Technology @lemmy.ml fer0n @lemmy.world 3mo ago

Signal has been blocked by Venezuela and Russia

www.theverge.com Signal has been blocked by Venezuela and Russia

Signal is aware of the blocks.

“We’re aware of reports that access to Signal has been blocked in some countries,” Signal says. If you are affected by the blocks, the company recommends turning on its censorship circumvention feature. (NetBlocks reports that this feature lets Signal “remain usable” in Russia.)

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I take that as a compelling recommendation for Signal.
- Agreed. Clearly it must do simply what is said on the tin, otherwise why ban it?
Legitimate countries don't need to ban communications platforms.
- Is tiktok ok?
  
  He said "communications platforms" not "misinformation, social engineering, and mass data collection platform masquerading as a social media platform"
  
  Does ByteDance publish TikTok’s transmission protocol to demonstrate transparency?
  
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Protocol
  
  I'd say social media platforms are an entire different beast.
  
  Facebook is not the same as Facebook Messenger for instance.
  
  tiktok is a platform to share information and communicate, yes
  
  which is why the french government banned it in Kanaky ("new caledonia") during the protests there, as it was a tool of communication used by the protesters
  
  probably not in anyway unless if bytedance strips the algorithm and sells it to like cloudflare, mozilla for example instead of facebook.
- I kinda disagree - that's not to say that they don't usually do so for illegitimate reasons (or that these bans are legitimate), but there's plenty of valid reasons why a government would want/need to ban a platform
  
  X, for example, has been giving the UK a whole lot of good reasons why they may wish to consider it (restoring the accounts of people like Tommy Robinson, allowing misinformation, the owner of the platform himself actively spreading that misinformation)
- We should allow the US surveillance giants into all countries, and let US companies control all world social media and communications platforms. Signal too, since it's a US-hosted centralized service that must follow its NSL laws /s
  
  I find these absolutist arguments particularly hilarious in face of UK now actively talking about restricting social media, and arresting people for posts. When people use media to incite violence and social unrest in countries the west considers to be adversaries, free speech stands above all other considerations. However, as soon as these things start happening in the west, then the restrictions on speech are immediately put into place.
Worth highlighting that Telegram in Russia and WhatsApp in Venezuela - both with vastly larger user bases than Signal - are not blocked...
- But they are not as secure as Signal
  
  Believe that's the point.
  
  Is it?
- The session keys for WhatsApp are stored on Meta servers, so the encryption is meaningless. Meta can read everything everyone types. Yet all of the eastern hemisphere seem to worship it like it's pure platinum.
- I don't think anyone took those seriously as private messengers. On another note, I think Maduro cracked down on WhatsApp as well, and called Venezuelans to cancel Meta altogether. Or something.
- WhatsApp is the most popular messenger in Russia, not Telegram.
Just turn on the censorship intervention feature

based
Show me what Stalinism looks like
This is what Stalinism looks like
- How is that Stalinist? Censorship isn't some unique rare policy, even 5EYES countries regularly challenge the legality of E2EE.
  
  Stalinism is when thing bad.
  
  Ah, lemmy.ml welcome there xD
That's a glowing recommendation of Signal. And a good reminder to donate. I'm doing it right now.
- Friendly reminder that Signal on Android contains proprietary code (google play services), and the server software is rumored to be closed now and/or not what they are actually using due to a lack of updates for a prolonged period. Of course it's just a rumor and I have no way to verify that, but thought it was worth mentioning (hope this doesn't count as FUD).
  
  Molly-FOSS seems to be the preferred 100% open mobile alternative client.
Thankfully there are Signal proxies, VPNs and Tor (which can be used on mobile devices through Orbot.
This means it's working.
Client/Server apps will do that in hostile countries, that's why people are moving to decentralized messaging platforms such as Matrix
- Matrix has the unfortunate problem right now where all the big clients have matrix.org set as the default homeserver. Yes, it is a decentralized and federated protocol, but I wonder how many users are registered on matrix.org vs other servers.
- Matrix is nice
  
  Matrix lacks metadata encryption
- You can just as easily identify servers of a decentralized platform and block them. The disadvantage of a central service would come into play if say the US were to intervene, though Signal has already said they would move abroad if that was the case. For network level blockage it makes no difference if the service is central or not
  
  It makes a difference in that you have to play perpetual whack-a-mole not only with VPN's but with hosting servers.
Glad it at least seems easy to circumvent with a VPN
- Their own solution is actually better than a VPN for this use case. It's an encrypted proxy which anyone can download and run, so it's much harder to block.
  
  Thanks for sharing! I'll get that up and running once I'm home.
- oh they're working on it too
  
  VPN access at risk in Venezuela ahead of elections - here's how to get around it
  
  Russia says Apple blocks 25 VPN apps in Russia, IFX reports
Time to run some proxies for these oppressed people.
- There are already many signal proxies available, plus an unlimited number of VPNs to choose from (or self-host yourself on a VPS)
  
  And Signal can be used over Tor through Orbot
  
  They're asking for more proxies now.
I wonder why these 2 countries specifically.

Some time ago it was reported that Russian Wagner groups have been spotted in Venezuela.

Now these 2 countries have banned Signal.

83 comments