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Why would peaceful demonstrators need to hide their identity? I have been to numerous peaceful protests in the US, even been attacked by observers, and have ne
by yters 6y ago
Why would peaceful demonstrators need to hide their identity?
I have been to numerous peaceful protests in the US, even been attacked by observers, and have never had to hide my identity.
Additionally, in a large crowd where most will not hide identities, this app is useless.
Only use case I can imagine is a one to many communication likely to be frowned on by authorities, which sounds like the coordination of illegal activity, such as violence and looting.
I wonder if any website where such techniques are popularized would consequently be considered an accessory to whatever illegal activity is being coordinated?
And even if not, as owner of such a platform, it would not rest easy on my conscience to know my site is being used to help coordinate activity that will hurt and harm a great many innocent people.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 6y agoDevil's advocate here but if I were a Nazi and wanted to peacefully protest I'd hide my face. If I were protesting for any socially unacceptable fringe group I'd rather hide my face.
- yters 6y agothat is precisely the sort of group i was protesting with, hence why i was attacked, and i had no need to hide my face because we were not doing anything illegal and the US is not nazi germany or the ccp. if it were, face blur filters would be the least of your concerns. this only makes sense in the context of conducting illegal activity in a lawful democracy
- regularfry 6y agoOnly if you think the lawful democracy is perfectly implemented, and we know that's not true.
- yters 6y agono place is perfect, but if we compare to say ccp us is still orders of magnitude better
- regularfry 6y ago"Over there is worse" is not equivalent to "over here is safe."
- yters 6y ago"over here is not perfect" is not equivalent to "over here is not safe" :) i just think we need to look at what we got compared to most places and times, and not be too quick to throw out the baby with the bathwater
- regularfry 6y ago> "over here is not perfect" is not equivalent to "over here is not safe" Yes, it is.
- yters 6y agoI doubt it. You seriously think police will go out of their way to look through these photos and arrest peaceful protesters? On the other hand, in China, just for having Signal or the like on your phone is enough to earn a stay in their concentration camp and some involuntary organ donation before getting disappeared for good. I would say there is at least a slight (very slight, mind you ;) difference between the two situations.
- regularfry 6y ago> You seriously think police will go out of their way to look through these photos and arrest peaceful protesters? Given everything else they seem to be getting up to, why take the risk? Especially when Facebook will do the hard job if tagging folks for them. I certainly know of police keeping their own photographic records of peaceful protestors, so why contribute to the problem? Also, why assume it's only the police a protestor might be worried about? > On the other hand, in China Don't care. Totally irrelevant. This is not a comparative exercise, and you can stop using it as a cheap deflection now.
- ajmurmann 6y agoEven peaceful protesters get at times attacked. Just last weekend a car drove into peaceful protesters twice in Portland, OR. A few months ago someone who regularly organized counter-protests against heavily armed, white supremacists protests got run over by a car and died as he left a pub known to be frequented by leftists. Look at all the cases of unprovoked, retalitory police violence over the last week. I understand why people are scared and want to stay anonymous. The US might not be run by the Nazi party or the CCP yet, but do I want to bet my safety that it won't in the next ten years or so? Especially given the trend over the last years.