[dilemma]

>By exporting WeChat, China not just exporting a chat app, but also exporting a vital function of its Great Firewall: it's ability to control communications between citizens within it. Even for democratic states like India, where WeChat is starting to gain a foothold, this could pose a very real threat to freedom of speech if WeChat were ever to become dominant, and greatly increases the potential power of government should they ever want to overreach for it.

Reminds me of Facebook, Twitter, Google.

[lewisl9029]

Absolutely, between NSA's XKeyscore and all the for-profit corporate surveillance performed regularly in western companies, the only factors regular consumers have control over is a matter of what degree of surveillance they're willing to accept and which nation-states they would consider their adversary.

This was one of the sentiments raised in Nathan's talk, and the aim of the talk was not to just aimlessly bash and scapegoat China and WeChat, but rather to suggest taking a hard look at ourselves and the choices we're making in terms of becoming complacent to or outright enabling authoritarianism, because there's a frightening number of parallels that can be drawn between China and WeChat and the US government and US tech corporations.