You’re right. One banner read:

“We want food not Covid testing; we want freedom not lockdowns; we want dignity not lies. We want reform not the Cultural Revolution; we want to vote not a leader; we are citizens not slaves.”

And another read:

“Go on strike, depose the traitorous dictator Xi Jinping.” The police immediately took him away and he has not been seen since.

You could write such banners in the U.S. and any Western democracy, and nothing would happen. In China, you disapear.

Peng Lifa didn’t call for insurrection, he held a white paper.

Sure, and the central government has no influence on the media. No censorship, right?

An ‘indie newspaper’ in China. Yah, that makes sense. (/s, just to be safe)

I don’t know what you want to say or what it has to do with the linked report, but there is a lot of propaganda on Chinese state-controlled media (e.g., [reports on a ‘civil war in Texas’](Misinformation spreads in China on ‘civil war’ in Texas), things like that).

What ‘these people’ report is on a person who forcibly disappeared after a peaceful protest, for holding a white paper. Every human being with a sane mind must condemn that.

Then it’s time to ban this.

This ‘blackout challenge’ on Tiktok was a thing before Tiktok?

@SoupBrick@yiffit.net

Nowhere did I say China was good. That is just a bad faith take. I was hoping you were actually trying to learn. Don’t bother responding, you are blocked.

It is a ‘bad faith take’ if one thinks that ‘China is good’? Is that right?

TikTok’s ‘blackout’ challenge linked to deaths of 20 children in 18 months, report says - (December 2022)

TikTok faces lawsuit over ‘blackout challenge’ death of 10-year-old girl – (August 2024)

Blackout challenge – (Wikipedia)

The blackout challenge is an internet challenge based around the choking game, which deprives the brain of oxygen.[1] It gained widespread attention on TikTok in 2021, primarily among children.[2] It has been compared to other online challenges and hoaxes that have exclusively targeted a young audience.[3] It has been linked to the deaths of at least twenty children.

There is much more on that across the web.

@SoupBrick

So banning social media platforms for censorship is okay, but if you do the same for protecting children’s mental health it is not? Isn’t that weird?

Why is TikTok banned in China, my friend?

@SoupBrick

And why is TikTok (and all other non-Chinese social media) banned in China then? Non-Western.narraties? Palestine? Other reasons?

Is this the reason then why TikTok is already banned in China, TikTok’s parent company’s home country? Because media there is lying?

banning media that shows a non western narrative.

Which media show a non-Western narrative? TikTok? Facebook? Instagram?

@CanadaPlus

I get what you mean by highlighting that no current technology can distinguish between good and bad guys, but I feel there will never be a technology that can do that. A backdoor can easily be used by your government/law enforcement to suppress people and eliminate freedoms, even if there may have been best initial intentions for such a backdoor. This is a fundamentally human -rather than a technological- issue.

Me too :-)

And jolly old Elon has also something to say about it …

Pete Buttigieg confronts Elon Musk’s falsehoods about government’s Hurricane Helene relief: ‘Give me a call’ — (archived)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg publicly confronted Elon Musk on Friday, refuting false claims the tech billionaire made about the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene. Musk, who has over 200 million followers on his platform, X (formerly Twitter), accused federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, of blocking aid deliveries and obstructing private relief flights to storm-hit areas in North Carolina.

Musk shared a screenshot of a text exchange purportedly with a SpaceX engineer claiming the FAA was “throttling” airspace, preventing helicopters from delivering Starlink internet terminals. Musk labeled the government’s actions as “belligerent government incompetence,” triggering a wave of misinformation on social media.

[…] Buttigieg responded directly to Musk on X, debunking the claims. “No one is shutting down the airspace and FAA doesn’t block legitimate rescue and recovery flights,” Buttigieg tweeted. “If you’re encountering a problem, give me a call.”

[Edit typo.]

Hurricane Helene: Rumor Response

Help keep yourself, your family and your community safe after Hurricane Helene by being aware of rumors and scams and sharing official information from trusted sources.

Quick reminder on Hurricane Matthew which passed North Carolina in 2017, when Trump was U.S. President:

North Carolina denied 99 percent of federal recovery funds for Hurricane Matthew (May 2017)

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Wednesday the federal government authorized just $6.1 million of the more than $900 million [less than 1 percent] the state had requested. Cooper said the funds were meant for housing and business repairs, housing elevation, agriculture, public facilities repairs, and health and mental services.

In a letter addressed to President Trump, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and congressional leaders, Cooper called on the federal government to support Hurricane Matthew recovery efforts […]

“Families across eastern North Carolina need help to rebuild and recover, and it is an incredible failure by the Trump Administration and Congressional leaders to turn their backs,” Cooper said in a statement.

These people are heroes if something like that exists. China must not only be called out more on that, Beijings ignorance of universal human rights must also have direct real-world consequences. Trade and investment agreements (such as WTO rules and China’s infamous Belt and Road Initiative) make only sense if and when rights issues are part of these international rule sets. China’s policies are manifestly unjust as its government permanently makes decisions in complete disregard of anyone else - its own people, its Asian neighbours, and the wider global community. There appears to be a slight, timid change in this respect, but much more must be done to adequately address the crimes against humanity committed by China.