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China launches app for citizens to report anyone who has 'mistaken opinions'

74 points by awb 6y ago

deleted 6y ago
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2Gkashmiri 6y ago
as always, india beat china to the punch by starting their own "volunteer program" https://www.voanews.com/press-freedom/plan-cyber-volunteers-police-indias-internet-draws-criticism https://www.voanews.com/press-freedom/plan-cyber-volunteers-... the important bit from the article "Volunteers would help law enforcement identify, report and remove illegal content online. Along with child-abuse violations, the flaggers would search for content deemed to go against the sovereignty or defense of India and state security, as well as “content aimed at disturbing public order.” Volunteers are advised on the ministry site to study Article 19 of the constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of opinion and expression." why should you need a third party mechanism to "report" child abuse violations when every public website/network has a report button and why should the government be first to know about it, even before the network actually hosting it? the government plans to what then? force the website to remove the child abuse content? wouldnt they do it anyways or face lawsuits anywhere in the world? so the reason would be something else and that is where "the flaggers would search for content deemed to go against the sovereignty or defense of India and state security, as well as “content aimed at disturbing public order." comes in. It is always about surveillance and now they are openly doing it, just like china so yeah
- nigerian1981 6y ago
  “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
- CodeGlitch 6y ago
  The UK is also going down this road with "non-crimes" (1). Although we haven't automated it with an app yet, although I'm sure we're not far off that dystopian future. (1) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8006275/Police-record-120-000-cases-non-crime-hate-incidents.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8006275/Police-reco...
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MarkusWandel 6y ago
Is it human nature or mere societal conditioning that makes people averse to snitching? Their social credit system - conformance at any cost; any dissenting thought, opinion or behaviour will be hammered down like the proverbial nail that sticks out - and now even gamifying snitching - how long until you can get social credit points for doing it - how can anyone imagine that this leads to an intellectually or economically competitive society? A tamer version of all this worked out great for the half of Germany I didn't grow up in, right? Pity that at my age (54) I may already be too old to see how this experiment ultimately plays out. Then again, everything seems to move at internet speed these days.
- ajkdhcb2 6y ago
  Seems like 15 years or so should be plenty of time to see a worldwide, incredibly deep dystopian shift. It's already well underway
  - numismatex 6y ago
    It depends on your ideology and stance. I think a good portion of most societies could use the culling that'll go along with it. Because no matter how you cut the pie, people are still people and just because you believe people are intrinsically good doesn't make it so. I think we should all be under surveillance 24/7/365, but then again I've been raped, beaten, tortured, home invaded and worse so I actually care about the important things like victims being able to put pieces of shit in prison.
- bradknowles 6y ago
  The Stasi found that people were all too willing to snitch on their neighbors. Just wait until everyone is a spy who is reporting on all your misdeeds to the police and the intelligence agencies.

74 points by awb 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

as always, india beat china to the punch by starting their own "volunteer program" https://www.voanews.com/press-freedom/plan-cyber-volunteers-police-indias-internet-draws-criticism https://www.voanews.com/press-freedom/plan-cyber-volunteers-... the important bit from the article "Volunteers would help law enforcement identify, report and remove illegal content online. Along with child-abuse violations, the flaggers would search for content deemed to go against the sovereignty or defense of India and state security, as well as “content aimed at disturbing public order.” Volunteers are advised on the ministry site to study Article 19 of the constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of opinion and expression." why should you need a third party mechanism to "report" child abuse violations when every public website/network has a report button and why should the government be first to know about it, even before the network actually hosting it? the government plans to what then? force the website to remove the child abuse content? wouldnt they do it anyways or face lawsuits anywhere in the world? so the reason would be something else and that is where "the flaggers would search for content deemed to go against the sovereignty or defense of India and state security, as well as “content aimed at disturbing public order." comes in. It is always about surveillance and now they are openly doing it, just like china so yeah

nigerian1981 6y ago
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
CodeGlitch 6y ago
The UK is also going down this road with "non-crimes" (1). Although we haven't automated it with an app yet, although I'm sure we're not far off that dystopian future. (1) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8006275/Police-record-120-000-cases-non-crime-hate-incidents.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8006275/Police-reco...

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

MarkusWandel 6y ago

Is it human nature or mere societal conditioning that makes people averse to snitching? Their social credit system - conformance at any cost; any dissenting thought, opinion or behaviour will be hammered down like the proverbial nail that sticks out - and now even gamifying snitching - how long until you can get social credit points for doing it - how can anyone imagine that this leads to an intellectually or economically competitive society? A tamer version of all this worked out great for the half of Germany I didn't grow up in, right? Pity that at my age (54) I may already be too old to see how this experiment ultimately plays out. Then again, everything seems to move at internet speed these days.

ajkdhcb2 6y ago
Seems like 15 years or so should be plenty of time to see a worldwide, incredibly deep dystopian shift. It's already well underway
- numismatex 6y ago
  It depends on your ideology and stance. I think a good portion of most societies could use the culling that'll go along with it. Because no matter how you cut the pie, people are still people and just because you believe people are intrinsically good doesn't make it so. I think we should all be under surveillance 24/7/365, but then again I've been raped, beaten, tortured, home invaded and worse so I actually care about the important things like victims being able to put pieces of shit in prison.
bradknowles 6y ago
The Stasi found that people were all too willing to snitch on their neighbors. Just wait until everyone is a spy who is reporting on all your misdeeds to the police and the intelligence agencies.