How does the blocking actually happen? What if people used a decentralized service, that worked over https?
I think peer discovery is still a difficult issue?
China Blocks WhatsApp
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Re: China Blocks WhatsApp
#12How does the blocking actually happen? What if people used a decentralized service, that worked over https?
The mechanism of blocking is the Internet firewall with deep packet inspection and protocol sniffing, together with lots of human intervention and tracking.
Re: China Blocks WhatsApp
#13This is getting really strict.
I went to China around 2012:
* Facebook was already blocked
* Google and wikipedia magically stopped working when you searched for "tiananmen"
* Gmail worked fine
I returned in early 2017, oh god what a change:
* Don't even think about Facebook
* Ironically Facebook messenger worked until my session expired
* No gmail, google at all (don't remember about Wikipedia)
* Whatsapp worked fine
And now it is even getting worse....
Re: China Blocks WhatsApp
#14So brown nosing with comrade Jinping did not have a desired result. For those not aware: Zuck asked him to name his first born. Jinping declined. :-)
Re: China Blocks WhatsApp
#15Edit: This is not a justification or defense of internet censorship. It is an explanation of why the Chinese public may be more willing to accept strict government controls than the West.
While most Westerners see actions like this as serious violations of individual rights, the Chinese are used to such exercises of control by their leaders. There is a firm historical basis for similar behavior going back thousands of years, and the desire for social harmony and stability which in part enables strict government control through tacit public acceptance is deeply rooted in Chinese culture.
It's important for Westerners to realize that the Chinese never had a Locke, or a Rousseau, or a Hobbes. The foundational political philosophy taken for granted in the West has no parallel in China. Their political philosophy is grounded in a very different hierarchy of values.
Re: China Blocks WhatsApp
#16Duplicate of this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15332147
Re: China Blocks WhatsApp
#17How does the blocking actually happen? What if people used a decentralized service, that worked over https?
in the beginning of September a chinese guy was arrested for selling VPN software.
you can try ways to bypass the great firewall, but it is against the law to do that, and in China it is a good idea to follow the law.
http://thehackernews.com/2017/09/china-vpn-great-firewall.ht...
Re: China Blocks WhatsApp
#18This is getting really strict. I went to China around 2012: * Facebook was already blocked * Google and wikipedia magically stopped working when you searched for "tiananmen" * Gmail worked fine I returned in early 2017, oh god what a change: * Don't even think about Facebook * Ironically Facebook messenger worked until my session expired * No gmail, google at all (don't remember about Wikipedia) * Whatsapp worked fin…
>* Google and wikipedia magically stopped working when you searched for "tiananmen"
Hmm I find this hard to believe because the massacre is known as the June Fourth Incident. "tiananmen" is the location, and blocking that would seem a bit strange for people trying to find directions, etc.
Re: China Blocks WhatsApp
#19Re: China Blocks WhatsApp
#20Edit: This is not a justification or defense of internet censorship. It is an explanation of why the Chinese public may be more willing to accept strict government controls than the West. While most Westerners see actions like this as serious violations of individual rights, the Chinese are used to such exercises of control by their leaders. There is a firm historical basis for similar behavior going back thousands o…
IMHO it is not just the hierarchy of values. In Turkey Wikipedia has been blocked for months, without a court order. The government man-in-the-middle's its own citizens and makes wikipedia unreachable. Even if you use a dns, they spoof the dns and redirect you to their own IP. It seems to me that people do not care, when it is the internet.
The thoughts of Locke, Rousseau, Hobbes are taught nearly in every university and there is no culture of conformity. People seem to simply not care, or are afraid to speak their minds.