Why don’t democratic countries keep WeChat off the App stores or completely block its network?
A company proposing a means of communication that would subtly or not so subtly twist the communications towards authoritarianism should not stand. Why would Some Country let Tencent silently block targeted messages between two of its citizens?
Blocking WeChat altogether of course warrants discussion because some people need to contact family and friends in China. But the discussion should happen if more and more non-Chinese start using WhatsApp, if anything to protect non-Chinese citizens from trouble the next time they visit China.
So the solution to the problem is to be more like the problem?
Also if you actually read you’ll find that your point in the second paragraph not true. The filtering only happens with China based accounts whereas surveillance are reportedly global.
The same democratic countries that employ or tolerate mass surveillance by the nsa? Either people don’t care enough or they don’t have the power to change it.
A company proposing a means of communication that would subtly or not so subtly twist the communications towards authoritarianism should not stand. Why would Some Country let Tencent silently block targeted messages between two of its citizens?
Blocking WeChat altogether of course warrants discussion because some people need to contact family and friends in China. But the discussion should happen if more and more non-Chinese start using WhatsApp, if anything to protect non-Chinese citizens from trouble the next time they visit China.