R/Disc- Hong Kong

[Senkaku]

Absolutely fucking ludicrous to think that someone in this forum can't even disclose his own location because somebody else is likely to snitch and lead to a freedom fighter's arrest. Absolutely fucking topsy turvy world we live in.

This was prompted when, slightly earlier, Tuthina declined to comment on whether or not they were at a location in Hong Kong, because of concern that Infected Mushroom would report them to Chinese authorities.

My question is: is this reportable conduct? Technically if IM did so it would be following the letter of the law in Hong Kong, but does NS have any sort of provision when there's a case like this where a police force is clearly engaged in rampant abuse/human rights violations at the behest of a dictatorial power? For example, to remove the Hong Kong lens for a moment, if there were renewed protests in Egypt, and a poster in some location in Cairo were reported by a pro-government poster to Egyptian authorities for arrest and probable mistreatment, would this be conduct that could get a poster banned? Or if a pro-government poster made statements threatening to report anyone whose location they found, would that be a warnable offense?

Personally, I would hope that taking actions to endanger the safety of fellow community members would be something that would get you DOS'd, but I also understand this is difficult if not impossible for Moderation to verify. Would, then, the fact that a poster has created an environment where this sort of fear is present be grounds for some sort of warning or ban, and is there a way this could be established so as to try and do away with spurious "i'm afraid i'm gonna get SWAT'd" grievance/mods-as-weapons reports?

At the very least, I hope Moderation might consider some sort of sanction on IM in this case. I don't think it's at all appropriate to be creating fear even in online discussion of events that are already frightening enough for those on the ground.

[Pasong Tirad]

Thought I was the one getting reported here for a second.

To be completely fair, I'm not entirely sure whether or not the reported user has shown any inclination to head into a police station and file a report on our NS Hong Kongers. I'm not sure what the NS admins can do when all the evidence they have is a user's posting records and ideological inclinations - mostly speculation, no hard evidence of threats (as far as I'm aware).

[Senkaku]

Thought I was the one getting reported here for a second.

Lmao no ofc not

To be completely fair, I'm not entirely sure whether or not the reported user has shown any inclination to head into a police station and file a report on our NS Hong Kongers. I'm not sure what the NS admins can do when all the evidence they have is a user's posting records and ideological inclinations - mostly speculation, no hard evidence of threats (as far as I'm aware).

Yeah I know, I just feel like it’s still something that’s worth discussing— even if there’s no explicit “I’ll go file the report on anyone!” type threatening nonsense, the fact is a poster still seems to have picked up on a chilling effect generated by the supporter of a totalitarian regime... and I think it’s probably good, given the widening front of the global information war between the great powers, for Moderation to consider the issue of to what extent they’ll let external safety factors generated by geopolitics to influence the content that makes it (or more importantly, doesn’t make it) to the site— to what degree will people need to self-censor due to political concerns in their homelands, etc.

Edit: (I’m tipsy, basically the question is: to what degree are world powers allowed to chill discussions on this forum and are y’all gonna try to do anything abt it,even tho I recognize ur options are p limited)

[The New California Republic]

Since this is tagged as a discussion (it seems to have a multiple personality thing going on, so I'll post here unless the mods specifically say this is a report thread), here's my interpretation of the hypothetical:

Since the person is being linked to their RL identity via their online activity, wouldn't it be classed as DOXXing? After all, such a thing in this specific instance wouldn't have been done through legitimate law enforcement channels (via law enforcement themselves making a legitimate request), but rather another user taking it upon themselves to make that connection and revealing it to a third party.

[USS Monitor]

Or maybe people could be responsible for their own privacy and not post their location on a public forum if they don't want it known? IM's hardly the only person that can read it if they post where they are.

[The Archregimancy]

I live in Cairo, so the example in the OP is obviously germane to my personal circumstances.

No one has - as yet - directly reported any actionable behaviour. The link in the OP is to a post complaining about another poster who is the ostensible subject of the report, but it isn't to a post directly connected to the query in the OP. If you think someone is engaging in actionable behavior, please link to that post rather than ask us to make a judgement on the basis of your summary of what someone might be saying.

The Hong Kong thread is highly active and has over 10,000 posts; it will help us tremendously if you could give us a hand by linking directly to the post(s) causing you concern.

[Grenartia]

Damn, you're down at polytech?

Given IM's presence, I'm going to say no whether I am or not (though at least I'm in situation safe enough to post here). The only thing I'll say is that I'm doing whatever I can to help, even if it won't matter in the grand scheme of things. While it's ultimately one's own decision whether to do the same, I urge everyone in Hong Kong (well, maybe not IM) to do the same. As for everyone else outside Hong Kong, I'm afraid the best one could do is to utilise the resource listed here, either to simply spread the words or something else.

You know, as inappropriate as it might be, going through the weekend reminds me of a joke I saw a while ago from Taiwan, which goes like:

Q: How to struggle for freedom and maintaining your way of life under a growing dictatorship?
Hong Kong: Watch closely; I'll only show it once.

Have to admit it no longer cracks a smile for me.

Why are you still here when you promise to not come back like, 5 days ago?

Because IM's promise is as empty as that from the side they support in this movement.

This is the only post I can see on the matter, though, like the others, I seem to recall IM stating he desired to report protestors on this forum to the authorities.

However, given his expressed attitudes, it is not at all an unreasonable fear.