
Chinese Mass Surveillance – Snowden - cyrksoft
https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1208469511051075585
======
t34543
Interrogated because he complained about the police. They were oddly specific
about the time the message was sent - yesterday around 9. Impressive
turnaround for pursuing a thought crime: <24h.

This is what all countries can look forward to when encryption is restricted
or not end to end.

It’s also a good reminder to treat fellow humans with respect even when you
vehemently disagree on controversial topics. The right to expression must be
protected.

------
_-___________-_
The thing he complained about in the chat group (the cops confiscating
motorbikes) was disturbingly common to see when I lived in Shanghai. A guy
riding his tricycle (sometimes with a small battery to take the load off)
piled high with cardboard he's bought from shops or scrap metal that he's
bought from construction sites. He takes it to the recycling place and sells
it for a profit of what probably amounts to a few dollars a day. And he's the
first guy the cops seem to target to impound his bike, either because he was
riding somewhere bikes are not allowed to, or because he doesn't have a
license to make those few dollars a day doing that.

------
deogeo
I'd just like to note, this article is being downweighted _very_ heavily. At
the time of writing, it's 3 hours old with 77 points, yet it's in 97th place -
4th page, among day old articles with tens of points. On the other hand,
"ChezWEB: Hygienic Literate Programming for Chez Scheme" is in 11th place,
with 19 points and 6 hours old.

I think political articles are downweighted in favor of more tech/hacker news,
but "How Smartphones Betray Democracy" is in 23rd place, with 136 points and
12 hours old. Similar topic and age/points ratio to this one.

------
hamhand
[https://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/12/31/dont-call-xi-bun-
chine...](https://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/12/31/dont-call-xi-bun-chinese-
netizens-jailed-chatroom-jokes/)

And interestly, WeChat claims they don't store user messages, but Chinese
police apparently has it. Any app, website or forum on which users can post
comments must verify ID-linked phone numbers first.

~~~
peteradio
I think we all know this means Chinese Quantum decryption efforts are further
along than we thought.

~~~
jtms
Encryption is either broken or its not. No one has broken modern strong
encryption yet. Quantum computing as a threat to strong encryption is still
purely theoretical. Also, you don’t need to use a quantum computer to break
encryption when you hold the private keys, you just decode to plain text the
normal way. This is exactly what they did

~~~
ksaj
Just to add a bit to this thought: Recent news about RSA keys and prime
factoring seems to all be written as if there is pretty much no reason left to
use encryption. But as jtms alludes, these important discoveries do have an
immediate impact on _weak_ encryption, which should be understood to mean
decades-old outdated technologies. As far as strong encryption goes, quantum
computing is still seriously far off unless a new discovery comes around to
improve the results considerably.

Compared to the human life cycle, quantum cryptography is at the "on the verge
of speaking in coherent sentences, but still prone to smearing feces on the
wall" age and stage. You can sense that they'll grow up to be quite smart, but
there's a lot of learning to go before you can hope for a Junior Einstein.

------
_bxg1
China has to be on track for a revolution. Not today, not this year, probably
not even this decade. But the human spirit cannot abide this level of
oppression forever without recourse.

~~~
PakG1
I don't think that's the case. That's a very teleological perspective. China
is a very deontological society. I get the impression that many people in
China would agree with the punishment in these instances. It's very weird to
me. But it is what it is. When I talk with Chinese people, they would either
agree with it, or they would prefer to say something like, "He should have
known that he'd get punished for that." Never have I heard someone say
something like, "Sheesh, that sucks." Definitely never have I heard someone
say something like, "This is an outrage."

~~~
jtms
Depends on which Chinese people you talk to.

~~~
PakG1
Yes, probably so. But I've lived 9 years in China now. I have friends across a
wide spectrum of society. Anyone who actually doesn't like it still only say
things like, "He should have known he would be punished for it. You shouldn't
do things that put you in jail. You have responsibility to take care of your
family and yourself first. You shouldn't be stupid."

~~~
hamhand
Most Chinese don't hate the party, this is hard to believe for many people. As
interest-vested, the most common way is buying over-priced condos, you don't
want to lose money, and you want to double what you invested like so many
others did.

------
rasengan
Free speech ends when you lose anonymity.

~~~
maltalex
No, free speech ends when you need to be anonymous to speak freely.

~~~
deogeo
_Under our Constitution, anonymous pamphleteering is not a pernicious,
fraudulent practice, but an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent.
Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. [..] It thus
exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment
in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation--and their
ideas from suppression--at the hand of an intolerant society._

    
    
        -- United States Supreme Court, McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission

------
harryf
Wow that cage thing he’s in is terrifying. Presumably the video was released
to send a message

------
gigama
"Uncle Police" must be the Chinese term for "Big Brother"

