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internet and financial censorship and surveillance

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some links for you: state censorship, coinbase, hyperinflation, etc

Jun 11, 2020

Apple has pulled a podcast app from the app store in China. They did this because it allowed users to access content deemed illegal in the country.

Pocket Casts @pocketcasts

Pocket Casts has been removed from the Chinese App store by Apple, at the request of the Cyberspace Administration of China. We believe podcasting is and should remain an open medium, free of government censorship. As such we won't be censoring podcast content at their request.

Also, Zoom censored public conversations about Hong Kong and Tiananmen Square.

In statement, Zoom said it was obliged to respond to requests from Chinese authorities as long as users in China participated in videoconferences.
“Like any global company, Zoom must comply with laws in the countries where we operate,” a company spokesman said.

Noticing a trend here? Complying with local laws may not be the ethical standard for content moderation.

Companies are being forced into compliance by China’s great firewall.

Authorities also use a punishment system – blocking a domain for a short period of time if they run afoul of censors. Ultimately, China will block the site forever if the company does not acquiesce to demands.

And the model is being successfully exported to other would-be despots, emphasis mine:

In 2017, Tanzania’s Deputy Minister for Communication Edwin Ngonyani expressed admiration for China’s internet control and said the country would follow Beijing’s path at a meeting sponsored by the government of Tanzania and China’s internet regulator.
“Our Chinese friends have managed to block such media in their country and replaced them with their homegrown sites that are safe, constructive and popular,” said Ngonyani.
Citing the Arab Spring, he said that social media, if left uncontrolled, could help topple governments.
In 2018, the Tanzanian government imposed a new set of sweeping regulations to police the internet. Content creators are required to get licensed and could be punished for posting banned material, including content that uses bad language or causes annoyance.

I don’t think they are supposed to say those parts out loud.

Russia’s internet clampdown is progressing smoothly as well.

According to the report, published in February, the number of internet pages banned by Russia’s state communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, jumped from over 161,000 in 2018 to nearly 273,000 in 2019. During the same period, the number of state-sponsored cyber attacks against individuals rose from 20 to 32.

If you’re NEAR a crime, police can compel Google to hand over your information. And they really like doing it.

Unlike a traditional search order that identifies a particular suspect, geofence warrants require Google to trawl its massive library of location data, commonly known as the “Sensorvault,” to identify people who were in the area when a crime was committed. They are relatively new, and increasingly widespread: Between 2017 and 2018, Google saw a 1,500% surge in the number of requests it received, and from 2018 to 2019, the rate increased over 500%.

This technological dragnet is unbelievably indiscriminate and intrusive. Thankfully it is facing legal challenges.

Amid the currency crisis, Zelle has become a popular tool for locals in Venezuela to access the stability of the dollar. To use Zelle on the ground you need a counterpart with a US bank account. It has become a necessary tool for survival.

Wells Fargo apparently does not think the compliance risk is worth it, and is cutting off Zelle access for people using their accounts like this.

mach nine @alegw

Just look at the subject of this email and tell me how someone can *not* hate the banks

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, people are piling into luxury goods to get out of cash. The state has limited buying foreign currency dramatically

Gregg Carlstrom @glcarlstrom

Even as the economy crashes, there's an odd boomlet in luxury goods in Lebanon: The well-off are trying to get their money out of the bank and into physical assets, from ski chalets and Land Rovers to artwork and alcohol.

wsj.comCash in the Bank? Lebanese See Sports Cars, Ski Chalets and Italian Sculptures as Safer InvestmentsIn a desperate attempt to preserve their life savings, many well-off Lebanese are sinking money into Land Rovers, ski chalets and expensive artworks, triggering an unlikely boom at the top end of the luxury market.

Of course, by “people” I mean only people that can afford fine art and ski chalets. Perhaps one day there will be an accessible store of value that is more divisible and easily stored.

Syria is having a currency crisis as well.

S. Rifai @THE_47th

Panic all over #Syria: with shops, supermarkets and businesses announcing closure as of tonight and tomorrow. They cannot sell their products with the currency free falling by 10-20% every day. Syrian social media is abuzzed with ppl asking: "why is everything closed?"

Good luck trying to use something like Zelle to survive there.

People got mad at Coinbase.

Matt Odell @matt_odell

turns out @coinbase users do not appreciate @brian_armstrong selling surveillance tools to the US Government

This kind of thing happens all the time. But it’s interesting to see how easily cryptocurrency lets you vote with your dol-- coins. Withdrawing that many dollars from a bank would be a pretty involved process. With cryptocurrency you can easily self custody in a matter of minutes. Imagine if traditional banks had this much competition.

Meltem Demirors has been thinking about this for while. Take a look: The Great Race for Assets

Taylor Monahan @tayvano_

For those who say crypto isn't super great at communicating the value prop............ [Source: "Despite Access Barriers, Internet is Worth Exploring" Victoria Shannon. The Washington Post. 1994.]

This is incredible to me. How does this thought process even happen?

Neeraj K. Agrawal @NeerajKA

A glimpse inside the mind of a person who fell for an Elon Musk scam cryptocurrency giveaway tweet mailchi.mp/627bea0c04d3/w…

Sci Hub is a place to access academic research for free. These articles are usually rather expensive. This is not legal. But it’s widely regarded as an incredibly useful tool that’s generally good for humanity.