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Seems to be terrorism related and not isolated to Element: The Indian government has blocked 14 messenger mobile apps that were used by terrorists in Pakistan
by achow 3y ago
Seems to be terrorism related and not isolated to Element:
The Indian government has blocked 14 messenger mobile apps that were used by terrorists in Pakistan to transmit information to Jammu & Kashmir.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/centre-blocks-14-mobile-apps-used-by-terrorists-in-pakistan-to-send-info-in-jammu-and-kashmir-101682913776616-amp.html https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/centre-blocks-14-m...
- Gigachad 3y agoIndia is a clown show. They recently banned VLC for piracy.
- ftyhbhyjnjk 3y ago60% politicians hold criminal records. Most are illiterate. Almost all are super corrupt.
- aww_dang 3y agoPolitics rewards dishonesty. All of the incentives are there. What else can be expected? Of course, true believers in Democracy will say, "We'll just vote out the bad ones". How is that working out?
- fafzv 3y agoI'll never get tired of saying it: politicians are the same as the citizens that vote them in. In India they won't vote out corrupt politicians because the citizenry is corrupt itself.
- SanderNL 3y agoLet’s just say education might be an issue.
- fafzv 3y agoIt's cultural, and I'm not sure I agree that it's an issue. Different cultures behave in different ways.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Etrnl_President 3y agoSure, blame the corruption on the people; It certainly has nothing to do with a system based on extortion, with no incentives to perform the functions it was allegedly established for, and every incentive to extract as much revenue from the citizenry as possible without a rebellion.
- isanjay 3y agoI think there is some truth in this. Politicians distribute huge sums of corrupt money to poor and lower middle class population just before elections. And your average Indian would love to get a government job that has scope of corruption. All in all you have culture where corruption in normalized.
- Sai_ 3y agoGive the country and its democracy some credit (Indian here). We’ve voted out charismatic leaders, we’ve voted in huge coalitions, we’ve ignored sympathy waves after political assassinations, power transfers have been uniformly peaceful since we gained independence. If this cultural/endemic corruption at work, I think most people in most countries would prefer this to whatever oligarchy, junta, theocracy, ruler-for-life-god-on-earth-ocrasy they suffer under.
- skinnymuch 3y agoIndia should be copying China from the foundation -- since Deng.
- ir123 3y agoEuropean citizens voted in genociders. According to this logic, europeans were also genociders
- alpaca128 3y ago> true believers in Democracy will say, "We'll just vote out the bad ones". How is that working out? Better than no democracy at all. I think anyone can see the problems with it.
- pedrogpimenta 3y agoAs someone said, Democracy is bad but not as bad as the other options.
- copper-float 3y agoWow, that is shocking.
- humanlion87 3y ago> Almost all are super corrupt. And do you think that is different from politicians in other countries?
- isanjay 3y agoYes. because on top of corrupt they are criminals most of them
- InCityDreams 3y ago>And do you think that is different from politicians in other countries? You are not alone - it is kinda similar in other countries. The only thing worse than a politician is someone that voted for them.
- xNeil 3y agoNot exactly. They banned VLC because a bunch of Chinese companies were spreading illegitimate versions of VLC disguised as the real package, and installing spyware alongside the media player. Not the best way to tackle the problem, but I think it's important to know exactly what happened. Also - I think the ban's gone - I just downloaded VLC yesterday. Probably because VideoLAN took the government to court.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lightwin 3y agoSo they banned the original source after finding out that there were illegitimate versions of VLC disguised as the real package? How did it solve the problem? Don't you think that after they banned the original, there would have been even more illegitimate versions?
- xNeil 3y agoVery valid point! They banned all VLC impersonators alongside VLC, I believe. Again - definitely not how you solve the problem. I was simply clarifying what had actually happened.
- harrymit907 3y agoThat is exactly what the clown show is about. Say, some Russian hackers are spreading malicious versions of Chrome, so do you go about banning the legitimate Google Chrome. If the government doing that is not a clown I don't know what is.
- suyash 3y agoThis is a foolish argument, the government always try to contact the local representative of that organization so if this were to happen they would get in touch with Google and ask them to investigate why there is malware in Chrome, that would certainly be Google's responsibility and if not handled properly, deserves a ban. The most important thing country needs to do is to protect it's citizens and that is what India is doing.
- koollman 3y agodid they use phones to communicate too ? they should ban that. And what about their voices ?
- codethief 3y agoAnyone know which other messenger apps are affected? The article (and the other one that the article refers to) don't say anything in this regard.
- azurenumber 3y agoList of 14 Apps Banned in J&K by Central Government As per the source, the GoI has banned a total of 14 apps and they are as follows: Crypviser Enigma Safeswiss Wickrme Mediafire Briar BChat Nandbox Conion IMO Element Second line Zangi Threema From : https://www.mysmartprice.com/gear/full-list-of-14-messenger-apps-banned-india/ https://www.mysmartprice.com/gear/full-list-of-14-messenger-...
- codethief 3y agoThanks, so Signal is not among them? Interesting. Or was it already banned before?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- throw101010 3y agoHas it ever been demonstrated that these bans actually hinder terrorists or criminals? It does feel like they would just move to the next app/protocol or even roll their own or use VPNs... so why are governments still penalizing 99.9% of the population which use these only to communicate normally (and use privacy protocols because they don't like the idea of being surveilled)? Are governments trying to funnel non-criminal people towards apps they can surveil completely to be able to control them even more? To what end?
- Etrnl_President 3y agoGovernments want to see the crazy people talk so they know whom they need to support and "catch" so they can justify their surveillance budgets.