[p-e-w]

You severely underestimate the people in power, and the people who stand behind them.

Such bans are deliberate attacks targeting (parts of) the general population. Terrorists have nothing to do with this.

"Hahaha those stupid bureaucrats, they have no idea what they are doing" is a popular meme, but it couldn't be further from the truth. They do know what they are doing, and it's working. If you believe it isn't, that's only because you misunderstand what the real goal is.

[nsriv]

Absolutely. I know from personal experience that much of what remains of independent journalism in India, as well as some NGO work (long under government scrutiny) is conducted through Signal and Element.

[jruohonen]

Well they've caught bad people using Signal too:

https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/dangerous-...

Besides Pegasus and such and the interception issues with SMS, might be as well due to HUMINT and the weaknesses in verifying fingerprints.

Probably it would be best for people in some of these countries to do their work offline.

[jruohonen]

Perhaps I should add that I do not wish to undermine the terrorism situation in India, which is very much real. Regardless, there is a paradox because at the same time the associated terrorism laws and hacking operations have been misused to target opposition, journalists, scientists, activists, and many others.