Microsoft and Zoom have said they will not process data requests made by the Hong Kong authorities while they take stock of a new security law.
They follow Facebook, Google, Twitter and the chat app Telegram, which had already announced similar “pauses” in compliance over the past two days.
China passed the law on 30 June, criminalising acts that support independence, making it easier to punish protesters.
This feels more like a “let’s get some good press in the west while we resume normal operation in aiding the genocidal Chinese regime when people stop caring” than a real principled stand, but with how everybody just rolls over for China, I’ll take any element of resistance – no matter how weak sauce – I can get.
It doesn’t get much weaker than “pausing”, though.
Apple says it is “assessing” the rules.
Oh turns out I was wrong. It does get weaker.
Well of course. Big business always rolls over for authoritarian regimes. The only exception is when an even more lucrative regime forbids it as a condition of doing business within their borders. But in that capacity, the USA and China are not going to oppose each other.
China has become an all-out aggressive totalitarian regime. The former DDR Stasi could only dream of the surveillance and control China is exerting of their people.
However we are just too damn hooked on buying all their cheap stuff to being able to take a stand against it…
Veto,
That’s true. Unfortunately it’s gotten so bad that often we don’t even have a choice to buy chinese goods or not. Most products being sold domestically are chinese goods (even if they’re rebranded under american labels). Even immensely wealthy luxury brands like apple, who could afford to manufacturer anywhere in the world, choose china to increase profits. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect any of these dynamics to change. American corporations, with few exceptions, are going to continue enabling china because selling chinese goods is more profitable.
You speak about censorship, but blocked comments about blm. Fair, isn’t it?
And now you have removed article completely?
https://www.osnews.com/story/131860/caught-on-camera-police-explode-in-rage-and-violence-across-the-us/
Right, removing racist comments on a privately owned website is totally the same thing as genocide.
Get help.
Couldn’t agree more Thom.
RobG,
I agree with Thom because he can do what he wants with a privately owned website, however I understand the OP’s point too. IMHO OSnews shouldn’t be putting itself into the political fray if it isn’t willing to allow an open discussion about it. The instances of censorship on osnews have been few and far in between and I wouldn’t want comments to fill up with hate filled posts, but I’ve gotta be honest it does bother me when on-topic comments get censored.
I’d rather see osnews avoid political subjects than posting them and then censoring / moderating the political discussions – it’s still a private website and osnews has ever right to do it, but as a user it still feels more oppressive.
Don’t get me wrong, on the whole I feel the level of moderation here has been appropriate. Although one suggestion would be to delegate authority to handle spam more quickly.
In that light removing the article might have been the right decision.
I wholeheartedly agree with you about Uyghur genocide and Hong Kong genocide, don’t get me wrong about that. But at the same time, you haven’t removed any racist comments, because there weren’t any, because you have blocked comments completely. BLM but please allow WLM. Please keep up the good work and either keep away from politics or allow moderate opinions from both sides
Mojdsk,
I agree.
Anyways, I really feel bad for the people of hong kong who feel they are loosing their independence. Just last year the world thought that there would be a few more decades left before hong kong would loose its independence (set to officially expire in 2047).
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2019-hong-kong-expiration/
But china is taking actions right now that severely curtail hong kong’s independence: curtailing the autonomy of local courts, elimination of freedom of speech, importing official overseers from beijing. China’s official messaging is contradictory, claiming their changes won’t be detrimental for the local population, but nevertheless eliminating hong kong’s autonomy.
As much as I complain about the faults and failures of democracy in the west, I find it really sad that people elsewhere are clutching for democracy only to have it seep through their fingers. I have the luxury of debating it from afar, but for those actually experiencing the real prospect of becoming subjects of a totalitarian government that’s gotta be depressing as hell.
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