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One thing is for sure. These technologies don't make protest or revolution any easier. They give asymmetric power to whoever wields them (the state) against who
by energy123 2y ago
One thing is for sure. These technologies don't make protest or revolution any easier. They give asymmetric power to whoever wields them (the state) against whoever doesn't (a loose collection of angry people on the street without the same tools).
This isn't the 1800s anymore where the most powerful tool was a gun, and you could distribute these symmetrically across state and people to keep the state in check.
Surveillance, crowd control weapons, access to banking, control over media, eventually AI and widespread robotics, have properties that empower the state. In the context of mass protest, the status quo gets harder and harder to dislodge.
None of this matters much while democracy is still existing, but it's a risk that's there. It makes the fall of democracy more of an absorbing state that you can't escape from.
- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 2y agoThe encryption gives asymmetric power to the people. Tor and Matrix for communications that can't be broken by the rich, no matter how powerful. Bitcoin for free transactions, vpn and torrent for the media etc.
- hayst4ck 2y agoYou have a lot more faith in technology than me. There is a strong history of compromising data at rest (such as in phone backups) and getting metadata either directly or through side channels. It's not very hard for me to imagine a system that tells you who is talking with who, when, and with what IPs no matter how anonymized you think you are. That all assumes good opsec too. My understanding is that Tor was compromised several years ago. Pegasus alone means that once you become a target, you're done. It also means these "defenses" are only generally available to the technically savvy.
- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 2y agoIt's easy to encrypt the backups (don't use g$$gle or apple clouds, of course).
- jq-r 2y agoThat well might be true. But what about the people upu communicate with? They have messages from you, and probably don't have airgapped backups. So your ironclad backups don't matter much.
- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 2y agoWhat I like in Telegram (though I don't use it), you can force delete messages on your interlocutor's device, at any time.
- hayst4ck 2y agoTelegram is Russian owned and run out of a monarchy. Telegram is not anyone's friend. "delete" is also not a black and white concept. There are many degrees of deletion.
- immibis 2y agoTelegram used to be very hands-off with messages, no matter how criminal, unless they were hurting Telegram itself (spam). Then its owner got arrested for having actual knowledge of criminal activity and still not stopping it. Now it cares about reports, bans criminals and reports them to the police. There are rumours it uses keyword scans to find things that are not reported. Remember it has your phone number which is linked to your ID card.
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- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 2y agoThere is a way to sign up without phone number, albeit rather convoluted. Certainly doable for a determined criminal :)
- immibis 2y agoCommunication does not cause change. There are two factions at war. One has uncensored communication (but has been conditioned to only use censored forms) and the other has unlimited access to guns, bombs, and napalm, as well as uncensored communication on all platforms, including the most popular ones where it censors and gaslights the other faction. Which one wins the war? It's a trick question. The former group have been made complacent. No war occurs. It was won before it started.