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Comment by Alex3917 | Hacker News Reader

But why would they be doing that? It’s possible, but doesn’t make a lot of sense.

> But why would they be doing that?

Because the CCP is a totalitarian state with an interest in controlling expression, even in passwords?

Is it more likely that they want people to have nice passwords so set up filters to make sure, or that they know everyone’s password because they want to be able to see what all of China is saying to each other? I’ll continue to believe it’s the latter unless I see a better explanation.

It's highly unlikely they need folks' passwords to "see what all of China is saying to each other". I'd fully expect the Chinese government to have full access to that, without any need for a password.

Unless they assume the average Chinese user is just like the average user everywhere else on the planet which tends to reuse password in multiple locations.

If that were the motivation, you wouldn't tip your hand to it by banning a user for using an impermissible password.

What makes more sense, is it is a fabrication, a story for twitter clickbait.

Just because WeChat does numerous, dislikable things, doesn't mean they monitor passwords. Or did this.

I even tried to change my name too FUCK CCP, and it went ok. But then I got into a problem:

https://imgur.com/a/JbUclhL

Is there like only one xi jingling in the whole china? If not, what at others supposed to do?

Others probably use Chinese characters, not a romanized version.

> Is there like only one xi jingling in the whole china? If not, what at others supposed to do?

Change their surnames

You might be right. Just to test I signed up for it, set it the exact same password, and 45 seconds is long past, but I don't appear to be banned.

I think the fact that she is a western journalist who speaks out against the CCP makes a reasonable explanation that her account is more 'watched' then the average account.

Well I would imagine they would just automate such thing?

And why would you do fuckery with a journalists password? Seems like especially stupid thing to do

What makes more sense, a platform known for censorship and asshatery censored someone, or a journalist who's income relies on her reputation made up a small largely non-story that won't earn her any money but will ruin her reputation if it's proved to be false?

One nice property of this largely non-story is it simply can’t be proven false; it doesn’t even come with any evidence.

A caring dev sneaking in a blacklist to reduce the risk of physical harm for users who unexpectedly find themselves in a rubber hose attack?

Surely the least likely of all possible explanations, but an easter egg blocking passwords that are variations of "I refuse to cooperate" would be a hidden artistic statement in its own way.

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