Live data from Hacker News

Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

qz.com

11–20 of 125 posts

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#11
post #6

Worth mentioning in case anyone in HongKong or China needs it: Streisand can help you set up a VPN to avoid censoring[1] https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand

Isn't naming an anti censorship tool "streisand" similar to naming an anti-facism tool "hitler"?

A bit of an exaggeration don't you think?

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#12
post #7

Um, Hong Kong is OUTSIDE the Chinese firewall (for now) More likely they are doing this to preserve anonymity

The article says it's to share news with tourists in HK, who would have previously been behind the firewall.

> But news of the protest has been heavily censored in mainland China, with any mention of the mass movement wiped off the Chinese internet.

> Hong Kong’s protesters have therefore turned to Apple’s AirDrop feature to get their message across to their mainland Chinese compatriots. That the messages are written in simplified Chinese—Hong Kongers use traditional Chinese—confirm that the intended audience is Chinese tourists.

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#14
post #7

Um, Hong Kong is OUTSIDE the Chinese firewall (for now) More likely they are doing this to preserve anonymity

This is about protesters subverting the purpose of the firewall, not a technical loophole. Tourists from mainland China might not know about the protests, because of the firewall. Protestors are using AirDrop to directly deliver photos and information to the tourists, which is probably much more effective than physical posters that people can ignore or rip down.

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#16
post #10
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't naming an anti censorship tool "streisand" similar to naming an anti-facism tool "hitler"?

Not really. Streisand Effect is defined as "a phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely."[0], so it seems to fit perfectly 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

Sure. And the "Hitler Effect" is defined as "a phenomenon whereby an attempt to create a genocidal fascist government has the unintended consequence of uniting nations of the earth committed to the destruction of said government"

I was just pointing out the irony that an anti-censorship tool was named after a pro-censorship person

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#17
post #9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't naming an anti censorship tool "streisand" similar to naming an anti-facism tool "hitler"?

Only if Hitler had tried but failed at fascism and inadvertently made people more free instead.

I mean... Hitler did fail in the end. Germany is certainly more free post Hitler than it was pre Hitler

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#18
post #2

is there any open source alternative to firechat ( https://www.opengarden.com/firechat/ ), which seems to now require internet account creation prior to use? something imbued with cryptography that communicates purely via local peer discovery/hopping such as wifi/bluetooth/optical signaling, etc.

This is one of the edge cases that makes me dislike Apple's walled garden. The Chinese gvt can simply request that Apple remove firechat and other decentralized chat apps from the App Store and that's that.

Re: Hong Kong’s protesters use AirDrop to spread information to mainland visitors

#20
post #13
post #8

Seems like a click bait article, there's no China firewall in Hong Kong and plenty of free Wifi spots.

Ok, we've taken the firewall out of the title above.

"Hong Kong's protesters use AirDrop" seems a drastic redaction. It would be helpful to know _what_ they're using AirDrop for.

How about "Hong Kong's protesters use AirDrop to spread their message to Mainland tourists"? "Hong Kong's protesters use AirDrop to inform tourists why they protest"?

Post reply on HN