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Chinese Media Warn WeChat Admins: "You Can Be Arrested for Group Chat"

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61–70 of 182 posts

Re: Chinese Media Warn WeChat Admins: "You Can Be Arrested for Group Chat"

#61
It's basically another way to spread fear to encourage self censorship. If admins believe they are liable for anything non-kosher, then they'd actively censor it themselves to avoid potential wrath.

Throw in a few news articles of someone being arrested for a trivial group post, and it becomes an example of 杀一儆百 which translates as "to kill 1 as a warning to 100"

Re: Chinese Media Warn WeChat Admins: "You Can Be Arrested for Group Chat"

#62
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive my naivety, but aren’t Whatsapp messages encrypted? If so, how can the authorities see what’s written in them?

I thought only 1-to-1 messages were encrypted and group chat wasn't.

The group chat is also encrypted, but anyone in the group chat can share the messages.

Re: Chinese Media Warn WeChat Admins: "You Can Be Arrested for Group Chat"

#63
> YOU are of opinion it would be proper to establish a company of firemen in Nicomedia, [similar] to what has been practised in several other cities. But it is to be remembered that societies of this sort have greatly disturbed the peace of the province in general, and of those cities in particular. Whatever name we give them, and for whatever purposes them may be founded, they will not fail to form themselves into factions, assemblies, however short their meetings may be. It will therefore be safer to provide such machines as are of service in extinguishing fires, enjoining the owners of houses to assist in preventing the mischief from spreading, and, if it should be necessary, to call in the aid of the populace.

( Plin. Ep. 10.34; https://www.bartleby.com/9/4/2043.html , or in the original at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:19... )

That's the Roman Emperor Trajan denying the administrator of the province of Bithynia permission to establish a fire department. If you let men get together, for any purpose, they'll start talking about politics. It's better to let things burn.

Re: Chinese Media Warn WeChat Admins: "You Can Be Arrested for Group Chat"

#64
post #10
post #2

This is why full end to end encryption is required.

I think that’s naive. China can just arrest you for using encryption. Same result. (This isn’t limited to China - the US could have similar results with slightly differing laws)

Not if literally everything is using encryption.

The point of encryption and plausible deniability, is to force everyone to use encryption, so that if authoritarian regimes want to punish people, then they have to screw over everyone, including completely innocent internet users.

Re: Chinese Media Warn WeChat Admins: "You Can Be Arrested for Group Chat"

#65
post #58

I guess: 1.Most people who can not read Chinese believe "detained" or "arrested" is on the photo of the newspaper as a proof. Is it true? Ask your friend who can read Chinese what the head line says. If the author was honest, she should explicitly stated that "detained" or "arrested" is from other source but not from the image. She is manipulating readers perception while she can claim she didn't lie. 2.No body notic…

Talking about political opposition in a media controlled by the state is irresponsible. I would not do it France, making it in China is suicidal.

Do not take anecdotal tolerance for proof of government benevolence. WeChat is monitored, your discussions are archived. When one of the members of any of your group discussion commits a legal offense, or ends up in a terrorist watchlist, you will all be blacklisted.

"Modern" censorship (quotes because it was already like that during the STASI) focuses on public declarations. Officials weight the impact of the speech vs the (social) cost of censoring.

Say shit about the government in a place where a thousand people are listening, you will be shut down. Say shit about the government to 5 of your friends, the government simply archives this and notes this and puts you on a "dissident" list, for later purpose.

Later you will find out you have a visa refused for "security reasons" or a public funding cut "for budget reasons".

One of the discovery of the East-German propaganda machine is that the best way to shut down opponents is to make their life harder but without ever telling them this is a punishment for their opinion.

Re: Chinese Media Warn WeChat Admins: "You Can Be Arrested for Group Chat"

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the past, too, complaints were received against him for favouring certain political party person and showing political inclination. Why is this even a "valid" reason?

It's not, it's government censorship.

'Censorship' is bad, but I'm a little more concerned about the 'arrest' part ...

Re: Chinese Media Warn WeChat Admins: "You Can Be Arrested for Group Chat"

#67

The extremely strong freedom of speech laws we have in the US is definitely something we got right. Reading things like this make me really grateful about those protections.

If you read the referenced article in Chinese, you'll see the point of the regulation in China is cracking down illegal activities that often occurs in group chats, e.g. selling illegal stuff, organizing crime. I doubt US would take no actions against these activities.

Re: Chinese Media Warn WeChat Admins: "You Can Be Arrested for Group Chat"

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enter: steganography. Useful under totalitarian regimes, I would think. Unlike the burden required to hide gigs required for large file transactions, hiding mere hundreds of bytes for textual conversations might be feasible. Maybe. Distribution of participating client software might be the problem.

When they discover that you have stenographic tools on your computer, how will they know when to stop torturing you?

So the real solution is to force everyone to use stenographic tools.

Basically, the point is to make it so it is impossible to tell the difference between a normal user and a crypto user.

So the only way they could target you is if they target 1 billion other people in the world.

Re: Chinese Media Warn WeChat Admins: "You Can Be Arrested for Group Chat"

#69
Censorship coming soon to a neighborhood near you. You don’t have to look too far to point fingers at censorship. Our Social Media overlords just banned “conspiracy theorists”. What if I like watching conspiracy theories for the heck of it because the MSM is nauseating merchant of “truth”.

Re: Chinese Media Warn WeChat Admins: "You Can Be Arrested for Group Chat"

#70

> YOU are of opinion it would be proper to establish a company of firemen in Nicomedia, [similar] to what has been practised in several other cities. But it is to be remembered that societies of this sort have greatly disturbed the peace of the province in general, and of those cities in particular. Whatever name we give them, and for whatever purposes them may be founded, they will not fail to form themselves into f…

What happens if you get women together?
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