After reading the article it seems to me that, contrary to the title, the users don't do anything to actively "aid" the built-in blacklisting in the app?
Well, that's the meaning of "unwitting". I think the article is only saying that tencent collect (information on) the pictures shared by users through the service.
If the image classification for censorship is applied to all images sent worldwide, but only China-based accounts get censored, then just by using the app among non-China-registered accounts to share images that would be sensitive in China, uncensored users are unwittingly helping to build the censored image database before users in China ever try to share the material.
Still not clear how users are 'helping' exactly? Seems like they just have their chats filtered. What am I missing?
This is a frustrating article to read. Every sentence and paragraph from the start to about 3/4 down just repeats the same information as is in the headline over and over again in a different format.
I don’t think that there is much evidence of being excessively against China; I remember one incident suggesting the opposite.¹ There are certainly more establishment voices in the opinion pages than elsewhere, but they are on the liberal side of the establishment camp; the editor, for example, has attacked the government’s intransigence in the handling of the extradition bill, but is generally pro-establishment.
You’re right—I remember reading something from AsiaSentinel and getting there via the Wikipedia page on media censorship in HK, but it doesn’t link to anything any more. I should have checked. There are lots of stories on Google though so is possible to verify that I am not in fact making things up.
Users don't do anything because they don't care. Chinese people have the mentality that makes them think, I didn't do anything wrong so what am I afraid of?
It's obviously a generalization. Of course there's edge cases where it doesn't apply and groups who it applies to less. That's part of the nature of generalizations. They're not meant to be comprehensive. Complaining that it ignores the nuance is like complaining a knife makes a bad spoon.
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[ 0.23 ms ] story [ 46.4 ms ] thread"Image filtering only occurred when at least one of the chat participants had an account registered to a mainland Chinese number"
No: they don‘t aid, period. They just use the service which uses blacklist technologies. That‘s all I see there.
It‘s just a false claim that the “users” are helping.
This is a frustrating article to read. Every sentence and paragraph from the start to about 3/4 down just repeats the same information as is in the headline over and over again in a different format.
Seems like they're doing something right with their reporting if both "pro-China" and "anti-China" camps believe them to be allied with the enemy.
1. http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&tas...
Most demonstrated, IMPE, by the phrase, "You have nothing to fear, if you have nothing hide."