Hacker News Reader

While I personally disagree with the Chinese censorship laws, it is quite common that companies have to obey local laws to do business. If they're foreign companies and don't like it they can stay away.

So not a weird stance to take that US companies are not banned - they're not directly but indirectly it prevents many companies from anywhere who don't want to do business in China.

Subtle but important difference

View on HN

So if I try to access Twitter/X in mainland China, what will happen?

Given that, would you say that Twitter/X is banned in mainland China?

I don't see how the ban being the result of its noncompliance with local laws doesn't mean it isn't banned.

A) I'm not aware of their compliance status and B) being able to access something on the internet or not is not just about legality but also about the ability to enforce it.

I was just stating that in general a business needs to comply with laws where they do business. They can (and will) try to find ways around but it all comes back to enforcement.

If Twitter/X has no direct presence or interest in China, there is not much the local authorities can do to force them to comply with laws. If they own assets, employ people etc it looks very differently

Reply on news.ycombinator.com