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The whataboutism WRT to the NSA detracts from the importance of the issue. > I am not sure what is news here. In fact, the Chinese government goes to great le
by Dig1t 6y ago
The whataboutism WRT to the NSA detracts from the importance of the issue.
> I am not sure what is news here.
In fact, the Chinese government goes to great lengths to downplay and hide the extent of their censorship efforts, and it might actually be a surprise to some people. It is worthwhile discussing ALL forms of censorship, whether it be by the NSA, Beijing, or corporations. The only way we can deal with these issues is by discussing them at length and raising awareness.
- xvector 6y agoI agree. I added a bit describing how whining about government censorship is pointless so long as we support centralized social media, which is the real problem here. It is hypocritical for HN to cheer on censorship by Twitter and Big Tech while upvoting this article. The fundamental problem here, underlying both Chinese and American censorship/surveillance, is that we have willingly handed control of the public square over to an entity beholden to one that does not have our best interests in mind. So long as we let the public square rest in the hands of these entities, democracy will slowly slip from our hands, one ban and censor at a time. You can’t blame China or ByteDance or Twitter or the NSA for this sort of thing. The natural state of governments and corporations is vying for more power and wealth at all costs, democracy be damned. The blame rests on us, the people, for trusting corporations with our speech.