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I have so many Chinese friends that want me to get Wechat. Should I get it? Im worried about it's connections with the CCP though.

FooBarWidget 6y ago
Chinese here. I don't get your worries. Yes your conversation will be monitored. But you know that. And let's face it, 99.9% of your conversation won't be political (I'm just making an educated guess here; I don't know you), nor about sensitive subjects. If you want to talk about sensitive subjects, you can always ask those friends to get off Wechat and on a different channel, specifically for those subjects. For the 99.9% of fun, personal conversations that are about cat photo sharing, pizza recipes and the latest celebrities, Wechat is not a problem. CCP really doesn't care about those, they just care that nobody on Wechat causes trouble (by their definition of "trouble"). When do you accidentally say something considered not OK, the worst that happens is that the message gets deleted. They don't go after people unless you're instigating mass protests or something like that. You won't get advertisements about CCP propaganda. Unless you subscribe to those channels yourself.
- rtx 6y ago
  Agreed, though anyone planning to visit China and vocal against CCP should not use it.
- jariel 6y ago
  This is terrible advice. Everything you put in there, the CCP will use to learn about you, your connections, your friends. And what is a 'sensitive subject'? AI? NLP? Software? Portland Protest? Donald Trump? "When do you accidentally say something considered not OK, the worst that happens is that the message gets deleted." This is a really odd thing to say. 1) "When you accidentally say something" ... what kind of ridiculous world is that? 2) "Worst case, deleted" - obviously there are far worse things that can happen. " get off Wechat and on a different channel, specifically for those subjects." Yes, do that for everything.
  - FooBarWidget 6y ago
    It wasn't advice. It was an opinion. I can tell you that AI, NLP, software, Portland Protest, and Donald Trump all aren't sensitive subjects. Tiananmen obviously is. But let's face it. Are you going to talk about Tiananmen and similar subjects all day long? Most Chinese people are apolitical. As I said, 99.9% of your conversations won't be about anything political. Yes I get that you're ideologically opposed to censorship, and that we "shouldn't have to" move to a different platform to talk about certain subjects. I agree. I'm not talking about ideology, I'm talking about what's practical. You want to put up a barrier between yourself and your Chinese friends on the odd chance that 0.1% of your conversations might be about Tiananmen, and you can't be bothered to move to another platform? You have to pick your battles. Let's face it: even if you refuse to use Wechat due to ideology, you won't change anything about the censorship policy. And your Chinese friends clearly don't care, and if the Chinese government answers to anybody then it would be first to them, and maybe a few kilometers behind them, be interested in what you think. So why are you taking this ideological stance for them? Isn't Chinese censorship mainly their problem and not yours? If you want to convince your Chinese friends of how evil CCP is, and therefore that they should ban Wechat, go ahead. But don't you think that it should be their choice and not yours?
    - creato 6y ago
      > You want to put up a barrier between yourself and your Chinese friends on the odd chance that 0.1% of your conversations might be about Tiananmen, and you can't be bothered to move to another platform? This kind of thinking is exactly why WeChat should be banned. China has banned every other means of communication, so it's the only option. Banning WeChat isn't a provocation, it's reciprocation.
      - FooBarWidget 6y ago
        Reciprocation, for what? For censoring their own citizen? That's like saying China should sanction the US for crimes during BLM. Of course censorship isn't okay, but US doesn't get to play world police. And you're supporting this attack in order to spite China, while totally ignoring practical outcomes for Chinese people, the very people you claim to support? "We support you, we just hate your government. So we'll forcefully liberate you, even if you didn't ask for liberation." Live and let live. Is that so hard?
- fsflover 6y ago
  > If you want to talk about sensitive subjects, you can always ask those friends to get off Wechat and on a different channel, specifically for those subjects. Isn't you device already potentially compromised when you install WeChat?
  - FooBarWidget 6y ago
    On iOS, every app is fully sandboxed from all others. You can't even run background processes on iOS. Anything that modifies system behavior (such as activating a VPN that snoops traffic) requires system confirmation dialogs. No compromise can happen here. On Android, isolation is not as strict and there are more holes. But each app runs as a separate Linux user, and with each Android version Google locks down the security model more. Rootkits like you find on Windows just aren't possible on iOS and Android. I believe they still allow clipboard snooping. I can't confirm nor deny whether Wechat does this. Apple and Google should do something about that and further restrict their security model.
    - fsflover 6y ago
      > with each Android version Google locks down the security model more Except most people will never get those updates.

FooBarWidget 6y ago

Chinese here. I don't get your worries. Yes your conversation will be monitored. But you know that. And let's face it, 99.9% of your conversation won't be political (I'm just making an educated guess here; I don't know you), nor about sensitive subjects. If you want to talk about sensitive subjects, you can always ask those friends to get off Wechat and on a different channel, specifically for those subjects. For the 99.9% of fun, personal conversations that are about cat photo sharing, pizza recipes and the latest celebrities, Wechat is not a problem. CCP really doesn't care about those, they just care that nobody on Wechat causes trouble (by their definition of "trouble"). When do you accidentally say something considered not OK, the worst that happens is that the message gets deleted. They don't go after people unless you're instigating mass protests or something like that. You won't get advertisements about CCP propaganda. Unless you subscribe to those channels yourself.

rtx 6y ago
Agreed, though anyone planning to visit China and vocal against CCP should not use it.
jariel 6y ago
This is terrible advice. Everything you put in there, the CCP will use to learn about you, your connections, your friends. And what is a 'sensitive subject'? AI? NLP? Software? Portland Protest? Donald Trump? "When do you accidentally say something considered not OK, the worst that happens is that the message gets deleted." This is a really odd thing to say. 1) "When you accidentally say something" ... what kind of ridiculous world is that? 2) "Worst case, deleted" - obviously there are far worse things that can happen. " get off Wechat and on a different channel, specifically for those subjects." Yes, do that for everything.
- FooBarWidget 6y ago
  It wasn't advice. It was an opinion. I can tell you that AI, NLP, software, Portland Protest, and Donald Trump all aren't sensitive subjects. Tiananmen obviously is. But let's face it. Are you going to talk about Tiananmen and similar subjects all day long? Most Chinese people are apolitical. As I said, 99.9% of your conversations won't be about anything political. Yes I get that you're ideologically opposed to censorship, and that we "shouldn't have to" move to a different platform to talk about certain subjects. I agree. I'm not talking about ideology, I'm talking about what's practical. You want to put up a barrier between yourself and your Chinese friends on the odd chance that 0.1% of your conversations might be about Tiananmen, and you can't be bothered to move to another platform? You have to pick your battles. Let's face it: even if you refuse to use Wechat due to ideology, you won't change anything about the censorship policy. And your Chinese friends clearly don't care, and if the Chinese government answers to anybody then it would be first to them, and maybe a few kilometers behind them, be interested in what you think. So why are you taking this ideological stance for them? Isn't Chinese censorship mainly their problem and not yours? If you want to convince your Chinese friends of how evil CCP is, and therefore that they should ban Wechat, go ahead. But don't you think that it should be their choice and not yours?
  - creato 6y ago
    > You want to put up a barrier between yourself and your Chinese friends on the odd chance that 0.1% of your conversations might be about Tiananmen, and you can't be bothered to move to another platform? This kind of thinking is exactly why WeChat should be banned. China has banned every other means of communication, so it's the only option. Banning WeChat isn't a provocation, it's reciprocation.
    - FooBarWidget 6y ago
      Reciprocation, for what? For censoring their own citizen? That's like saying China should sanction the US for crimes during BLM. Of course censorship isn't okay, but US doesn't get to play world police. And you're supporting this attack in order to spite China, while totally ignoring practical outcomes for Chinese people, the very people you claim to support? "We support you, we just hate your government. So we'll forcefully liberate you, even if you didn't ask for liberation." Live and let live. Is that so hard?
fsflover 6y ago
> If you want to talk about sensitive subjects, you can always ask those friends to get off Wechat and on a different channel, specifically for those subjects. Isn't you device already potentially compromised when you install WeChat?
- FooBarWidget 6y ago
  On iOS, every app is fully sandboxed from all others. You can't even run background processes on iOS. Anything that modifies system behavior (such as activating a VPN that snoops traffic) requires system confirmation dialogs. No compromise can happen here. On Android, isolation is not as strict and there are more holes. But each app runs as a separate Linux user, and with each Android version Google locks down the security model more. Rootkits like you find on Windows just aren't possible on iOS and Android. I believe they still allow clipboard snooping. I can't confirm nor deny whether Wechat does this. Apple and Google should do something about that and further restrict their security model.
  - fsflover 6y ago
    > with each Android version Google locks down the security model more Except most people will never get those updates.