[liberationtech] WeChat

[Nathan of Guardian]

Sarah Lai Stirland <sarah at personaldemocracy.com> wrote:

>Hi everyone -- I'm curious as to whether anyone on here has used
>WeChat,
>what they think of it, how they use it, and what it provides that other
>communications tools don't.

It provides a really nice backup system for all of your messages, address book, photos and audio located in Shanghai. Unfortunately only the Chinese authorities have access to it.

It also ensures you don't accidentally send messages about unharmonious topics, like corruption, graft and human rights. 

It also does away with pesky security features like HTTPS and the need for backdoors, since as we have learned in the case of the NSA, no one should have anything to hide, unless they are up to no good.

Finally, it provides an excellent means for diaspora dissident groups like the Tibetans and Uyghurs to have their social graphs mapped, and geolocation tracked.

In short, it is a smashing success for the CCP and the PSB, and has already resulted in the arrests of a number of splittists, who just thought it was a great way to send "free" international messages.

>
>Is there is an American version of this that anyone uses?

The American version is the same as the Chinese version, and same as what is popular throughout SEA. It is China's version of PRISM just wrapped up in a shiny app package. Brilliant!

+n8fr8