I didn’t miss the point, but this is a different topic. We need to provide housing, end homelessness and possibly the right to a bank account for everyone. These are different things.

Affordable housing and the threat by malicious actors to attack digital payment systems are two different things. Homelessness has to be addressed, of course, but we are dealing here with something else.

Addition:

TikTok Has Pushed Chinese Propaganda Ads To Millions Across Europe – ( July 2024, updated September 2024)

According to TikTok’s newly public advertising library, ads from China’s largest state media outlets touting everything from China Covid lockdowns to tourism in the troubled Xinjiang region have been broadcast to millions of the platform’s European users.

TikTok Ads Paid for by Chinese Media Target European Users – (August 2023)

Chinese media sponsored over a thousand ads on TikTok targeting European audiences. Additionally, accounts that carefully obscure their connections to China may pose further risks in coordinated information manipulation campaigns.

This are just two examples, there is much more across the web.

Let us not forget the people in Xinjiang who pay a harsh price for cheap Chinese EV cars. Unfortunately, forced labour and supply chain transparency wasn’t an issue here.

I’m from Europe and I’m kinda getting tired of reminding people from the US that your blind patriotism is just that…a blind spot that is used against the US citizens on every corner.

For starters, I/m from Europe, but my friends from the U.S. might not need to be reminded where they live, they know that themselves. And we are all tired of this whataboutism all over the place. There is a lot of criticism on the U.S., the surveillance there, and Clarence Thomas. The thing is that in these posts, there are no whataboutisms, no one commenting, “but in China …”.

As an addition:

• In 2015, two years after kicking off its massive Belt and Road initiative, China launched its “Digital Silk Road” project to expand access to digital infrastructure such as submarine cables, satellites, 5G connectivity, etc. In a report published this year, the UK-based human rights group ‘Article 19’ argues that the project is about more than just expanding access to Chinese technology, but rather to export its brand of digital authoritarianism across the word. Here is a brief article about it where you can also download the 80-page report (April 2024): China: The rise of digital repression in the Indo-Pacific – (Archived link)

• There is also an interesting first-hand research about how Chinese people cope with constant surveillance in their country by Canadian researcher Professor Ariane Ollier-Malaterre (March 2024): Digital surveillance is omnipresent in China. Here’s how citizens are coping (in French: La surveillance numérique est omniprésente en Chine. Voici comment les citoyens y font face)

I guess they can’t say much in this case. Maybe a bit whataboutism (chat control? Google does the same?), but you can’t defend this imo.

Thanks for this.

Maybe you know Total Trust, a documentary.

Total Trust is an eye-opening and deeply disturbing story of surveillance technology, abuse of power and (self-)censorship that confronts us with what can happen when our privacy is ignored. Through the haunting stories of people in China who have been monitored, intimidated and even tortured, the film tells of the dangers of technology in the hands of unbridled power. Taking China as a mirror, Total Trust sounds an alarm about the increasing use of surveillance tools around the world – even by democratic governments like those in Europe. If this is the present, what is our future?

If you speak German, you can watch it on Arte TV, but it is only available 3 more days.

@0x0@programming.dev

As @Deceptichum@quokk.au already said, this is about safety, and it’s not a geopolitical thing.

Space debris expert: Orbits will be lost—and people will die—later this decade – (2022)

Dual-use products can be used for civilian use cases and potentially also for the military, that’s why it’s called ‘dual-use’. That is pretty obvious.

It really helps if you read the article and try to understand. What is arguably more important is to stay away from this propaganda channels. It’s all on you, of course, you can do what you want, but if you keep reading and parroting these garbage propaganda and you’ll never learn how to think on your own, you’ll never get a life.

[…] called quantum technologies “potentially revolutionary and disruptive” and classed them as “an element of strategic competition” with rival states […] for components that can have military as well as civilian uses [and potentially] give China a scientific and military edge.

So the article is quite clear, just read it.

Basically, it is what China has always been doing, too. Many argue that China has even harsher rules regarding international collaboration -in both science and economy- and does not show any willingness for reciprocity.

Well, it’s probably a blend of many things. The ad industry (and the web in general?) is completely broken, but for disinformation to be spreading you need malicious actors exploiting the system and trying to benefit from this. It’s a human thing at its core imo.

https://feddit.org/u/sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz, thanks for this. I added an archived version now.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240709113414/https://molfar.com/en/blog/russians-who-shelled-okhmatdyt

Maybe this helps: https://x.com/bellingcat/status/1810952736264855916

Or just go to Bellingscat’s Twitter, there’s more about it: https://twitter.com/bellingcat

As tempting and reasonable as it may seem to counter disinformation with disinformation, it is the wrong path imo. It would play directly into the hands of authoritarian regimes and further undermine democracy in the long run. What we need is an educated, well-informed population and transparent political and economic processes so that leaders at all levels can be held accountable for what they do.