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> [...] had hacked into his Twitter account - @hesuoge - and [...] > [...] said the engineer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of landing in de

> [...] 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.

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.