151–160 of 261 posts
Here I am wondering why a censorship proof meshnet version of WhatsApp or Telegram has not reached wide popularity in these countries yet.. is it because these governments dictate they be blocked from the app store? Another reason why we need sideloading ..
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Culture moves both ways. I would rather American companies not get so comfortable with blatant censorship. While we do still have some degree of censorship (and a whole lot pf privacy violation), it’s still generally seen as a taboo and not as a moral or necessary thing. Once the social standards change however, the goalpost moves and it becomes harder to maintain the same freedoms we had before.
Should American companies pull out of Germany instead of banning Nazi propaganda? The UK instead of removing court-ordered offensive speech? I mean, maybe, but since the US has the least-restricted speech of basically any nation, you are de-facto asking for a nationally partitioned internet. That's a big change.
That would be a little ironic since it was the US who pushed for such laws in post-war Germany in the first place.
Oppressive governments must be thankful to all BigTechs able to consolidate userbase and services around a handful of apps. It makes it really easy to switch things on/off when needed. The original purpose of the Internet as being a resilient p2p network for the people has been completely defeated in some nations.
Building a resilient p2p service on the internet doesn't just require not using big name SaaS, it means building that service to not need the WebCAs or even DNS, two core services that are anything but p2p. I honestly don't know of any applications that require neither.
Are you concerned with countries forcefully removing entries? Because there are a lot of other country TLDs where you can add your entries if you want.
Let's hope the prosters are successful this time.
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I'm sure repressive governments will make it illegal to use phones that can connect to Starlink. Satellite phones are banned in India, for example. You will be arrested for a lot longer for owning a satellite phone than if you owned a gun illegally.
Let's see the governments try to ban iPhone. What a nice revolution trigger.
Slight OT: When I was in Monaco recently the Monaco Telecom network prevented me making or receiving WhatsApp calls. I could message, but no calling. Presumably therefore it is something that the network provider can interfere with effectively.
I'm a little surprised Whatsapp even works (worked) in Iran, given the US sanctions against the country.
Iran seems to think Whatsapp & Instagram are destabilizing such that turning them off can help quell domestic unrest. A couple of takeaways. First, holy shit. Communications software is powerful enough to put fear in the hearts of political rulers! Second, insofar as sanctions are designed as punitive measures against a government who's actions our government doesn't support, it makes no sense to restrict their acces…
Of course it is. No government wants people to get falseful information from unapproved sources.
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If it’s is true what you say the fact that so many of the population are primed to rebel mean the unrest already existed and would have been unleashed with another trigger.
It is not the truth about the trigger that matters here but the truth about the situation which has prepared the unrest.
I'm a little surprised Whatsapp even works (worked) in Iran, given the US sanctions against the country.
Iran seems to think Whatsapp & Instagram are destabilizing such that turning them off can help quell domestic unrest. A couple of takeaways. First, holy shit. Communications software is powerful enough to put fear in the hearts of political rulers! Second, insofar as sanctions are designed as punitive measures against a government who's actions our government doesn't support, it makes no sense to restrict their acces…
Yes. Encryption software can also defeat courts, judges, governments, militaries.
Oppressive governments must be thankful to all BigTechs able to consolidate userbase and services around a handful of apps. It makes it really easy to switch things on/off when needed. The original purpose of the Internet as being a resilient p2p network for the people has been completely defeated in some nations.