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First, I'm not directly comparing losing a job to going to jail, I'm saying that things are not so different here. Of course going to jail is much worse than lo
by opportune 9y ago
First, I'm not directly comparing losing a job to going to jail, I'm saying that things are not so different here. Of course going to jail is much worse than losing a job but when you consider all of the negatives of losing a job (for an average person, not someone in tech) I'd still say it's one of the worst things that can happen to you aside from being the victim of a crime or natural disaster, losing a close family member or friend, and going to jail/prison.
Also, you can opt out of Wechat just as you can opt out of FB, so I'm not sure I see your point. Sure you can't opt out of chinese censorship in general but the chilling effect in both cases is where I see the analogy. It's bad for online platforms to do that whether by coercion or direct force.
- soundwave106 9y agoNot that I disagree with you on the overall direction, but I guess the question here is how easy it would be to opt out of this sort of thing in China, given the extent of their "great firewall". At present, in Western nations, it is somewhat easy to, say, self-host certain social media platforms (from Wordpress to Mastodon) for friends and family and whatnot that could be used for more private, less advertiser-monitored social media interaction. Assuming you get buy in among your friends, this pretty much avoids issues with advertiser and employer snooping that you have on large social media sites. You can then keep your Facebooks and Twitters for your "public face" (or ditch them entirely). I don't know if the same applies in China.
- codedokode 9y agoTo host a website in China you need to get a permit [1]. You can host the site outside, but I am not sure if it will be always accessible. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICP_license https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICP_license