[ocdtrekkie]

Also bear in mind that government can convey restrictions on any other business in that country. See Brazil requiring ISPs to ban Twitter (even a penalty on individuals bypassing the block using VPNs!), or the US basically prohibiting any business with anyone in Russia.

Basically if you want to operate in a country, you probably need to obey their laws, no matter what you think of those laws. If you ignore them, you can't really be surprised if you get blocked or penalized from doing business there.

[beaglesss]

The ironic consequence of this is eventually if you want to use big tech for messaging privacy you'll be forced to basically pick one under the jurisdiction of an enemy non-extradition state like Russia or China. Sure their governments will farm and exploit the metadata even if encrypted, but they won't be handing it over to the west unless the deal is juicy.

[Gud]

Another option is to use free and open source encryption software, like gpg/pgp.

Like what most darknet markets use.

[ocdtrekkie]

Eh, not really, because the US has shown it's happy to go ahead and make it illegal to have TikTok here as well. The real result is probably much, much simpler: Globally-operating apps won't make as much sense as they got away with in pre-regulatory eras of the Internet.

Big Tech has basically spent the past twenty years pretending their global status made them above the law of any one nation, but in reality, being a global company just means you're subject to all the laws of all the nations.