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The equivocating in this thread boggles the mind. - Windows isn't the only other OS, nor would that mean that what the CCP is doing with HarmonyOS is OK. - Ba
by jszymborski 3y ago
The equivocating in this thread boggles the mind.
- Windows isn't the only other OS, nor would that mean that what the CCP is doing with HarmonyOS is OK.
- Backdoors are the rule, not the exception in China. This is not true of the US.
- I disagree with the Patriot Act and NSLs, but let's not forget that the US is a free democracy and that those laws can change if there is political will. That isn't the case in China.
- kkzz99 3y agoIts like people completely forgot Prism. The caricature like understanding from Americans of China is mind boggling. I guess decades of McCarthyism takes its toll on the American mind.
- jszymborski 3y agoI'm Canadian, and I haven't forgot PRISM. It's not a caricature to call China an authoritarian government. PRISM doesn't change the later. Every time someone brings up the CCP doing something bad, I need to suffer some whataboutism re: the USA that is supposed to justify it. Backdoors are bad wherever they appear. Because China is an authoritarian regime, it can backdoor openly without consequence.
- vasac 3y agoAnd the consequences of discovering backdoors in the US were (checks notes) a manhunt for Snowden.
- jszymborski 3y agoThis is my eternal question on HN: Why is every criticism of China, no matter how small, invoke a million people who spring out of the wood work to decry the acts of the US by way of justification or radical digression. I am desperately pleading for an answer because for some reason there is a group of folks on this godforsaken website that can't help themselves from doing so and it's driving me absolutely mad. Can we please just acknowledge a criticism or statement of fact about the CCP? Is that allowed?
- kkzz99 3y ago[flagged]
- talldayo 3y agoI mean, there is the built-in iCloud backdoor that spies on Chinese citizens for the CCP: https://support.apple.com/en-us/111754 https://support.apple.com/en-us/111754 Considering how far America has gotten backdooring the iPhone, it would not surprise me if China had far more control than we thought.
- maxglute 3y ago[flagged]
- talldayo 3y ago> Then ask yourself why people can't equivocate between similarly "bad" US / PRC actions without customary muh freedom/democracy/violates are exceptions narrative. Pretty much nobody on this site (besides particular corporate sycophants) will deny that the US has nightmare-inducing surveillance capabilities. It's not hypocritical to call-out and identify another authoritarian overreach in another country that also threatens it's citizens. This isn't a slight against Chinese citizens or American citizens, for that matter. We know exactly who to blame - Google, Apple and Microsoft for rolling over when governments asked them to get backdoored. This started a privacy-shattering precedent that undermined trust even further than ever before, but now we accept it and readily spread it to our family in the form of a smartphone. Look at how easily all of us were fooled. Promote software freedom. Get people off proprietary shitware and bugged hardware. That's what matters to me, and any government that better enables me to do that earns my respect.
- kkzz99 3y ago[flagged]
- alephknoll 3y ago[flagged]
- snapcaster 3y agoto me it seems like there are systems of control in US, China, West whatever and the western ones are just a lot more subtle or savvier than the chinese equivalents but functionally serve a lot of similar purposes (For example, US media is always in lockstep on important issues despite being a "free" press!)
- wumeow 3y agoIt happens in every thread like this and it’s extremely frustrating, especially when you dig into the US side and find out it’s not as bad as the sensationalists make it seem.
- __m 3y agoWasn’t prism bad enough? You think the US would stop at making backdoor?