131–140 of 157 posts
I run infrastructure for a company that provides medical records services to medical organizations located exclusively in the US and have to deal with the usual scans/exploit attempts that come with running services on the public internet. Somedays I think it's just bonkers that anyone in China or Russia or wherever is allowed to contact my servers. I know that the internet is a "network of networks" to use an older…
What about a network of hacked starlink nodes? Would that provide a way around it?
There is always Packet Radio but it is slow as hell....
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a giant chasm between “Twitter gets to decide what it wants to host on its own web site” and “government censorship of speech”. It’s not in the same ballpark. It’s not even the same sport. Nobody has the obligation to publish, broadcast, or amplify someone else’s speech. If you don’t like one particular social media’s content policy, choose from one of the dozens of others or one of the thousands of web foru…
I will not go into the specifics of ideology or politics, but I will point out that I think your statements are valid but ignore the current reality. Consider "Parler": - They were trying to cater to users who were banned from twitter. - They set up services using AWS. AWS Banned them. - They built their own infrastructure to get around the ban. - Google/Apple banned them from their mobile devices so no user could us…
If alternative app stores were more popular (and useable at all on Apple devices) then Apple would not be able to unilaterally ban something.
I am not defending Parler specifically here at all - that place is a dumpster fire.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any practical grass-roots mesh wireless network would have to be built using commodity consumer WiFi hardware. People aren't going to go out and purchase spread spectrum radios, especially not in developing countries where governments are most likely to kill Internet access.
On the other hand, a shortwave radio is dirt cheap to build and can interface with the audio / mic ports on your smartphone / laptop. And the range is on the order of hundreds of miles.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"You have every right to go protest in that empty square over there."
You say this as a metaphor, but it is already the physical reality. I was at a US National Park in 2010, and in the parking lot outside the visitor's center (where it would get in nobody's way) was a roped off "Free speech zone." Despicable.
The trick is, of course, to not actually cause inconvenience in a way that hurts anyone (so do not protest obviously outside the doors of a hospital emergency room entrance) while simultaneously maximizing inconvenience for those that matter.
Time to start building long distance (100+ mile) mesh nets. Alternately, I wonder if there's any way to lay down fiber long distance that doesn't require govt authorization...and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
Or just Starlink or something else similar
Why wouldn’t they? Nominal proponents of open society in the West were all too happy to engage in censorship during an emergency rather than stand by their principles. What would motivate people to embrace an open society if the nominal proponents don’t?
I think pretty much nobody stands by their principles. Because ultimately principles are a means to an end, and if the end is not achieved, they're discarded. And this really makes perfect sense to me when you think of it. We're not logical robots. If whatever principles we hold backfire badly enough, we'll discard them or add exceptions because the reason for those principles is that we believe they make a better wo…
I personally would broaden the definition that a principle depends on the context, and in the simplest sense a principle has to work in your favor in the long run. For example honestly is generally a good policy, but not if you are a Jew trying to hide your ethnicity in Nazi Germany.
> India leads total shutdowns globally. In 2021, the world’s largest democracy shut off its internet 106 times – more than the rest of the world combined. Hardest-hit was the conflict-ridden region of Jammu and Kashmir, which was subject to 85 shutdowns under the guise of containing separatist violence. The blackouts shut down Zoom classes for students, stopped doctors from communicating with their remote patients an…
As an indian, I don't see anything wrong with my country having a kill switch for the internet because (1) India is a democracy (2) It is a foreign platform and (3) A kill switch for communication platforms is necessary to prevent rumour mongering or disrupt coordination during tense political situations like rioting (which is common in India). Note that this is not a new thing - every government also has a kill swit…
We have a nuclear device...
we carry out nuclear detonations every week... vs we would detonate one if someone uses nuke against us.
I hope point is clear.
"Freedom of the Press" is in the United States Bill of Rights (c.1789) because government control of information and mass media was a really old & familiar tactic even back then.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an indian, I don't see anything wrong with my country having a kill switch for the internet because (1) India is a democracy (2) It is a foreign platform and (3) A kill switch for communication platforms is necessary to prevent rumour mongering or disrupt coordination during tense political situations like rioting (which is common in India). Note that this is not a new thing - every government also has a kill swit…
Having a kill switch is not the issue,kill switch usage frequency is. We have a nuclear device... we carry out nuclear detonations every week... vs we would detonate one if someone uses nuke against us. I hope point is clear.
(While my explanation of the over abuse in J&K may have sounded like a defence of the government, I assure you it is not. I was just stating the facts for those unaware of why the abuses are more there, i.e. because it is a disputed region prone to conflict. I have also listed examples of how my own government has definitely gone overboard and abused it against legitimate / non-violent opposition, which is totally unacceptable in a democracy.)