California judge blocks US ban of WeChat, letting people WeChat another day

[Delicieuxz]

40 minutes ago, StDragon said:

And you won't get that proof. But I will say this; WeChat works because the Chinese Government allows it. Let that sink in for a moment.

The internet only works in the US because the US government allows it. How should that sink-in?

 

22 minutes ago, StDragon said:

China isn't a democracy. Ergo, it can't possibly be political.

? You don't need to be a democracy to have politics. And neither is the US (where the electoral college rather than the popular vote elects a head of state) a democracy, for that matter. Democracy means 'rule by the will of the people'. A country where some institution rather than the people choose the government is not a democracy.

[StDragon]

1 minute ago, Delicieuxz said:

? You don't need to be a democracy to have politics. And neither is the US (where the electoral college rather than the popular vote elects a head of state) a democracy, for that matter.

So by that criteria, any topic that involves government is inherently political in nature. Full stop.

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, StDragon said:

So by that criteria, any topic that involves government is inherently political in nature. Full stop.

My experience is that any topic involving government is twitchy that way and care needs to be taken.

[Delicieuxz]

6 minutes ago, StDragon said:

So by that criteria, any topic that involves government is inherently political in nature. Full stop.

Kind of. But it also depends on how you discuss it. There's a difference between a topic having relation to government and actually discussing or critiquing the government or system of government rather than the tech and the implications the tech has for people.

[Akolyte]

10 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

Ummmmmm........ WOW. 

1.) This is a very political statement, and as politics are not allowed in the fourm, I will not comment on it.

2.) There is absolutely no proof that either of these apps are a sucurity risk.

It's intent isn't political, I'm not pushing forth any views I have but rather what advice I would give if I was hired to consult the US govt on what they would do to enforce best security practices. 

 

State sponsored hacking is a known phenomenon and a very valid risk. Any organization's security team must be on high alert (especially any government organization) and if they have a suspicion something could be harvesting data need to do their job to prevent a security breach. 

 

Security breaches happen, and are surprisingly common.  For an organization as large as the US Government which also conduct security audits of local contract companies, auditing authorized software is not a bad idea. 

 

Many governments audit Microsoft Windows (hence why China refuses to use it), and I'm sure many audit Facebook, Google, etc.  

[williamcll]

See, if the states had better baseline privacy laws long ago we wouldn't need threads about this every week.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

1 minute ago, Akolyte said:

Many governments audit Microsoft Windows (hence why China refuses to use it), and I'm sure many audit Facebook, Google, etc.  

Sure! Infact google and Facebook just got their first ones about a month ago.

[AlwaysWong]

Next

 

"California judge blocks US ban of Tiktok, letting people Tiktok another day"

[StDragon]

2 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

When you change the discussed topic from the people who use WeChat to "And you won't get that proof. But I will say this; WeChat works because the Chinese Government allows it. Let that sink in for a moment", you're moving the discussion towards the more political.

It IS political. It's right in the name of GEOPOLITICS which is at the heart of this. Unfortunately the people that use the service are caught in the cross-fire between two nations. Don't know how else to break it down to you other then perhaps they should abandon the service for something more mutually trustworthy. 

[Kisai]

25 minutes ago, StDragon said:

It IS political. It's right in the name of GEOPOLITICS which is at the heart of this. Unfortunately the people that use the service are caught in the cross-fire between two nations. Don't know how else to break it down to you other then perhaps they should abandon the service for something more mutually trustworthy. 

 

The thing is, WeChat directly caters to Chinese-speaking populations, regardless of where they live. In the same way Discord directly caters to English-speaking populations.

 

There is little to no use of WeChat by non-Chinese speaking populations, however TikTok IS.

 

Where WeChat is different, is that WeChat also facilitates payments. The irony is that Skype/Paypal/eBay DID this already before they split those services up.

[Mark Kaine]

53 minutes ago, StDragon said:

So by that criteria, any topic that involves government is inherently political in nature. Full stop.

yes it is but since it's also technical it can be discussed to a certain extent.  what usually doesn't work is what you're doing right now, this "us vs them" thing plus making up stuff you cannot actually proof (because it's either illogical as heck or simply untrue) ala "everything goes to the CCP" , "wechat is the only app that isn't blocked" etc ... is what gets threads closed here fast, and I'd say rightly so as it only leads to toxicity and similar undesirable things.

[Nerdom]

8 hours ago, Delicieuxz said:

US judge blocks Trump’s WeChat ban, halting removal of app from stores

 

Trump’s WeChat Curbs Halted by Judge on Free Speech Concerns

 

Like TikTok, WeChat has narrowly avoided a ban in the US - but by different means. The more Chinese stuff that isn't banned on unsubstantiated grounds, the better, says I.

 

I wonder if the free-speech legal argument could have worked for TikTok, so that they wouldn't have had to partner with US companies to remain in operation in the US.

While I don't mind tiktok being gone, and there were definitely (likely) legitimate issues with security and data being sent to chinese authorities, I think this sets a dangerous precedent for other sites/apps being banned.

 

Once the ball gets rolling it's hard to stop it, and I really don't want to see the US go down the censorship rabbit hole, especially with how hard it is to get reliable news that isn't horribly biased already.

[SansVarnic]

-= Topic Locked =-

-= Topic Moved to GD =-

 

Political discussion is not allowed.

 

Topic moved as this news is about an App is affected by political positioning.

Topic locked as the thread has become politically charged and derailed.

Please be mindful when posting topics that have strong political tie-ins.