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Chinese Mass Surveillance – Snowden
- rasengan 7y agoFree speech ends when you lose anonymity.
- maltalex 7y agoNo, free speech ends when you need to be anonymous to speak freely.
- jtms 7y agoIt’s both, losing your right to anonymity is a separate, but highly related rights violation (aka: right to privacy)
- deogeo 7y agoUnder our Constitution, anonymous pamphleteering is not a pernicious, fraudulent practice, but an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent. Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. [..] It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation--and their ideas from suppression--at the hand of an intolerant society. -- United States Supreme Court, McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- t34543 7y agoInterrogated because he complained about the police. They were oddly specific about the time the message was sent - yesterday around 9. Impressive turnaround for pursuing a thought crime: <24h. This is what all countries can look forward to when encryption is restricted or not end to end. It’s also a good reminder to treat fellow humans with respect even when you vehemently disagree on controversial topics. The right to expression must be protected.
- _-___________-_ 7y agoThe thing he complained about in the chat group (the cops confiscating motorbikes) was disturbingly common to see when I lived in Shanghai. A guy riding his tricycle (sometimes with a small battery to take the load off) piled high with cardboard he's bought from shops or scrap metal that he's bought from construction sites. He takes it to the recycling place and sells it for a profit of what probably amounts to a few dollars a day. And he's the first guy the cops seem to target to impound his bike, either because he was riding somewhere bikes are not allowed to, or because he doesn't have a license to make those few dollars a day doing that.
- hamhand 7y agohttps://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/12/31/dont-call-xi-bun-chinese-netizens-jailed-chatroom-jokes/ https://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/12/31/dont-call-xi-bun-chine... And interestly, WeChat claims they don't store user messages, but Chinese police apparently has it. Any app, website or forum on which users can post comments must verify ID-linked phone numbers first.
- baybal2 7y ago> WeChat claims they don't store user messages Does it really matter if it is PSB who stores it? :) Special police in every major city have a few hundred people whose full time job is to go through online correspondence. That's not even a secret.
- deogeo 7y agoUnfortunately, this is quickly coming to the West as well. I believe twitter, facebook, imgur, and gmail (and I'm sure I missed many others) all require phone number verification, and most countries require some sort of ID to get a phone number. And I say this with the direct opposite intent of whataboutism - it's horrifying in China, and if we let it, it'll be just as horrifying here.
- peteradio 7y agoI think we all know this means Chinese Quantum decryption efforts are further along than we thought.
- jtms 7y agoEncryption is either broken or its not. No one has broken modern strong encryption yet. Quantum computing as a threat to strong encryption is still purely theoretical. Also, you don’t need to use a quantum computer to break encryption when you hold the private keys, you just decode to plain text the normal way. This is exactly what they did
- peteradio 7y agoChrist this community is pedantic, its a joke!
- _bxg1 7y agoChina has to be on track for a revolution. Not today, not this year, probably not even this decade. But the human spirit cannot abide this level of oppression forever without recourse.
- hamhand 7y agoThe trick is to make just enough people of a society interest-vested and happy, gradually you can basically ignore the rest as they are poor and underpriviledged, especially since technology is more omnipresent and powerful than ever.
- DeonPenny 7y agoI think people need to stop believing this. It's how they got to this stage anyway. As long as western country trade with china and it raises their standard of living I doubt anything will change.
- PakG1 7y agoI don't think that's the case. That's a very teleological perspective. China is a very deontological society. I get the impression that many people in China would agree with the punishment in these instances. It's very weird to me. But it is what it is. When I talk with Chinese people, they would either agree with it, or they would prefer to say something like, "He should have known that he'd get punished for that." Never have I heard someone say something like, "Sheesh, that sucks." Definitely never have I heard someone say something like, "This is an outrage."
- jtms 7y agoDepends on which Chinese people you talk to.
- PakG1 7y agoYes, probably so. But I've lived 9 years in China now. I have friends across a wide spectrum of society. Anyone who actually doesn't like it still only say things like, "He should have known he would be punished for it. You shouldn't do things that put you in jail. You have responsibility to take care of your family and yourself first. You shouldn't be stupid."
- harryf 7y agoWow that cage thing he’s in is terrifying. Presumably the video was released to send a message
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- deogeo 7y agoI'd just like to note, this article is being downweighted very heavily. At the time of writing, it's 3 hours old with 77 points, yet it's in 97th place - 4th page, among day old articles with tens of points. On the other hand, "ChezWEB: Hygienic Literate Programming for Chez Scheme" is in 11th place, with 19 points and 6 hours old. I think political articles are downweighted in favor of more tech/hacker news, but "How Smartphones Betray Democracy" is in 23rd place, with 136 points and 12 hours old. Similar topic and age/points ratio to this one.
- gigama 7y ago"Uncle Police" must be the Chinese term for "Big Brother"