This take is pretty myopic; the WeChat discussion needs far more depth. This stance ignores the ACLU’s long standing precedents on the NSA, surveillance, and privacy. Yet, the stakes of NSA surveillance and MSS surveillance are a world apart — with Americans potential victims too
WeChat is a product that is architected to constrict freedom of speech. Messages sent from the U.S. are algorithmically surveilled, and that data constricts speech in China. Do those Chinese matter less than Americans? citizenlab.ca/2020/05/we-cha…
If WeChat was a product that was end-to-end encrypted, with the White House merely targeting Chinese market access, these discussions would be different. But with all we know about Chinese technology, in China, it is unbelievable that the ACLU can rationalize a free market stance
WeChat is a spoke in the wheel of the system that the Chinese government uses to oppress its people. This does not stop at Chinese borders. You cannot mention WeChat’s role in the 1st Amendment without also discussing its history of coercion and threats. codastory.com/authoritarian-…
There is history with WeChat, w/ its role in the modernization of authoritarianism, its role in human rights violations: the predominant social graph and window beyond, a noose. It is leveraged in the cultural genocide of Uyghurs, & stifles human rights advocacy & dissent abroad.
How we can enact solutions to the WeChat problem is a real, necessary discussion. A game of whack-a-mole does not answer to this complexity. But we cannot sit from the comfort of the United States and blanket defend the indefensible role of WeChat globally.
WeChat is the ‘only’ means of communication for diaspora and Chinese abroad because the Chinese government has made that so — has seen the power of surveillance and control, and rewritten laws and market demands to strengthen that panopticon.
Western alliances can create frameworks to demand technological trust & assurances of products like WeChat, but their role can only go so far — with disillusionment the moment messages & keys hit Beijing’s wires. Some day, we may arrive back here w/ few paths but a clean break.
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