US Threatens To Restrict WeChat Following TikTok Backlash (techcrunch.com) 36
Amid intense scrutiny over TikTok as a potential national security risk in the U.S., WeChat, the essential tool for Chinese people's day-to-day life, is also taking heat from Washington. TechCrunch reports: White House trade advisor Peter Navarro told Fox Business on Sunday that "[TikTok] and WeChat are the biggest forms of censorship on the Chinese mainland, and so expect strong action on that." Navarro alleged that "all of the data that goes into those mobile apps that kids have so much fun with and seem so convenient, it goes right to servers in China, right to the Chinese military, the Chinese communist party, and the agencies which want to steal our intellectual property."
It's unclear how the U.S. restriction will play out, if it will at all, though some WeChat users are already speculating workarounds to stay in touch with their family and friends back home. In the case that the Tencent-owned messenger is removed by Apple App Store or Google Play, U.S.-based users could switch to another regional store to download the app. If it were an IP address ban, they could potentially access the app through virtual private networks (VPNs), tools that are familiar to many in China to access online services blocked by Beijing's Great Firewall.
It's unclear how the U.S. restriction will play out, if it will at all, though some WeChat users are already speculating workarounds to stay in touch with their family and friends back home. In the case that the Tencent-owned messenger is removed by Apple App Store or Google Play, U.S.-based users could switch to another regional store to download the app. If it were an IP address ban, they could potentially access the app through virtual private networks (VPNs), tools that are familiar to many in China to access online services blocked by Beijing's Great Firewall.
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Obviously they'd want to play up the China angle for public consumption - that's straight out of the first Cold War's playbook. They've got other discreet channels to get that message out to these companies, besides sending someone to Fox Business.
Anyway, wait until these guys hear where all their Skype and Facebook posts go...
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Anyway, wait until these guys hear where all their Skype and Facebook posts go...
Where?
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China is waiting to see what happens in November. If Trump gets back in and the attacks on Chinese companies continue you will see a massive retaliation. The prospect of it all coming to an end without intervention is the only thing that has restrained China so far.
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I would not touch wechat with a 10foot pole.
I work for a chinese company. everyone but me has it installed.
there have been reports of info getting to china government and bad things happened when someone posted about something that maybe they should not have (given china was logging it all).
all I can say is: don't even think about installing that piece of shit.
(thankfully, no one has forced me to install wechat, but I can tell that I am not part of the in-crowd. no matter.)
Re:jesus navarro youre all over the place. (Score:5, Insightful)
US tech companies are quietly lobbying for this under the guise of "security" because they cant buy or replicate tiktok or wechat and capture either of the wildly successful markets and users. Its just HuaWei all over again with software.
Well, to be fair, it's a bit of both. Wechat is allowed in China, but Whatsapp, Viber, Telegram, Line, Kik, GroupMe, and Signal are blocked by the Great Firewall. US-based tech companies can't compete literally because they are prevented from doing so. I mean, it's possible that they *could* get certification there, but 'certification' basically means 'giving Xi the private keys to decrypt any message by any user, regardless of whether or not if they're in China or not, written on $100 bills, one character at a time'. I have no great love for Zuck or his app portfolio, but I am at least somewhat glad that they're not willing to do that. Consequently, blocking Wechat in the US would be more of a tit-for-tat situation.
We are not like China, we do not censor things (Score:3)
Introducing this type of censorship would actually be a victory for China.
Certainly discourage WeChat. Ban it from phones used by anybody in security. But not outright.
WeChat spies without apology, and so I personally do not want it.
But for many it is an essential tool for communicating with friends and relatives in China. And for 99% of communincations it does not matter if the Chinese govt are spying. Everyone that uses WeChat knows that it is spyware, and is very careful what they say on it.
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It's the war on terror all over again.
The terrorists hate our freedom, so let's destroy our freedom!
The Chinese love censorship, so let's censor ourselves!
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Introducing this type of censorship would actually be a victory for China.
Um. What?
The more ability China has to spy on comms home and abroad, the better for them. Banning services that give them the ability to do that reduces their ability to spy. I'm sure they don't want those services banned.
Not to mention they don't want the economic impact to business which they invest (subsidize).
But for many it is an essential tool for communicating with friends and relatives in China. And for 99% of communincations it does not matter if the Chinese govt are spying.
China bans western tech from operating in China, then monitors the Chinese alternatives. That seems like a problem for Chinese citizens to deal with, and it certainly doesn't mean rest of the world
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US-based tech companies can't compete
US companies are allowed to operate in China, e.g. Microsoft and Apple. They just have to abide by Chinese rules, e.g. the Apple Store in China doesn't carry some apps and on Bing you can't disable safe search (which blocks words deemed unsuitable by the government).
Same in Europe, if you want to operate here you have to abide by local laws like GDPR.
'certification' basically means 'giving Xi the private keys to decrypt any message by any user, regardless of whether or not if they're in China or not
Interesting. So China can decrypt any iPhone but Apple refuses to help the FBI, and the CIA failed to steal the keys from Chinese intelligence. Presumably Micr
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No, you are right. China would never spy on anyone and all businesses trading in China are completely free from any untoward interference from the CCP. Especially with regards to sensitive personal data and other such private information.
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Re:jesus navarro youre all over the place. (Score:5, Informative)
>TikTok and WeChat are chat programs.
Both are wrong. Tiktok is a video sharing platform with light social networking on top. WeChat is... pretty much everything in one. Chat service, calling service, payment service, delivery service, e-commerce platform... The list goes on. It's made that way for a reason, it's supposed to be the "go to app for everything" for Chinese people across the planet.
>banning it would almost immediately result in a rise of alternative app stores like FDroid
F-Droid, the open source android app store will accept closed source Chinese spyware like WeChat or Tiktok? What?
Re:jesus navarro youre all over the place. (Score:5, Informative)
The difference is that Facebook has bad oversight and bad company policies. Facebook's censorship problem is entirely with its own means to fix if the CEO and board wake up from their stupor. Whereas Tencent, who runs WeChat, has an official Communist Party cell in their company who has a say how the company is run (they even have a nice hammer-and-sickle adorned sculpture outside their HQ to suck up to the powers in charge). By law they are also required to hire staff for censoring, who take orders from the Chinese censorship administration, and not from the company. There's quite a difference in how the "censorship" regime works in the US and in China.
If Reddit and Co want to change, they can. Tencent, in comparison, is pretty much a state actor when it comes to content enforcement.
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While de-facto the Communist Party = the State, the Hammer and Sickle are the symbols of the Party, not the Chinese State (Maybe you are thinking of the Soviet Union instead?). Facebook would thus have to fly a flag with the GOP Elephant
Simple WeChat marketing solution (Score:2)
"UsChat"
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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What happened to the free market? When did combating censorship with more censorship become a good idea?
I thought the way to defeat these evils was to win the argument, to make a better app.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:WeFsck. (Score:5, Informative)
Indeed. I was in Shanghai for a few months last fall. It is basically impossible to exist in Chinese society without WeChat on your phone.
I kept 100 RMB in my pocket, just in case, and never used it. Many vendors don't accept cash anymore.
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I've not had any trouble paying for anything with cash and/or debit card in Guangzhou.
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It's as bad in the west. Many places don't accept cash now (thanks to coronavirus) and to get a bank card you need to provide multiple forms of ID, they do credit checks on you, you have to give them your address and phone number etc. The retailer gets your identity when you pay on card.
Some of the mobile payment systems like Google Pay and Apple Pay claim to protect your privacy a bit more but you are really just choosing a different company to share the data with.
How would an "IP Ban" work? (Score:2)
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Doesn't Websense and Fortinet have these?
Look out, here come the wu mao (Score:2)
Guess who has the most corona cases (Score:2)
USA, India. Who banned TikTok? USA, India. There is a hidden plot we don't know yet.
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USA, India. Who banned TikTok? USA, India. There is a hidden plot we don't know yet.
IKR? The evil bastards plan to ban TikTok, then... use the... corona cases... border...
Wait, what?
My god... (Score:2)