[HN Gopher] Jitsi Meet Abandons Anonimity Promise
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       Jitsi Meet Abandons Anonimity Promise
        
       Author : pacija
       Score  : 68 points
       Date   : 2023-09-04 15:36 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (reclaimthenet.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (reclaimthenet.org)
        
       | philipwhiuk wrote:
       | "Other Site Abandons Anonymity" says website which puts large
       | "Sign Up" prompts on first-use and below every article.
       | 
       | Slightly hypocritical reclaimthenet
        
       | hackan wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
         | slackfan wrote:
         | What's capitalistic about bowing to the social censorship
         | required? Sure as hell ain't making their product more
         | profitable for the user market. Seems like the market isn't the
         | end users but government monopolies which isn't capitalistic at
         | all.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | BizarreByte wrote:
         | No, nothing survives pedophiles. Although Jitsi won't admit it
         | directly, it has been strongly hinted CSAM is the reason for
         | the change.
        
           | hackan wrote:
           | CSAM is a great excuse for a lot of things, in particular to
           | control free speech. It is a real problem, but this is
           | clearly not working.
        
       | prmoustache wrote:
       | people keep mixing the service and the software it seems.
        
       | zaggynl wrote:
       | ON THE PUBLIC JITSI-MEET DEMO SERVER https://meet.jit.si/!
       | 
       | Selfhost jitsi-meet!
       | 
       | It isn't rocket science:
       | https://jitsi.github.io/handbook/docs/devops-guide/devops-gu...
        
         | sebmaynard wrote:
         | Even easier with docker/docker-compose
         | 
         | https://jitsi.github.io/handbook/docs/devops-guide/devops-gu...
        
       | reflexe wrote:
       | Maybe it is just my mood, but this blog's full screen newsletter
       | subscription banner on mobile is much more infuriating than
       | whatever Jitsi did (screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/fSEyZ8x)
        
       | yakcyll wrote:
       | This was talked about before here:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37316959
       | 
       | I assume this move, in essence, is meant to combat spam?
        
         | ComputerGuru wrote:
         | what went unsaid but very heavily implied in the Jitsi
         | announcement was that it was (allegedly) CSAM and not mere
         | spam.
        
           | xulres wrote:
           | Stop with the allegedly it was a anonymous service that was
           | reachable from onion. There is no question at all that there
           | was CSAM shared over it. I don't care about the rest but all
           | this "allegedly" shit in regards of CSAM gets on my nerves. I
           | actually thought people here either work in bigger corps or
           | have experience in running services themselves and would know
           | about the real size of the CSAM problem. But I guess not,
           | ignorance is bliss.
           | 
           | Also it's only their hosted for profit service. Use the fsf
           | instance if you feel violated by a user account.
           | https://jitsi.member.fsf.org/
        
             | ComputerGuru wrote:
             | I personally think it was likely/almost certainly the case.
             | That doesn't change the fact that without sufficient actual
             | evidence it remains "allegedly."
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | zozbot234 wrote:
               | Well, the announcement talks about clear-cut ToS
               | violations. Maybe it was about illegally streamed soccer
               | matches - that's a bit of a plague as of late.
        
               | pengaru wrote:
               | Not all porn is CSAM... Are we just assuming it's CSAM
               | because non-CSAM would be on OnlyFans? Is there not an
               | appeal for the anonymity and zero-cost Jitsi offered vs.
               | OF-like services, for consenting adults?
               | 
               | I've never used OF but assumed they take a cut. Through
               | Jitsi a performer could arrange for payment via crypto,
               | protect their identity, and not pay a cut to any middle-
               | men beyond the crypto fees. What am I missing?
        
               | Vinnl wrote:
               | I mean, it could also be beheadings, revenge porn,
               | doxxing, etc. Lots of clear-cut violations that are more
               | serious than illegally streamed soccer matches.
               | 
               | But the true answer is probably "all of the above".
        
               | lnxg33k1 wrote:
               | Piracy is still the best way/our best chance to get rid
               | of soccer and all the nothingness that it involves in
               | terms of drama, gossip, etc
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | yieldcrv wrote:
             | "allegedly" aside, is this the only way to tackle the CSAM
             | problem? I get a whif of a false dilemma here but I'm not
             | sure if I have a blindspot
             | 
             | is requiring Oauth from Facebook, Google or Github for
             | hosts something meaningful, necessary or the obligation of
             | Jitsi Meet to do at all
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | xulres wrote:
               | In every thread someone comes with "but is this the only
               | way to tackle the problem?" Noone ever even makes a
               | suggestion so I guess yes it's the only way.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | yieldcrv wrote:
               | that's mentally negligent.
               | 
               | the only people that have to identify problems _and_
               | solutions are founders that are grifting for capital or
               | customers. and that's sad.
               | 
               | the rest of rational actors can see a false dilemmas from
               | afar without knowing what the third and fourth and fifth
               | possibilities are.
               | 
               | in this case its pretty obvious that "privacy for hosts,
               | or not via FAANG Oauth and an unaccountable change in the
               | terms of service to further distance from privacy" is a
               | false dilemma while also not preventing anonymous CSAM
               | rooms on their service.
        
               | seanhunter wrote:
               | It's not mentally negligent, "is this the only solution?"
               | is a weird standard that for some reason gets brought up
               | in the specific instance but isn't something we apply to
               | other problems.
               | 
               | Is MFA the only solution to the auth problem? No.
               | 
               | Is having a firewall the only way to prevent unauthorized
               | traffic on your network? No.
               | 
               | Is docker the only solution to how to package software in
               | containers? No
               | 
               | Is git the only DVCS? No.
               | 
               | Is git-flow the only way to manage branching and pull-
               | requests? No.
               | 
               | Is Rust/Python/Javascript the only programming language?
               | No.
               | 
               | Are relational databases the only way to persist
               | important data? No.
               | 
               | etc etc etc...
               | 
               | We _normally_ expect for difficult problems to have a
               | variety of solutions with different tradeoffs and in
               | particular, for really hard problems involving adaptive
               | human adversaries, a lot of time we rely on applying
               | multiple levels of  "solution" in order to give us
               | defense in depth and a chance to really crack a
               | particular problem.
        
               | yieldcrv wrote:
               | personally I think its weirder how CSAM (or a mere
               | _rumor_ of it in this case) gets people to not question
               | anything
               | 
               | when without that rumor the criticism of the change would
               | be criticism
               | 
               | "is this the only solution" is actually just me being
               | diplomatic on a topic people are emotional about, as its
               | clearly not the only solution, but even that is met with
               | deflection
               | 
               | maybe thats the reason this "weird standard" is only
               | noticed on CSAM mitigation discussions, because people
               | know they cant be frank to you
        
               | xulres wrote:
               | So you are basically saying my way or the highway without
               | even offering a option at all. So your "diplomatic" is
               | just another way of saying "I don't give a shit and
               | please stfu". Why would you inject yourself in a
               | discussion if you don't really want to participate?
               | Yikes.
        
               | yieldcrv wrote:
               | That's not my position at all
               | 
               | Its "is this the least worst solution, or the most best,
               | and why?"
               | 
               | if you cant engage you have the same choice
        
               | xulres wrote:
               | [flagged]
        
               | bradleyjg wrote:
               | It's only a false dilemma if there's a third, etc.
               | possibility. You can't just assume that every problem has
               | a magical happy solution that requires no tradeoffs.
        
               | yieldcrv wrote:
               | I agree, so here are several
               | 
               | 3. the same signup requirements for the participants
               | instead of just the host
               | 
               | 4. phone number verification for the host and
               | participants
               | 
               | 5. a credit card for the host and participants
               | 
               | 6. some kind of deposit for the host and participants
               | 
               | 7. discriminating against Tor users
               | 
               | 8. including Apple ID in the list of auth services
               | 
               | 9. it actually not being Jitsi Meet's obligation at all
               | and authorities continue to prosecute the criminal action
               | of the participants by doing actual investigations
               | 
               | 10. ...
        
               | tqi wrote:
               | How is 3-8 a better solution, rather than merely
               | different?
               | 
               | It seems like your actual opinion is #9, but that's not
               | actually a solution they can implement.
        
               | yieldcrv wrote:
               | Its just a random assortment of possibilities to
               | demonstrate that Jitsi's is a false dilemma
               | 
               | people pretending that the only people that can question
               | one solution must also be the person to have the other
               | solution
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | [deleted]
        
       | remirk wrote:
       | I personally have no issue with having to log-in to use the
       | hosted Jitsi and have it store that I created a room. That's a
       | small price to pay for the longevity of the service.
       | 
       | If logging in is an issue, you're still able to selfhost Jitsi
       | just fine.
       | 
       | Edit: this article feels like blogspam to me.
       | https://jitsi.org/blog/authentication-on-meet-jit-si/ is the
       | source the article refers to.
        
         | throw_pm23 wrote:
         | What about having to log in with a Google/Facebook/MS account
         | as opposed to a Jitsi account?
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | Terretta wrote:
       | Most such tools can no longer afford their stance once adoption
       | passes a threshold.
       | 
       | Why that might be is often revealed on techdirt:
       | 
       | - https://www.techdirt.com/edition/freespeech/
       | 
       | For other reasons, see also:
       | 
       | - https://mattfrisbie.substack.com/p/the-ugly-business-of-mone...
       | 
       | - https://github.com/extesy/hoverzoom/discussions/670
        
       | Kim_Bruning wrote:
       | Making a separate account on Jitsi would have been fine, but they
       | only allow use of existing centralized account systems from
       | github (microsoft), facebook, or google.
       | 
       | That's Not Good(tm).
       | 
       | Good thing Self-hosting still works I guess. Will have to set it
       | up.
        
         | redserk wrote:
         | Managing a public authentication service requires ongoing
         | maintenance and monitoring costs. While they could pay a third
         | party to manage it for them, this is a reasonable decision for
         | them to keep costs low.
         | 
         | It doesn't sound like Jitsi is sending Facebook and Microsoft
         | transcriptions of your meetings so I don't see why this is a
         | big concern for a free service.
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | It requires you to have a Microsoft/Facebook/Google account
           | in the first place.
        
         | itake wrote:
         | Self hosting isn't exactly anonymous either.
        
           | rebeccaskinner wrote:
           | Anonymity is in the eyes of the beholder. In this case, self-
           | hosting might make your interactions "anonymous" in the eyes
           | of Google, Microsoft, or Meta, even if it doesn't make you
           | anonymous to whatever platform you use to host the software.
        
       | m-p-3 wrote:
       | That's what happen when awful people abuse nice things.
       | 
       | Those bad actors and privacy-conscious people (both entirely
       | distinct group, just in case it looks like I'm putting those two
       | in the same category..) can still self-host their own Jitsi Meet
       | server if they want to.
        
       | snowstormsun wrote:
       | Isn't webrtc leaking the IPs of call participants anyways,
       | regardless of which service?
        
         | Sean-Der wrote:
         | If you are going through Jitsi (a SFU) all your media goes
         | through them.
         | 
         | If you are doing P2P then you will be able to get the remote's
         | IP address.
        
       | moomin wrote:
       | Could a mod fix the spelling, please?
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-04 23:01 UTC)