How Chinese Police Track Critics on Twitter and Facebook (nytimes.com) 61
The Chinese government, which has built an extensive digital infrastructure and security apparatus to control dissent on its own platforms, is going to even greater lengths to extend its internet dragnet to unmask and silence those who criticize the country on Twitter, Facebook and other international social media. From a report: These new investigations, targeting sites blocked inside China, are relying on sophisticated technological methods to expand the reach of Chinese authorities and the list of targets, according to a New York Times examination of government procurement documents and legal records, as well as interviews with one government contractor and six people pressured by the police. To hunt people, security forces use advanced investigation software, public records and databases to find all their personal information and international social media presence. The operations sometimes target those living beyond China's borders. Police officers are pursuing dissidents and minor critics like Ms. Chen, as well as Chinese people living overseas and even citizens of other nations.
The digital manhunt represents the punitive side of the government's vast campaign to counter negative portrayals of China. In recent years, the Communist Party has raised bot armies, deployed diplomats and marshaled influencers to push its narratives and drown out criticism. The police have taken it a step further, hounding and silencing those who dare to talk back. With growing frequency, the authorities are harassing critics both inside and outside China, as well as threatening relatives, in an effort to get them to delete content deemed criminal. One video recording, provided by a Chinese student living in Australia, showed how the police in her hometown had summoned her father, called her with his phone and pushed her to remove her Twitter account.
The digital manhunt represents the punitive side of the government's vast campaign to counter negative portrayals of China. In recent years, the Communist Party has raised bot armies, deployed diplomats and marshaled influencers to push its narratives and drown out criticism. The police have taken it a step further, hounding and silencing those who dare to talk back. With growing frequency, the authorities are harassing critics both inside and outside China, as well as threatening relatives, in an effort to get them to delete content deemed criminal. One video recording, provided by a Chinese student living in Australia, showed how the police in her hometown had summoned her father, called her with his phone and pushed her to remove her Twitter account.
Can we all just agree (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Can we all just agree (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Just because you - with your IQ of 84 - get modded down, doesn't mean that others with higher - even triple digit - IQs also get modded down. Consider it the natural consequence of your idiot postings.
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
This also doesn't count all the nations that the US tries to economically starve out by disallowing other countries to trade with those countries just because they have "defied" US orders or criticised the US.
Re: (Score:3)
This also doesn't count all the nations that the US tries to economically starve out by disallowing other countries to trade with those countries just because they have "defied" US orders or criticised the US.
Nice try comrade.
Re: (Score:1)
That was the case in the days when there was just a handful of channels on live TV all of which broadcasted the virtues of Senator McCarthy and his work to keep America pure and commie-free. It is the same today, just being done by "fact-checkers" (both automated and human) on social media. With a chorus of 100+ channels on Cable and Satellite which are even
Re: (Score:1)
"It is the same today, just being done by "fact-checkers"
And here's where you outed yourself as Mr Dunning-Kruger.
In our borders yes (Score:1)
Oh and let's not forget centuries of lynchings down south and even some of them up north. I mean I guess technically those people didn't disappear. Everyone knew what happened to them but until t
Re: In our borders yes (Score:3)
By centuries you mean 150 years? That'd be the period in which lynching in this context was a significant issue.
By the late 60s it was rare, vanishingly rare by the 70s. Practically unheard of after that. Driving or living in an area with a high black population are massively higher risks than lynching presented as Democrat control over southern states declined.
You know we did lynchings in other contexts right? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: You know we did lynchings in other contexts ri (Score:2)
It seems good that the government stepped in to prevent lynching.
Re: (Score:1)
How propose to do that? Especially if pretty much the same thing is done, for example, by the US and Russia as well, just less openly?
Re: Can we all just agree (Score:2)
No, they just shouldn't be a favoured trading partner able to appeal trade decisions. The US should exit the WTO and treat trade with China as a privilege for them solely used to push them towards democracy. War and instigated revolutions are more trouble than they are worth.
Capitalist peace theory was woefully wrong. Ties with Russia after glasnost made sense, no one saw Putin coming but China was clearly not moving towards democracy.
Trade needs to be treated as a diplomatic weapon again, not as an automat
Re: (Score:2)
Capitalist peace theory was woefully wrong.
Was it? The world has gotten significantly more peaceful in the last 50 years.
Re: Can we all just agree (Score:3)
None of the fundamental ideological differences have disappeared. China got a lot more dangerous due to trade and even ignoring Taiwan every neighbour is now forced into appeasement as China seeks more ocean resource lebensraum.
The end of decolonization stabilised the world, trade with China just made it more dangerous.
Totalitarians gotta (Score:5, Informative)
I'm surprised that people don't realize the extent of how far the CCP has gone to tailor their image and suppress anything that makes them look bad politically.
We in the rest of the world have enabled it, we need to stop feeding the dragon.
Re: (Score:1)
Sounds like what the SJW do in the West.
Yes, pretty much. Other methods, same repulsive goals. Probable even less due process as in China though.
Simple: Don't use Twitter and Facebook. (Score:2)
Don't use either. The Chinese Communist Party will spy on you and the surveillance capitalists will spy on you, and the US "intelligence community" will ALWAYS spy on you. The solution? Stop playing their games. Go outside.
Re: Simple: Don't use Twitter and Facebook. (Score:2)
That's where the facial recognition cameras are, better hope your outside hobby isn't the next one seen as inspiring troublesome attitudes.
Re: (Score:2)
That is not the goal of these people. They WANT to be heard and more specifically they want to be heard ABROAD - in the USA and other developed countries. That means Facebook and/or Twitter and nothing else.
Tracking anyone on them is trivial, because they themselves always try to track you for profit. They infest your browser and/or device with trackers. Any nation state security service out there (as well as most big corporates) can piggy back on these and de-anonimize you.
It
Fascist efforts to unmask and silence (Score:2, Insightful)
https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com] -
"Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep their identities secret"
Oh yes, that brutal oppressive unmasking and silencing of government critics, very bad of.... sorry, who were we talking about? Was this good or bad? Are we supposed to punish or sanction those responsible?
Re:Fascist efforts to unmask and silence (Score:4, Insightful)
You have, of course, hit on the key element:
It's bad if it's used to silence people you agree with, but good if used to silence people you disagree with.
Which is to say, it's not about whether or not censorship is good or bad, it's about who you agree and disagree with.
As for China, well, this is nothing new there. That hasn't been anything new there in thousand of years. The warlords' names and faces change, but it's warlords all the way down.
Re: (Score:2)
It's bad if it's used to silence people you agree with, but good if used to silence people you disagree with.
Since we are talking about America, there is no forced association outside of a very narrow set of cases that don’t apply here. You can’t and shouldn’t force speech and association on citizens and privately held companies that were never under the legal umbrella of a utility.
On the other hand, the only entity in the US that is required to, or can even be compelled to uphold free speech is the government itself. No group should sit in a thought police bubble where they ban wrong think
Re: (Score:2)
Well, you have to admit that Epik is pretty symptomatic for the inability of the far-right to get anything done competently. Unmitigated arrogance tends to stand in the way of acquiring actual skills and insights.
Trade will continue so none of this matters IRL (Score:2)
US imports alone are greater than the entire cost of the CCPs military budget.
Moral outrage is fucking worthless without a permanent embargo on the enemy. The West didn't need ChiCom trade during the Cultural Revolution and does not need it now, but greed and stupidity and inept foreign policy mean nothing will change without a shooting war. Of course a shooting war is not likely since China (and no one else) has the initiative so Beijing can proceed towards annexation of Taiwan without much fuss.
Moralist
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Even so, if they had a nuclear war with Pakistan it would be awesome. Win-win for the rest of the world.
Too bad ... (Score:2)
Too bad they can't simply use the American method of just disappearing you right off of said platforms. Would be much simpler.
Re: (Score:2)
Too bad they can't simply use the American method of just disappearing you right off of said platforms. Would be much simpler.
That’s not all they do in China. Taking all your stuff, torture and brainwashing, or outright murder are all too popular punishments for dissidents.
To the tune of "Let's Go Brandon" (Score:2)
Let's go Beijing!
Chinese government good (Score:3)
No bad government. Worker utopia. Everybody loves China government. Especially bots. No! NO! No bots! All real people. Like me.
I forget (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Are we supposed to welcome our robot or Chinese overlords?
Yes.
Re: (Score:2)
What is "You have 20 seconds to comply" in Chinese?
By the way... (Score:2)
When are we going to conclude that social media is a failed experiment, prone to hacking by bots and useful to repressive governments?
Goddamn. (Score:1)
All the posts here just further reinforce to me how much of a dumpster fire the human race is. The big asteroid needs to come faster before we contaminate the rest of the universe with the effluent that is humanity.
What more do we need to know? (Score:2)