Post AU6k20e6BmJVCw4F28 by blobfrog@blob.cat
 (DIR) More posts by blobfrog@blob.cat
 (DIR) Post #AU6BPzzwkf1dklzSCW by adiz@outerkosm.us
       2023-03-29T05:47:31.677Z
       
       2 likes, 2 repeats
       
       I think what might get lost on a lot of Westerners is that the Western internet is not the internet. What I mean by that is: the internet, widely, is already regionalized into de-facto intranets, to an effect. It's similar to how the Fedi has certain segments and clusters unto themselves while still remaining in federation---it's just that peoples and groups often tend to "stick to their own", especially when geopolitical, cultural, and language barriers exist. Not everything is Meta, Twitter, CNN, Uber, Google, Netflix, Amazon, et al.. There are other similar or parallel foreign companies that exist globally serving their own domestic or regional clients. Surprisingly (sarcasm), users within those domestic or regional markets tend to utilize those services over Western counterparts since those services provide better or more relevant products and services to them. So, again, in many respects, the internet is already regionalized or, rather, comprised of de-facto intranets tied together to form a greater, collective internet.Regarding the "great firewall of China", it primarily exists to make it extremely difficult, if not legally impossible, for foreign companies to threaten Chinese domestic IT markets---it essentially obstructs or prevents companies like Amazon to threaten domestic Chinese companies like Alibaba or companies like Google to threaten Baidu. Quoting Deng Xiaoping:If you open the window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in.The GFW is metaphorically putting a screen over the open window. It's function has more or less exhausted itself as this point as Chinese IT giants have secured dominance within their regional markets, yet it remains in place. One can consider it an "unfair" trade practice and it probably is, but that's its root purpose and function: a barrier to trade and a protectionist policy to shield (then) fledging Chinese markets from being dominated by foreign behemoths.What it is not is an all-encompassing, surveillance-focused constellation of legislations and departments meant to annihilate privacy and security with heavy-handed fists and rows of sharp teeth like the United States's proposed "RESTRICT Act" here, whose sole ostensible purpose is not to provide a barrier to trade, but rather to "secure national security interests" (we all know what that means). The GFW is virtually unenforced as far as average Chinese citizens are concerned. VPNs are plenty. Access outside of the GFW is trivially easy to circumvent and its circumvention by PRC citizens is irrelevant as far as the government of the PRC is concerned...because it isn't designed to be apart of a giant surveillance and control panopticon like the Patriot Act and this proposed RESTRICT Act are meant to be implemented. The GFW is there to keep Western IT giants out. These American acts are designed to provide the NSA with infinite quantities of data and toothed to put individual US citizens in prison.RE: https://outerkosm.us/notes/9cwssqcafw
       
 (DIR) Post #AU6BQ0hC9rcVuuDzc0 by adiz@outerkosm.us
       2023-03-29T05:59:14.699Z
       
       2 likes, 1 repeats
       
       and toothed to put individual US citizens in prisonI think this is also an opportune time to fact-drop that the United States incarcerates more people on Earth than any other country on the face of the planet. ---Not per-capita, but in just raw, sheer quantities of human beings.According to Wikipedia:While the United States represents about 4.2 percent of the world's population, it houses around 20 percent of the world's prisoners.For reference, as of 2020, the United States has more people incarcerated (not just per-capita!) than the PRC, despite the PRC having a population approximately 4.5x that of the USA's (PRC has approximately 22% of the world's population).
       
 (DIR) Post #AU6Bl22WM9tmANDvFo by epic@gleasonator.com
       2023-03-29T06:05:49.068940Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @adiz So, if the US starts selling the hearts and lungs of its prisoners,it could compete with the PRC for low incarceration rates‽
       
 (DIR) Post #AU6jEPdkzBveFPG35E by yogthos@mas.to
       2023-03-29T12:19:53Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @adiz I think it's going to be interesting to see how draconian US censorship gets in the coming years.One problem US has is that free speech has been sold as the differentiating factor. The whole narrative is that western system is superior because there's free speech.I expect that overt censorship will further radicalize people in US and erode public trust in the regime.
       
 (DIR) Post #AU6jLH8yyQQxvK8UG8 by blobfrog@blob.cat
       2023-03-29T12:22:07.431907Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @yogthos @adiz Yes, overt (or hidden) censorship is a catalyst for reduced trust in the system.Btw, what do you think about the Twitter files and the revelations of FBI et al involvement in taking people offline from that medium?
       
 (DIR) Post #AU6jdq9pX413jGNusa by yogthos@mas.to
       2023-03-29T12:25:19Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @blobfrog @adiz This was a huge revelation that US government works directly with media companies to shape public opinion. That's an absolutely wild revelation.I'm not sure that has translated into most people changing their behavior though.
       
 (DIR) Post #AU6k20e6BmJVCw4F28 by blobfrog@blob.cat
       2023-03-29T12:29:51.197534Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @yogthos @adiz Agreed; I'm mostly bothered by that people that seem to agree with the messages that pre-musk Twitter prioritized/spotlighted by removing criticism seem to be very busy in either minimizing or entirely ignoring the twitter-files revelations.I won't call them "leftists"; since it's mostly permanently-online liberals and their providers in the traditional media houses that scoff at the mention of the issue; most people with a functioning brain should be able to see that if it can happen to one medium and one broad swath of messages ("vaccine hesitancy" and whatever), then they and their causes are next in line the day that political winds change.Which this are likely to in two years time, by the way.
       
 (DIR) Post #AU6x8eTYJXAVsadFeC by yogthos@mas.to
       2023-03-29T12:39:51Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @blobfrog @adiz yeah I find liberals tend to look the other way when it helps their team, evidently not realizing that once the other team gets in charge these same abuses will be directed at them