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Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey

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Re: Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey

#81

Post by mothballed »

viktorcode wrote: post #76

> the app enables communication even during network restrictions and creates a substantial risk of misuse by anti-national elements, terrorist organisations, organised criminal groups and cyber criminals seeking to evade lawful detection and continue communication despite legally imposed restrictions. This mouthful boils down to exactly this: a form of communication not controlled by the government creates a risk for…

Those "protections" are in place for the protection of the government, not the citizens. That's also why the US tried to classify encryption as arms and why they passed the gun control act (people nowadays might think modern gun control was passed to help school kids, no lmao, it was passed in response to the killing of JFK).

Re: Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey

#82

Post by viktorcode »

darreninthenet wrote: post #77
viktorcode wrote: post #76

> the app enables communication even during network restrictions and creates a substantial risk of misuse by anti-national elements, terrorist organisations, organised criminal groups and cyber criminals seeking to evade lawful detection and continue communication despite legally imposed restrictions. This mouthful boils down to exactly this: a form of communication not controlled by the government creates a risk for…

Playing Devils Advocate... isn't this the government taking action?

Blocking communications is basically sweeping the issue under the rug in the hopes that it dissolves on its own. This is closer to avoiding of "taking action"

Re: Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey

#85

Post by close04 »

kristjank wrote: post #52
josefresco wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starlink can be jammed.

Jamming can be defeated quite funnily, by digging a pit and putting the antenna at the bottom of it.

Or fly a plane or drone overhead and see [0] where the terminals are. After a few fines most people would decide it’s not worth the risk.

I remember how the Uber rollout worked in Berlin. Uber said they don’t need to comply with anything the city asked for and enjoyed their position in the safety of an ocean away so the local authorities instituted eye watering fines for drivers caught providing Uber rides. Uber decided to comply.

[0] https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2026/quadrf-can-spot-drone...

Re: Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey

#86

Post by verdverm »

mothballed wrote: post #51
josefresco wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starlink can be jammed.

It would be easier to shoot it out of the sky than try and jam a whole country from starlink

Putting aside the geopolitics of satellite destruction, we're likely moving to the realm of microwave based disablement instead of kinetic. It's the thing that can scale and provide some plausible deniability while the numbers are low.

Re: Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey

#87

Post by danw1979 »

darreninthenet wrote: post #77
viktorcode wrote: post #76

> the app enables communication even during network restrictions and creates a substantial risk of misuse by anti-national elements, terrorist organisations, organised criminal groups and cyber criminals seeking to evade lawful detection and continue communication despite legally imposed restrictions. This mouthful boils down to exactly this: a form of communication not controlled by the government creates a risk for…

Playing Devils Advocate... isn't this the government taking action?

Yes, misinformed and counterproductive action.

Re: Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey

#88

Post by mothballed »

close04 wrote: post #85
kristjank wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jamming can be defeated quite funnily, by digging a pit and putting the antenna at the bottom of it.

Or fly a plane or drone overhead and see [0] where the terminals are. After a few fines most people would decide it’s not worth the risk. I remember how the Uber rollout worked in Berlin. Uber said they don’t need to comply with anything the city asked for and enjoyed their position in the safety of an ocean away so the local authorities instituted eye watering fines for drivers caught providing Uber rides. Uber deci…

I can see how that worked in Berlin. In USA or someplace with a healthier culture of resistance that would fail laughably. Americans will drive with no license, registration, in cars they've stolen back from the repo man because they refuse to pay anything to anyone. When my car was totalled by an illegal alien, the police didn't even show up, wisely because they were surely driving without license, identity documents, insurance, registration, or any sort of recoverable assets or any way to punish them but to throw them in an overflowing jail. You could try fining them but it would be like trying to draw blood from a stone. I suppose could try to jail them, but you'd find our jails are already full, and we already let violent criminals out on bail.

In much of the world including USA poor people will slang crack for $5 under threat of life in jail and fines higher than they could ever hope to pay. Suffice to say there's an endless line of people willing to uber for roughly crack slinging wages without the risk of life imprisonment even if the fines are as bad -- because their alternatives are worse.

Re: Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey

#90

Post by iamnothere »

close04 wrote: post #85
kristjank wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jamming can be defeated quite funnily, by digging a pit and putting the antenna at the bottom of it.

Or fly a plane or drone overhead and see [0] where the terminals are. After a few fines most people would decide it’s not worth the risk. I remember how the Uber rollout worked in Berlin. Uber said they don’t need to comply with anything the city asked for and enjoyed their position in the safety of an ocean away so the local authorities instituted eye watering fines for drivers caught providing Uber rides. Uber deci…

Depends on how many terminals there are and whether or not the neighborhoods they are in are sympathetic to the operators. It’s very easy to move them.

Resistance against totalitarianism is a duty.

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