This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.
Rules:
1: All Lemmy rules apply
2: Do not post low effort posts
3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff
4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.
5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)
6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist
7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed
SMH @ activists using techno-fascist platforms for communications during an operation subject to state-actor level interference. I thought we recognised and acknowledged this problem 15-20 years ago already.
https://xcancel.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1965431513320927706
I use WhatsApp cautiously with friends who still refuse to jump over to Signal (let alone Matrix or Session). But it's def mind blowing to read an activist group was relying on it for organizing. Reminds me of FB being used for organizing G20 and BLM demos -_-
Considering their entire marketing campaign is "nobody, not even WhatsApp can see your messages," I can see how folks would fall for that.
But they can see the metadata!
I think a lot of non-techie people only know signal from the Trump admin using it illegally earlier in the year. In a lot of people's minds because of that they think Signal = insecure because they don't get the nuances of why using it in that specific context -- on personal phones, using a third party app, with a random journalist in the mix -- was bad, but that for most people it's still one of the best options. WhatsApp on the other hand has a lot of marketing around it and if you didn't know that Meta is Facebook I think some people wouldn't even realise who the owners are.
I had a friend who heard signal was backdoored and that a regular old cell call was more secure. Had to correct that
wasn't it telegram that got hacked?
also i vaguely remember the signal ceo getting sued or something because they couldn't/wouldn't let some government body read someone's messages, because it's encrypted
I mean, based on the source, they're still even on Twitter which is a lot more overtly fascist than WhatsApp. So…yeah…
There are some unofficial pages on the fediverse: https://mastodon.bida.im/@globalsumudflotilla
But yeah no links or mentions to mastodon and federated platforms on their website
A sad reality of political activism is the inability of many groups to follow proper opsec.
The number of people who are like "are you on Whatsapp? " fir secure conversations....
Yeah, that's curious. I'd think they'd be prepared with Signal at the very least and some backup self-hosted channel, as well as cameras and backup cell hotspots.
they were prepared for the drone hit the other day; so hopefully for this as well.
I'd imagine they could have a few spread out boats further and further behind, each with its own cell hotspot, beaming WiFi all around, so that they have to be jammed simultaneously to stop the livestreams from capturing the attacks.
Or fiber optic cable.
it sounds like it would be easier to pick them off one-by-one if they were far apart.
This is why you don't use whatsapp
This is yet another reason why you don't use whatsapp
ftfy
Meta is complicit in the genocide
Not the first genocide, either
Maybe consider Signal instead?
Did they select Whatsapp as a main communication channel and direct their supporters to it?
Or did they just start a group chat to reach out to supporters who were already on the app?
100% CIA and mossad were watching those channels realtime.
I am pretty sure those groups were public
Amazing that they weren't using Signal for comms outside their group, but for internal comms it's even more amazing they weren't using something like Meshtastic.
Can only say a person who has never used meshtastic.
Source: The struggle.
Thank you for telling me about meshtastic!
For anyone like me who never heard of it before:
Amazing that they weren’t using Signal
I wouldn't rule it out. But you can't do public comms over Signal.
it’s even more amazing they weren’t using something like Meshtastic.
Again, I wouldn't rule it out. But if I'm on a public group that's very likely compromised by the IDF, I'm not going to announce all the other protocols they need to block.
He's just reporting one avenue that's been closed to the protesters by a corporate entity that is now complicit in genocide.
With all respect to a privacy advocates(I'm one), but blaming them on using WhatsApp is besides the point, these people are not trying to hide their activities, or locations, and many of them are not tech-saavy, the shame is on the cess pool that is Meta, and all the other goons...this is so fucked up on so many levels.
blaming them on using WhatsApp is besides the point
WhatsApp admins are explicitly interfering with a public protest in order to satisfy a genocidal foreign government.
This is at least as big a deal as TikTok censorship of anti-China posters. It's just on behalf of a US ally, so we're defending it rather than threatening to interfere in their business practices in turn.
the shame is on the cess pool that is Meta
Who appoints WhatsApp administration heads if not Meta? It's the same picture.
So happy not to be using Whatsapp...
another reason why not to use whatsapp? for all that is good, don't use meta or any corporate technofascist company. there are better options.
All the more reason to use Signal.
At least they werent organising on discord, maybe its intentional to send a message to people about meta
Was this their main channel of communication or just a group they had for supporters?