I think that's true for almost all the messengers. You dont know who is spying and peeping into your chatbox. We've given so much power to social media and softwares that they are kinda driving us now. Huh!!
We Chat, They Watch
331–340 of 555 posts
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#332It's not just WeChat. They own stakes in many american media companies and movie production houses. They use this influence to also change our Media and push pro-Chinese propaganda to the American public.
Can you show an example of blatant Chinese propaganda from those production houses? One that are clearly separated from opinion? Or are we using propaganda and opinions interchangeably here
How about the fact that a character in a Marvel movie, ostensibly an inoffensive family film, who was originally Tibetian, was changed to a white woman just so it could make money in China? I don't think Disney has any Chinese ownership, but it's pretty blatant that the industry is bending over backwards to not piss off China and get the box office returns there.
Here's a whole article on it: https://www.cnet.com/features/marvel-is-censoring-films-for-...
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#333Can someone from Google please explain why is this literal spyware allowed in Play Store? And why ISPs don't block such obvious widely spread spyware?
I'm not affiliated with any of the players. Still the reason of why Wechat is available is clear to me: Unlike many other apps that track you on the side, this one is actually needed by a large chunk of Android users. And I mean needed in the strong sense of losing family and business ties if it were removed. It's pretty much utility-level at this point.
If your store doesn't have it, people will use another store. And if your phone can't use that store, people will use another phone because that one is useless to them.
We should discuss how people can get better choices than Wechat. But in the end it will involve political solutions. Not just technical ones.
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#334[deleted]
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#335What a surprise...
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#336It’s worth noting that Facebook Messenger also intercepts and filters messages. For example, it’s impossible to send a message containing the link “joebiden.info”. On the mobile app, it will simply say “failed to send.” On desktop, it will tell you the link violates its “community standards” and cannot be shared.
The differences are: (1) with Facebook it's a private company doing the censoring and there's no issue with that, no First Amendment issues at all, unlike WeChat where the censoring is heavily linked to the government; (2) Facebook at least tells you when a message can't be sent but WeChat fails silently.
Mark Zuckerberg getting hauled in front of Congress could be viewed as not-so-subtle pressure. Even without explicitly requiring censorship, the government can pressure companies to enact it. At what point does that become a First Amendment issue?
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#337Earlier quoted context omitted.
Propaganda is propaganda. It does not surprise me and it is very obvious - even more obvious then the "USA SO HERO" and "WESTERN STUFF IS SO COOL" propaganda in movies.
Here's a really interesting article I read a while back that gave me some reconsideration for Western culture... I still don't know if I agree but it still gave me food for thought https://www.eurocanadian.ca/2020/04/what-i-learned-in-peace-... A little excerpt: "As a twenty-one-year-old starting out in the Peace Corps, I loved Senegal. In fact, I was euphoric. I quickly made friends and had an adopted family. I reli…
uhm, that excerpt is the single kernel that sticks out from the rest of the article
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use WeChat to talk to friends in China, (I live in HK) and I noticed that last year, especially when the protests were intense, many of my posts just didn't show up. These were mostly pictures unrelated to the protests. I had the sense that anything coming out of Hong Kong was just hidden by default.
lol, this is nothing new and nothing special. There are some words that just dont go through and messages dont arrive. I lived there and tried it with friends. You literally stand next to each other, some messages arrive, some dont. For me it is not a big deal - for most Chinese it is not a big deal. Somehow most people who never touched Wechat it seems to be a big deal.
I hope you are being sarcastic
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#339Earlier quoted context omitted.
Propaganda is propaganda. It does not surprise me and it is very obvious - even more obvious then the "USA SO HERO" and "WESTERN STUFF IS SO COOL" propaganda in movies.
Here's a really interesting article I read a while back that gave me some reconsideration for Western culture... I still don't know if I agree but it still gave me food for thought https://www.eurocanadian.ca/2020/04/what-i-learned-in-peace-... A little excerpt: "As a twenty-one-year-old starting out in the Peace Corps, I loved Senegal. In fact, I was euphoric. I quickly made friends and had an adopted family. I reli…
A white sepremacy blog, are you serious?
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is "have no choice" false when you have to pretend to be from another country to be able to use messaging services? If the choice is bordering on illegal (I'm not familiar with the intricacies of Chinese law but I'd assume it's atleast frowned upon to bypass their barriers) then is it really a choice? To me a choice would be that you could use the state sanctioned communication apps OR another one in the same way…
My understanding is that VPNs are not hard to get and are silently tolerated. Obviously, using them to then do something illegal like plan your own protests might get you in trouble, but using it to access YouTube or chat to someone overseas via WhatsApp is allowed.
They were tolerated at first but not as much any more. https://www.pcmag.com/news/china-starts-issuing-145-fines-fo...