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by cusenses 1805 days ago
What can regular people even do about this? It's a disgusting overreach if it ends up happening. And if it's all being performed by private companies, in industries where there is very little choice of competitors, there's no violation of rights and no way for us to avoid having our private messages be scrutinized by some authority.
2 comments
the_third_wave 1805 days ago
The same thing people are doing under other repressive regimes like the ones in Russia, Iran, Venezuela and others (China comes to mind but the CCP has been quite successful in suppressing dissent): stop using open channels, start using encrypted [1] communications for things which go outside of the currently mandated narrative, assume your communications are being monitored by "the Party" so make sure to appear to be a good citizen when using open communication channels unless you're willing to suffer the consequences. Also, make sure to vote wisely the next time and hold whatever candidate you vote for to his promises. Don't just follow whatever stupid narrative you're being fed, think for yourself.

> ...if it's all being performed by private companies, in industries where there is very little choice of competitors, there's no violation of rights and no way for us to avoid having our private messages be scrutinized by some authority.

If those private companies serve as the regime's lackeys doing their bidding to monitor citizens communications they should not be treated like private companies but as state actors.

[1] where encrypted should be read as "encrypted without _NSAKEY (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY)" et al.

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6f8986c3 1805 days ago
Regulation, unfortunately, probably can’t solve this.

Imagine that we had the most thoroughly crafted law imaginable to prevent private messages from being blocked or modified.

You still have to take those companies to court, which cost a ton of money, fight them over years, and even if you win, then what?

The only workable strategies I see at this point are to fight to preserve individual choice, and the ability to connect point-to-point.

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