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Comment by altairprime | Hacker News Reader

It's probably best not to declare war upon China in writing. Instead, ask how many students died in the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. That specific phrase should specifically auto-alert the censors to a known forbidden topic, without resorting to threats against China.

How long of a lost phone message can one set, anyways?

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This will absolutely work. My friend is from China, but lives here in the US. Most of her friends and family are still back in China. We communicate primarily over iMessage, but also on WeChat. About 2 years ago I sent her a video about the Tiananmen Square protests over WeChat by mistake - I meant to send it over iMessage. The next day she called me, really mad; her WeChat account was shut down, without explanation, and she knew exactly why (my WeChat message). But what's worse is many of her WeChat contacts also had their accounts shut down - not all of them, just her closest or most frequent contacts, like her family and close friends. My account didn't get shut down.

The impacted accounts were magically re-enabled 3 days later. No email. No notification. Nothing. It was a clear message: We're watching, all of you.

Cant wait till we outlaw encryption in the west, too.

You mean like the EU is trying now?

> About 2 years ago I sent her a video about the Tiananmen Square protests over WeChat by mistake

Absolutely insane that you would even think to do this to a Chinese national. Good job they are in the US. Could have been far worse for their family back in China. Unbelievable.

Hey, people make mistakes. The correct solution would be to never use wechat in the first place.

Much of Chinese society revolves around WeChat. Chat/phone/payments. I'm told WeChat is pretty much required for one to function in China.

We poke at one another about the Tiananmen Square protests because we have such different perspectives. Like me, she was in high school during that time, and was told the protests were minor, and that they were instigated and largely conducted by outsiders, like the US, seeking to overthrow the Chinese government. The reports of large-scale deaths is Western propaganda. She still more or less believes that story - she's been hearing it her whole life. We sometimes (rarely) exchange articles about the incident. I've always appreciated the back-and-forth because, even though it's a serious topic, we keep it lighthearted.

Anyway, she purchased her iPhone in the US. All her online accounts, except for WeChat, are associated to US-based services. Yeah, I fuucked up; I meant to send the message over iMessage, where we've never had a problem.

Oh so the problem is OP and not the Chinese government then.

> Could have been far worse for their family back in China

what would they do, genuinely, to their family? Googling it only gives results about anything related to Tiananmen Square to be immediately censored, but little on the actual other consequences.

"My account didn't get shut down." - But why not yours?

This is a mystery. My guess is that the Chinese censorship system (The Great Firewall) knows my account is not associated to a Chinese National, so they don't care. Or, there could be legal restrictions/complications because I'm a US citizen. Who knows? I wouldn't be surprised if my little fuuck up didn't land me (or my WeChat account) on some sort of list, though.

> The impacted accounts were magically re-enabled 3 days later.

A place I worked would lock your account if (reasons). I remember it happened to me - nonstandard mail client would try to use my old password a bunch of times and my account would lock.

most people would call in and get it unlocked immediately.

I came find out a little-known fact. The account lockout was automated and it would unlock after a certain amount of time. (of course using the wrong password again could lock it again)

> It's probably best not to declare war upon China in writing

Why not? Is the Chinese government going to send some people to Canada to disappear me?

No, that’s just India

They’re a nation-state with an international spy program, so that’s obviously a valid possibility, same as it is for lots of other non-China countries. I don’t have any specific data regarding your presented scenario with Canada and China, though. I do regardless stand by my general advice, but since it now has to be said, I am not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.

Or the phrase "Tibet must be a free country"

> That specific phrase should specifically auto-alert the censors to a known forbidden topic

Heck, even get you flagged here, for that matter.

Here is in HN or here is in the "US"?

Not sure what you're suggesting.

I would never write an unqualified "here" in a forum, which assumes that everyone will understand that I'm referring to the country where I'm sitting, which may be different from theirs.

You're effectively asking me whether I'm a complete idiot, or whether I mean here in HackerNews.

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