4 ms·

Chinese censors go low-tech to clamp down on Twitter

49 points by gscott 8y ago

maxander 8y ago
> [...] had hacked into his Twitter account - @hesuoge - and [...] > [...] said the engineer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of landing in deeper trouble with authorities. Uh, what? Edit: Even worse, it's the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-censors-go-old-school-to-clamp-down-on-twitter-a-knock-on-the-door/2019/01/04/1bd462e4-f331-11e8-9240-e8028a62c722_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b460528a28a4 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-ce... . I'm missing something regarding twitter handles and anonymity, right?
- mc32 8y ago
  Obviously if the authorities visited “his house” they know who he is and where he lives. Be that as it may, he may not want to further broadcast who he is.
  - maxander 8y ago
    Such as broadcasting his twitter handle, like they did right there?
    - mc32 8y ago
      Ah I see your point. The anonymity desired might have been naive in asking not to publish his real name. He might have bern okay with handle—to give the news organs the benefit of doubt.
- gojomo 8y ago
  Twitter does a lot to de-anonymize people - like locking accounts until a phone number with a real name attached is provided. Then it also conplies with locally “legal” requests for user info. So any anonymity at Twitter is temporary & fragile. And efficient states will often engage in the ‘minimum viable persecution’ to satisfy their goals. Not every agency may have deanonymized the account, not all may care about foreign-language coverage, and those that do may have considered the deletion of the account, while it was generally pseudonymous, a sufficient message. But further complaints under a ‘real name’ – allowing further Chinese-language secondary coverage & fully de-anonymizing the account to the public – could easily draw further enforcement, from the same or other agencies.
MHordecki 8y ago
Looks like this website blocks access from Europe, presumably due to GDPR.
siscia 8y ago
I am from Europe and I am seeing 451 (the article is not available in my region) is this normal? Italy to be specific.
- hk__2 8y ago
  Same in France.
- spullara 8y ago
  Probably GDPR related. Many publishing sites aren't willing to bother for the EU.
- the_duke 8y ago
  See: https://outline.com/x43ECN https://outline.com/x43ECN
- baxtr 8y ago
  GDPR has been quite successful so far...
- lousken 8y ago
  mods should probably start updating links which are not accessible in EU to outline.com or similar
detcader 8y ago
Like what UK police did to Graham Lineham? https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/oct/07/graham-linehan-police-warning-complaint-by-stephanie-hayden-transgender-activist-twitter https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/oct/07/graham-lineh...
- andybak 8y ago
  How is that even slightly related?
andybak 8y ago
How ironic: 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons Sorry, this content is not available in your region.
- konschubert 8y ago
  GDPR. Welcome to the balkanization of the internet.
  - dane-pgp 8y ago
    By that logic, Google Safe Browsing had already balkanized the internet. You may be right, though.
jeremysalwen 8y ago
Can someone translate 超级低俗屠夫 and the context? I don't think it means "Super low-profile butcher".
- LeoPanthera 8y ago
  It's the nickname of this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Gan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Gan
LeoPanthera 8y ago
Archive for those in Europe: http://archive.vn/YjME8 http://archive.vn/YjME8
StreamBright 8y ago
Similar thing happened in Netherlands https://www.dw.com/en/online-anti-refugee-posts-lead-to-offline-visits-by-dutch-police/a-19005888 https://www.dw.com/en/online-anti-refugee-posts-lead-to-offl...
- mc32 8y ago
  I wouldn’t categorize it as similar. Now, ceratainly it has a chilling effect, but they’re not asking the person to delete their tweets, but rather be careful not to “incite” as they might attribute violence to the tweeter. It has a chilling effect on free speech, but on the other hand the posts are not getting removed.
ineedasername 8y ago
They didn't really go low tech though. Sure the guy got a knock on the door, but that didn't work. So the authorities went high tech, hacked his account and deleted everything.

49 points by gscott 8y ago

> [...] had hacked into his Twitter account - @hesuoge - and [...] > [...] said the engineer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of landing in deeper trouble with authorities. Uh, what? Edit: Even worse, it's the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-censors-go-old-school-to-clamp-down-on-twitter-a-knock-on-the-door/2019/01/04/1bd462e4-f331-11e8-9240-e8028a62c722_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b460528a28a4 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-ce... . I'm missing something regarding twitter handles and anonymity, right?

mc32 8y ago
Obviously if the authorities visited “his house” they know who he is and where he lives. Be that as it may, he may not want to further broadcast who he is.
- maxander 8y ago
  Such as broadcasting his twitter handle, like they did right there?
  - mc32 8y ago
    Ah I see your point. The anonymity desired might have been naive in asking not to publish his real name. He might have bern okay with handle—to give the news organs the benefit of doubt.
gojomo 8y ago
Twitter does a lot to de-anonymize people - like locking accounts until a phone number with a real name attached is provided. Then it also conplies with locally “legal” requests for user info. So any anonymity at Twitter is temporary & fragile. And efficient states will often engage in the ‘minimum viable persecution’ to satisfy their goals. Not every agency may have deanonymized the account, not all may care about foreign-language coverage, and those that do may have considered the deletion of the account, while it was generally pseudonymous, a sufficient message. But further complaints under a ‘real name’ – allowing further Chinese-language secondary coverage & fully de-anonymizing the account to the public – could easily draw further enforcement, from the same or other agencies.

MHordecki 8y ago

Looks like this website blocks access from Europe, presumably due to GDPR.

siscia 8y ago

I am from Europe and I am seeing 451 (the article is not available in my region) is this normal? Italy to be specific.

hk__2 8y ago
Same in France.
spullara 8y ago
Probably GDPR related. Many publishing sites aren't willing to bother for the EU.
the_duke 8y ago
See: https://outline.com/x43ECN https://outline.com/x43ECN
baxtr 8y ago
GDPR has been quite successful so far...
lousken 8y ago
mods should probably start updating links which are not accessible in EU to outline.com or similar

detcader 8y ago

Like what UK police did to Graham Lineham? https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/oct/07/graham-linehan-police-warning-complaint-by-stephanie-hayden-transgender-activist-twitter https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/oct/07/graham-lineh...

andybak 8y ago
How is that even slightly related?

andybak 8y ago

How ironic: 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons Sorry, this content is not available in your region.

konschubert 8y ago
GDPR. Welcome to the balkanization of the internet.
- dane-pgp 8y ago
  By that logic, Google Safe Browsing had already balkanized the internet. You may be right, though.

jeremysalwen 8y ago

Can someone translate 超级低俗屠夫 and the context? I don't think it means "Super low-profile butcher".

LeoPanthera 8y ago
It's the nickname of this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Gan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Gan

LeoPanthera 8y ago

Archive for those in Europe: http://archive.vn/YjME8 http://archive.vn/YjME8

StreamBright 8y ago

Similar thing happened in Netherlands https://www.dw.com/en/online-anti-refugee-posts-lead-to-offline-visits-by-dutch-police/a-19005888 https://www.dw.com/en/online-anti-refugee-posts-lead-to-offl...

mc32 8y ago
I wouldn’t categorize it as similar. Now, ceratainly it has a chilling effect, but they’re not asking the person to delete their tweets, but rather be careful not to “incite” as they might attribute violence to the tweeter. It has a chilling effect on free speech, but on the other hand the posts are not getting removed.

ineedasername 8y ago

They didn't really go low tech though. Sure the guy got a knock on the door, but that didn't work. So the authorities went high tech, hacked his account and deleted everything.