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thewhitetulip

This has already been happening in India under the current govt

Any Anti PM post gets the Whatsapp admin arrested under National Security Act!

Of course, there must be some stupid party supporter who probably had to file a case or something.

This will be worse as it'll be automatic as China MITM's everything

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Pretty interesting comment. Let me see a reputable source which backs up 'anti pm message arrest under national security act'. I googled those and found just one arrest in a state which said

> Asked why Shinde had been suspended, Sharma said, “He has not been suspended just for the message. In the past, too, complaints were received against him for favouring certain political party person and showing political inclination. The WhatsApp message he posted is one of the reasons why he has been suspended.” Asked what exactly did he mean by showing political inclination, Sharma said, “I won’t be able to give all the details. But the past complaints and WhatsApp message are the reasons he has been suspended.”

source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/mumbai-const...

> In the past, too, complaints were received against him for favouring certain political party person and showing political inclination.

Why is this even a "valid" reason?

Even in the US there are restrictions on political activity by civil servants. Although I doubt those would encompass what was described here.

It's not, it's government censorship.

I mean, sure, everyone knows it is. But usually governments of democratic countries try to hide their intentions with some sort of reasonable-sounding excuse?

'Censorship' is bad, but I'm a little more concerned about the 'arrest' part ...

You seem to have taken only one source

Google "whatsapp admins arrested Modi"

First link: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ndtv.com/karnataka-news/wha...

Tdlr; Karnataka WhatsApp grp asmin arrested for morphed photo of the PM

Well looks like I'm blind because I find no mention of the national security act in the sources you linked as well. You're trying so hard. Oh well..

It is glad that you accepted. If only more ppl were like you who accepted their incapability while proving others wrong.

The source I gave was "Whatsapp admin arrested Modi"

If u want to look for those arrested under NSA, the results are one click away.

Now don't tell me your hands stopped working as well...

Haha 'one click away', I see nothing that proves your original comment, the burden of proof lay upon you (when the argument was active).

That's quite a jump to conclusion too. But whatever helps you sleep at night while accepting your bullshit narrative was openly called out and you made a fool of yourself. Must be hard spreading propaganda on internet forums. Have a good one. You may choose to reply to this comment but expect no further conversation. Peace :)

Flamewar and personal attacks are not allowed here, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are. We ban accounts that do this, so could you please review the site rules and follow them? They're at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, and we'd be grateful.

Great point. I would happily follow the rules and I do.

Evidently though, the other person went ad-hominem with a very aggressive reddit-esque comment on a simple reply I gave. No one chimed in to flag that comment so I had to speak for myself. I just hope a moderator would have sprung into action sooner. That being said, it's nice you guys are making effort to keep the board clean from becoming `that`.

I'll just keep away from inciteful comments the next time. I really wish there was a report option here too.

lol

I googled "whatsapp admin arrested Modi NSA"

And guess which link came first?

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/technology-44925166

Article says

> student has spent five months in an Indian jail over a WhatsApp message he says he did not send.

> Local reports say the 21-year-old man was charged with sedition because of "objectionable" content, although it is not clear what the message said.

I rest my case.

We ban accounts that do flamewar on HN. Please don't get involved in arguments like this on HN again.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Hey, sorry. My previous response was very rude. I immediately updated it to the current one. Does this also constitute under flamewar? (If so, I'm sorry)

It's not as bad. But it's still unnecessarily argumentative. A better spirit to post in is expressed in this old line of pg's: Comments should be written in the spirit of colleagues cooperating in good faith to figure out the truth about something, not politicians trying to ridicule and misrepresent the other side.

Try to find a point of connection between you and the person you're talking to. You don't need to say what it is explicitly; you just need to find it and feel it. Do that, and flamewar will magically be transformed into conversation.

Forgive my naivety, but aren’t Whatsapp messages encrypted? If so, how can the authorities see what’s written in them?

If people in the chat want him suspended, I guess it is those people with the complaint making a recording/listing of the chats and then passing the evidence onto authorities.

Someone in the group chat is a snitch.

I thought only 1-to-1 messages were encrypted and group chat wasn't.

Whatsapp does E2E for groups, which have upto 256 members. A Matrix dev said they scaled E2E to groups with thousands.

The group chat is also encrypted, but anyone in the group chat can share the messages.

Maybe someone snitched?

That is exactly what happened.

>> "Any" Anti PM post gets the Whatsapp admin arrested under National Security Act!

This is blatantly false. Singling out "Anti-PM" posts and demonizing only BJP (in your latter comment) is clearly biased.

Here are the instances of people being booked for "remarks" in Social media against the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and Opposition:

[1] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/case-against-shimla-man-for-...

[2]https://www.news18.com/news/india/mp-man-posts-photo-of-rahu...

[3] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/mahesh-vikram-hegde-arrested...

There is nothing "automatic" about it. All such charges happen after off-line complaints in the police station by either party.

Rather if you would say, based on police complaints on violating Indian Penal Code, people are booked or arrested - that'll be a more reasonable statement - rather than coming out with blanket statements.

How convenient of you to selectively handpick few cases of opposition leaders while ignoring all those journalists who are jailed under Draconian laws for posting things govt didn't like.

I don't need lectures from BJP supporters about being biased. Except Indira's emergency, I don't remember journalists being jailed under NSA. get your facts straight from real media and not whatsapp forwards

P.s. this acc is made a few hrs ago. Obviously a fake acc

Forget about PM, Even state leaders are abusing this and getting opposition sympathizers arrested in India for a while.

This abuse is most common in State of Andhra Pradesh (Whose chief minister claims he invested IT and claims to have influenced Satya Nadella enter into software :) ).

1. https://www.mirchi9.com/politics/one-case-abuse-ysrcp-social...

2. Another Arrest Video in local language (telugu): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osWZE0-cQ1g

Yeah

One man sets trend, it blows up

This is false statement without no supporting source. This is the problem with social media. Someone posts fake news/propaganda and everyone starts believing or starts forwarding (whatsapp), which is causing Govts to take certain action against them/regulate them

If you keep your bias aside and read actual news rather than propaganda TV channels maybe you'll know what really happened

And what about BJP IT cell spreading edited photos and videos? Never heard a single BJP person getting arrested

Source:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ndtv.com/karnataka-news/wha...

Any reputable sourcee on this?

Google "Whatsapp admin arrested Modi"

One source:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ndtv.com/karnataka-news/wha...

Did all the dictators get together and decide on the phrase "national security" as the go to when implementing authoritarian laws?

No. They just copied the US and UK showing them how to do it, immediately after 9/11.

I wouldn't be surprised if this could happen in the US, if someone created a "terrorist" group chat.

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