[rob_c]

Or, matrix, mattermost or any self hosted platform where you can control the keys and host yourself...

Biggest issue as you highlight is userbase which frankly, if you're serious about going against state media you should be talking about avoiding devices locking you down to app stores etc. People on those platforms (as unfortunate as it is) have decided that pretty asthetics are worth personal freedom so ultimately will never support true freedom of thought or opinion.

[yvbbrjdr]

Thanks for your advice! However, there are several problems with self hosted platforms in China.

1. People are unaware of their existence due to those projects being very technical and hard to deploy/join. They also don't have a good client on mobile platforms. People will trade their privacy for all the convenience, say, WeChat brings, because all of their contacts are already using WeChat. It's hard to convince people to change to use your matrix server. 2. Cloud services are also monitored by the government. There are programs running in the background inside VPSes that monitors all processes in your server. 3. If you want to host a website, you have to register it with a state agency, so if there are any contents on your website that the government doesn't like, your website will be shut down and you'll be held responsible.

As of the walled garden Apple created, I heard that EU has passed a law mandating Apple to allow third-party app stores. It'll be very interesting to see what'll happen in the future.

[rob_c]

As for getting people to join. LEAVE THE APPLE WALLED GARDEN. After that it's entirely as easy as sticking up QR codes of equivalent.

I'm not talking about working within the system. Buy crypto, and with it rent a self hosted NON CHINESE SERVER, not a website, and do your best to keep the box accessible to known popular not yet banned VPN used in China, for the day when the firewall gets you.

Again, with regard to getting people to join these servies, if people aren't willing to sacrifice some minor discomfort of not using the WeChat interface, they're hardly likely to stand next to you in a street protest.

Yes if you want to start a large viral movement you have to dress it up a little, improve the chinese locale or fix some UI issues, but this is massively easier than starting from a text editor or compiler on a remote box. But if you just want to go viral, use WeChat, get a knocked off account or 10 and expect that knock on the door when they turn up because you're protesting _WITHIN_ the system.

Again, VPN are massively technical but hugely popular even in mainland China (I've known enough Chinese apple users to even know this is the case). People are capable of following "click here" instructions better than most people imagined, otherwise technophobes wouldn't have social media.