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Comment by ConfusedDog | Hacker News Reader

This is indeed very scary especially now it requires facial recognition part... to sign up for WeChat, you need to have a valid phone number; to use WeChat pay, you got to provide real-name and official ID, bank account, etc. From the WeChat social network, relationships are easily identified.

The mere existence of such tool is destine to be misused, regardless who made it. This is what real power looks like.

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There is practically no difference in these requirements versus what Facebook is requiring. Try to create a Facebook account and they will soon flag your account to require a photo for facial recognition. You can't signup for Facebook without a valid mobile number. And if Facebook does not like the photo you provide for facial recognition, they want a government ID.

Mmh no? I've been without FB account for 3-4 years, and recently opened a new one from scratch because some friends only use FB and absolutely nothing besides confirming my email was required.

Yes, it does suggest that I add my phone, and that I verify my friends, and that blablabla, but nothing else is required for me to add few friends and join a chat.

I'd been without a Facebook account for four years as well, but created one for testing/verifying the behavior of an application we'd recently gotten approved.

As far as I'm aware it would not let me create an account without a mobile number to confirm the account.

After performing a single action (creating a page), my account was flagged, and thrown into the facial recognition captcha process.

See here for many more anecdotes about this process:

https://www.reddit.com/r/socialmedia/comments/9r0ijd/you_can...

My bet is that they were able to internally link your previous account and the new one. And probably kept building your profile while you were "without" an account.

Oh interesting point of view. I was thinking they might have linked my "ghost profile", not the previous one, but yeah that's a possibility

> to use WeChat pay, you got to provide real-name and official ID, bank account, etc.

Isn't that a basic KYC procedure for every financial product like banking?

"The mere existence of such tool is destine to be misused, regardless who made it. This is what real power looks like."

I encourage you to read the novel _A Deepness in the Sky_ which introduces the concept of "localizers" which are the technological end-state of "smart speakers" and social networks like wechat. Very well fleshed out and very thought provoking:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Deepness_in_the_Sky#Localize...

Thanks for the book recommendation. I just bought it on Audible.

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