Live data from Hacker News

China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

thediplomat.com

141–150 of 211 posts

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be pretty surprised. Not everyone in the UK has ID, and since the NIC scheme failure, it's less likely than ever to happen. ID isn't even required to vote at the moment...

That is a minor oversight that will probably be rectified at some point — other countries are doing it, it is already required in Northern Ireland, and in 2018 a pilot will be held introducing the requirement in a number of districts¹. People likely won't resist it too much. We've had this identification requirement imposed upon us in the Netherlands a few years ago, and while there is valid criticism on this require…

It has been tried, and on the whole, it wasn't a success at all: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_Cards_Act_2006

Only an extraordinarily confident and popular government would have another go (and it's not what the UK has now).

As for the voting scheme you describe, it's entirely voluntary, for 2018, and no council has signed up yet.

Things may move in that direction slowly, but to suggest that the UK is particularly close to requiring ID for internet accounts is downright silly I'm afraid.

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there is plenty of opposition from "the left" itself against that kind of censorship

Whereas there's no opposition from "the right" against the Nazis for examples?

Obviously most of the right is against Nazis, but the modern conservative faction seems to draw a much higher ratio of violence and fascist rhetoric than the left.

When something happens, the media gives right-wing fascists the benefit of the doubt; "we don't know who he is", "he doesn't represent the movement", "he was scared", "he was attacked", "he's crazy", and once the proof is out they tend to draw false equivalencies with left.

That doesn't happen as much on the left - it's stigmatized full stop, no excuses. CNN's clickbait news will drag it out

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#143
post #5

There are a dozen popular live streaming apps in China where one can simply just stream what you're doing to everyone on the site and people can just watch them for hours. You can think of it like Instagram stories or Snapchat per se. Or even Facebook live. This isn't some western media propaganda. I tried one of them very recently (I don't want to give them any undeserved marketing), they allowed me to sign up and t…

> Imagine, Facebook asking you to upload your passport before you do a live stream. It wouldn't surprise me if a Western government (probably the UK's) considers introducing legislation to require exactly this in the not-too-distant future, most likely under the guise of preventing the spread of extremist propaganda. If they do, companies like Facebook and YouTube will face a choice between acceding to the new regula…

NSTIC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Strategy_for_Trusted_...

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine, Facebook asking you to upload your passport before you do a live stream. It wouldn't surprise me if a Western government (probably the UK's) considers introducing legislation to require exactly this in the not-too-distant future, most likely under the guise of preventing the spread of extremist propaganda. If they do, companies like Facebook and YouTube will face a choice between acceding to the new regula…

Also under the guise of child porn. Terrorism and "won't anybody think of the children" are a winning combo for people looking to restrict liberties.

Don't forget the "we have to stop online harassment" hysteria.

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#145
post #114
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you actually used any of these? Alibaba is worse than Craigslist. Leaders they are not,

Try using WeChat every day for a few months and then tell me again they're not leading the pack. I don't even use it in China (where it's power is significantly higher than everywhere else), yet even ignoring features that only work in China, it is by far the most powerful messaging client currently available.

Define, "powerful" because WeChat is the only chat application I know if that has built-in government censorship. That sounds like the opposite of "powerful" to me.

"Enjoy chatting with your friends while the government of China monitors your every character and transaction!"

...unless you meant "powerful censorship and dissent-destroying spy capabilities."

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine, Facebook asking you to upload your passport before you do a live stream. It wouldn't surprise me if a Western government (probably the UK's) considers introducing legislation to require exactly this in the not-too-distant future, most likely under the guise of preventing the spread of extremist propaganda. If they do, companies like Facebook and YouTube will face a choice between acceding to the new regula…

Also under the guise of child porn. Terrorism and "won't anybody think of the children" are a winning combo for people looking to restrict liberties.

Don't forget neo-nazi "threat". The entire establishment media/propaganda apparatus coordinated their attack together to institute censorship regime on the internet.

They bind our hands and tape our mouths all under the guise of protecting us.

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#147

I grew up in China and came to the U.S. more than 10 years ago. What I have been seeing is the decline of the United States. That's said, I'm worrying about China a lot more. I think it's on track to repeat the mistakes it had done before. You often see articles here saying China will surpass the States in A.I. and science. I doubt it. I doubt a country without freely accessible information will be competent. I doubt…

> Europe is weak and is at its bottom Weak in what sense?

plus i think we already bottomed and now higher than that

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#148

I grew up in China and came to the U.S. more than 10 years ago. What I have been seeing is the decline of the United States. That's said, I'm worrying about China a lot more. I think it's on track to repeat the mistakes it had done before. You often see articles here saying China will surpass the States in A.I. and science. I doubt it. I doubt a country without freely accessible information will be competent. I doubt…

Maybe it's decline, or maybe it's just slowly taking off the rose colored glasses that younger people tend to wear :)

There is no replacing the US anytime soon and if there is, all the problems you mentioned will persist.

Why wouldn't they?

When you're younger you think there's some villain comic book style, that you have to overcome. You know, a Hitler. Then the world's going to be different.

It's not like that - the country is a reflection of it's citizens - narrow minded citizens, narrow minded governments.

If you want to know where things are headed - just go watch some TV. Is it uplifting/informing or dumbing things down? That's the general direction we as a society are heading in.

As for hiding somewhere and doing your own thing - that's what scientists and intelligent people do - find their niche that is ok according to society (allows them to make a comfortable living), and pursue their intellectual curiosity there.

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#149
post #5

There are a dozen popular live streaming apps in China where one can simply just stream what you're doing to everyone on the site and people can just watch them for hours. You can think of it like Instagram stories or Snapchat per se. Or even Facebook live. This isn't some western media propaganda. I tried one of them very recently (I don't want to give them any undeserved marketing), they allowed me to sign up and t…

loyalty? what other options have people who don't like CCP - vote for different party, go to jail for actions against social order, move abroad? i don't see any of these changing status quo

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#150

At least here in the states, social media + anonymity hasn't exactly been a boon for human progress. I will never support the laws being proposed in places like the u.k and China, but I like the fact that we are forced to grapple with these ethical issues when laws like this are proposed. Humanity is mainlining an experimental drug in social media. What makes it insideous is that most don't realize it. Governments ar…

> At least here in the states, social media + anonymity hasn't exactly been a boon for human progress.

I'm geniunely astounded at the small but vocal pro-censorship group on hackernews of all places. Where did this come from?

Just 5 or 10 or 15 years ago, the idea of any tech minded person being anti-anonymity would be incredibly shocking.

Just in the past 2 or 3 years, there has been quite a small vocal group advocating against anonymity and advocating for censorship. Why?

Not only that, there have been a rise in anti-open source software, anti-GNU, anti-linux rhetoric that is slowly rising on social media as well.

I'm just curious what the mindset or rationale is? Is it because hackernews has grown in popularity beyond the programmers/IT crowd?

Post reply on HN