a tool of your repression, and if you block me, your citizens and the whole world can see it.
(By the way, the EFF is doing amazing work with advocacy, legal affairs, certbot, etc. This Saudi article reminded me to give again: https://supporters.eff.org/donate https://supporters.eff.org/donate )
- Eridrus 9y ago> It's very visible to the population when a regime blocks a popular site or app. I don't think people living in these countries are unaware of the situation.
- dredmorbius 9y agoGreater direct visibility or cognisibility always helps make a point. It's the difference between "I think ..." and "here is the evidence".
- Ajedi32 9y agoCouldn't you achieve the same goal by exposing censorship inside your app through the UI? For example, rather than hide the content entirely, replace it with a notice that "This content has been blocked in your country to comply with laws by your government." Sorta like what Google does for DMCA takedowns: https://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/dmca-complaint.jpg https://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/dmca-compl...
- sp332 9y agoTwitter does this too. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/3kz57j/this-is-how-twitter-blocks-far-right-tweets-in-germany https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/3kz57j/this-is-ho...