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Indian government moves to ban ProtonMail after bomb threat

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Re: Indian government moves to ban ProtonMail after bomb threat

#41
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK government has tried to ban encryption time and time again. This is what happens when you have old/incompetent career politicians in power instead of deep thinkers like scientists and engineers.

Its possible for young people to make these mistakes. My wife is not an old man and her default position is not to defend e2e encryption. So all it takes is a spurious argument against it (think of the children!) and without skin in the game she is happy to go along. The argument is about proportional gain vs proportional loss and she is not aware of the devastating loss of privacy that would come from banning strong…

You could prevent this by teaching rational thinking and cognitive biases at the school level, but I assume the reason that hasn’t happened yet because said students would start calling out the hyperbole that politicians and business people often like to employ.

Re: Indian government moves to ban ProtonMail after bomb threat

#42
post #5

Ban everything you cannot control / understand! That is the classic Indian bureaucracy reaction. For example, They also banned tinted windows in cars after an assualt happened in a car. Then, there was a time where they banned something or the other on a daily basis. Even right now there is Section 144 imposed in multiple cities - which means a "ban" on "unlawful assembly" of 5 or more people. 5 or more people in mul…

> Now, how do they enforce / check these "assemblies of people" depends on the people you ask. I assume police officers enforce / check them when they need to fill their ticket quota, want to get money through a bribe, or just want to punish someone who personally annoyed them? That's how it usually works with half-enforced laws. In every law, there should be a requirement that it either gets enforced equally, or it…

It doesn't even have to be that deliberate - these kinds of things end up being the reason you can use when you can't find/prove another.

Which has 'good' uses too I suppose, as in where everyone agrees it was correct even if technical process a bit silly. (Not just cop on the street arresting 'obvious' drug dealers or whatever for unlawfully assembling, but charging mafia with tax evasion, or sexual assaulter CEOs with securities fraud.)

But.. I'm guessing the majority of unlawful 5 or more assembly cases are not 'good'.

Re: Indian government moves to ban ProtonMail after bomb threat

#43
post #5

Ban everything you cannot control / understand! That is the classic Indian bureaucracy reaction. For example, They also banned tinted windows in cars after an assualt happened in a car. Then, there was a time where they banned something or the other on a daily basis. Even right now there is Section 144 imposed in multiple cities - which means a "ban" on "unlawful assembly" of 5 or more people. 5 or more people in mul…

> Ban everything you cannot control / understand! That is the classic Indian bureaucracy reaction.

This is the classic reaction of any government. I assure you Indian one is not in any way unique. That's why you need a strong constitution and an independent constitutional court - hardly possible, but at least it's a goal.

Re: Indian government moves to ban ProtonMail after bomb threat

#44

https://www.onmanorama.com/content/mm/en/kerala/top-news/202... so apparently a child was abducted and one thing led to another and the child was recovered so the child revealed how he was shown tom and jerry cartoon. the police then went on a fishing trip and literally cross referenced which user in a particular area watched tom and jerry on youtube at a particular time/date to find the cuprits. if this wont get you…

This seems like normal police work?

Re: Indian government moves to ban ProtonMail after bomb threat

#45
post #5

Ban everything you cannot control / understand! That is the classic Indian bureaucracy reaction. For example, They also banned tinted windows in cars after an assualt happened in a car. Then, there was a time where they banned something or the other on a daily basis. Even right now there is Section 144 imposed in multiple cities - which means a "ban" on "unlawful assembly" of 5 or more people. 5 or more people in mul…

> Ban everything you cannot control / understand! That is the classic Indian bureaucracy reaction

Reminds me of how India's leading research institute removed ceiling fans to prevent student suicides

https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/iisc-ba...

Re: Indian government moves to ban ProtonMail after bomb threat

#46
post #14

India for all intents and purposes is now an ethno-national state with no press freedom, severe persecution of minorities, and human rights violations aplenty. I grew up in India when it was a relatively secular state. For example, when the Babri Masjid (mosque) was destroyed by Hindus in the early 90s, the national magazine, India Today and major newspapers led with the headline, "India's Shame" and acknowledge how…

1. No press freedom: what explains the presence and popularity of the wire, scroll, news minute, the quint, etc? Traditional print media that’s critical of the current party in power includes The Hindu, Telegraph etc. That there’s no press freedom is false. 2. Ethno-nationalist state: what ethnicity are we talking about here? BJP loses often in elections locally, and majority of their opponents are Hindus. What India…

As a data point, the previous government that grandparent speaks of also has been involved in actual suspension of democracy, abolition of press rights, and jailing of opposition leaders[1].

Indian administrations have always have had an authoritarian bent regardless of who has been in power.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emergency_(India)

Re: Indian government moves to ban ProtonMail after bomb threat

#47
This all seems a bit confused. This has nothing to do with encryption. ProtonMail cooperates with law enforcement to track down users, but they do need a proper legal process. They won't just release user information on a simple request. They do have the ability to capture IP addresses.

ProtonMail is accessible over Tor, but they don't allow registration/verification over Tor.

Re: Indian government moves to ban ProtonMail after bomb threat

#48
post #14

India for all intents and purposes is now an ethno-national state with no press freedom, severe persecution of minorities, and human rights violations aplenty. I grew up in India when it was a relatively secular state. For example, when the Babri Masjid (mosque) was destroyed by Hindus in the early 90s, the national magazine, India Today and major newspapers led with the headline, "India's Shame" and acknowledge how…

The mosque was converted by a judgement from India's Supreme Court. But yes, the administration's stunt of overtly participating in religious conflict by having the PM and country leaders inaugurate the temple sure leaves a bad taste.

Thankfully, religion as a whole is becoming increasingly irrelevant among new generations as Western individualism takes over. This incident will hopefully be remembered just as an appeasement tactic for old to middle-aged people and not an escalation.

Re: Indian government moves to ban ProtonMail after bomb threat

#49
post #14

India for all intents and purposes is now an ethno-national state with no press freedom, severe persecution of minorities, and human rights violations aplenty. I grew up in India when it was a relatively secular state. For example, when the Babri Masjid (mosque) was destroyed by Hindus in the early 90s, the national magazine, India Today and major newspapers led with the headline, "India's Shame" and acknowledge how…

Yeah not like they won a case in supreme court or something. Do you honestly believe they couldn't have done that with violence in all these years?

I don't understand, some people here just really have a beef with India/Hindus.

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