almost every participant brought up the “lack of moral quality” of their fellow citizens, whom they said behaved like children with little moral sense.
In the context of this shame-inducing narrative, surveillance is framed as a welcome solution to enforce the rules by punishing violators and getting people to behave better. According to the participants, moral shortcomings are responsible for the “century of humiliations” that China has experienced since the Opium Wars and the Japanese invasions; according to this discourse, “civilizing” the population will enable China to gain the international recognition it so ardently desires.
What a fucking victim blaming asshole you have to be to suggest we need dragnet surveillance everywhere because there was an epidemic of opium addiction
Sounds like the patriot act in America. Something bad happened so the govt said “hey we’re just gonna go ahead and spy on you to keep everyone safe”
Remember that you need an id to get a phone number in most countries. And how hot big IT is for your phone number. Aside from UKUSA and NSA programs doing way more.
The coping tactics are almost the same here, if you’re not a privacy nut.
Not to say it’s as bad as in China, especially here it’s for money (though not for me) and against terrorism. But the definition of terrorism can quickly change with someone like trump in power.
Where I live, I consider nothing I do on my phone private at all, and I have to act accordingly. I would be in breach of Chinese law were I to do the same in China.
I’m so glad I don’t need any ID to buy a number in my country. In your face, “free and democratic” countries!
Here an ID is required by law, but you can still buy “gray” simcards in various places. Although not as reliable as if it were a legal one - it can get blocked by the provider, but I don’t know exactly how long they usually last.
I’ll just say I’m very sorry you live in such a place
Digital surveillance is omnipresent in the west. Apparently nobody cares.
It’s better propaganda if it’s China, Russia, Iran, etc. And tbh, those nations are in an information war against the western propaganda machine. As long as we have an aggressive Capitalist west, I think a firewall is necessary for a proper information defense in any country. It’s hard to defend against propaganda without some control, and it’s rather naive to think that any nation won’t/shouldn’t defend itself from western information attacks. I haven’t read the article as I assume it’s pure anti-west made up propaganda as usual.
Its not even close. For example, end-to-end encryption is standard in the west. In China its heavily restricted and basically non-existant.
Removed by mod
I did say the exact opposite…
