Amazon to take Parler offline, the third tech giant to deplatform the rising social app in days

submitted by Drewski from reclaimthenet.org

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[–]tabesadff 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (24 children)

This would be a good time to point people toward ZeroNet, which is a fully p2p alternative to the web, and therefore extremely difficult to censor (it also can be accessed from Tor to get around ISP blocks). I highly recommend checking it out!

[–]dontbuyanylogos 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

wow that's cool I'm been looking for something like this for a while. Thank you!

[–]bobbobbybob 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (21 children)

zeronet has a problem with CP.

[–]tabesadff 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (19 children)

Sadly, you're going to have that problem with any technology that is censorship-resistant, but that's still not an argument against the use of censorship-resistant technologies. You're also going to see the same problem with services that use end-to-end encryption as well, is that a reason to never use Signal? Also, ZeroNet does allow for moderation of zites, so it's not like there's nothing that can be done about it. Zites that have CP on them are ones in which the owner of that zite has made a decision to allow it, so just avoid those zites. If you're on ZeroTalk, for example, it doesn't even allow anyone to upload images of any kind, so you're not really in danger of running into it even on accident on there (well, people might link to other zites that have it on there, so maybe don't click random links from people you don't trust, which you really shouldn't do on the normal web either).

[–]bobbobbybob 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (18 children)

its just the potential for targeted identity destruction by TLAs, who feed you the CP, without your knowledge, and then can seize your machines and find it. Need to be able to completely block background downloading of all site images...

[–]tabesadff 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (17 children)

I suppose that could be a concern, but wouldn't that also be something the NSA/FBI/CIA/etc. would be capable of doing to someone through the normal web anyway? I still have yet to see an argument of why any problems with CP or malware, etc. are somehow a bigger problem on ZeroNet than they are on the normal web, and it kind of makes me think that a lot of these things are FUD that's only going to discourage people from using anything that's truly censorship-resistant. It's obvious to me that any platform where the technology doesn't protect against censorship will eventually become just as censored as the rest. Just look at how reddit went from being extremely pro-free speech in its early days to now where it's practically impossible to even have a normal political conversation on there.

[–]bobbobbybob 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (16 children)

Zeronet auto downloads whole sites, not just the bits you are looking at. That's the issue

[–]tabesadff 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (15 children)

That's not necessarily true, there is a thing called "optional files", which makes it so you don't have to download the entire zite. Not to mention, there's ways for TLAs to get people to download images without their knowledge on the normal web too.

Also, I'm pretty sure that would again, only be a problem if you're accessing a zite where there's no moderation against CP taking place. These critiques are maybe applicable to certain specific zites, but I'm not convinced that they really apply to ZeroNet as a whole, just as I don't think the existence of malicious sites on the normal web should be seen as though it was representative of the entire web or a reason to never use any website at all.

[–]bobbobbybob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (14 children)

how do you KNOW you are not currently hosting CP?

[–]tabesadff 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (13 children)

I mean, you're asking me to prove a negative. How does ANYONE who hosts an ordinary website KNOW that they aren't also hosting CP? TLAs can hack into pretty much anything they want, including ordinary web servers, or whatever device you use, hell, how do YOU know that CP hasn't been planted on your device by the CIA? Also, if they can hack into your email account (not really an "if", they can do that easily), they can use it to send CP to others, so now you're distributing it too! The only assurances that any of us have is that TLAs do have limited resources, so they can't go after EVERYONE, and we're not really interesting enough for the CIA to even bother, and even if we were, and never used ZeroNet even once, they have PLENTY of other tools at their disposal. Fuck, they can even hack into someone's car and assassinate them by causing it to crash. Staying off of ZeroNet isn't going to protect you from TLAs if they're after you, but it will ensure that you're only getting info from websites that these TLAs are allowing to stay up on the normal web.

The only way an ordinary person would reasonably have to worry about unknowingly hosting CP is if they go to a zite that allows images to be uploaded by anyone, and where there's no moderation taking place, and that isn't making use of optional files. So in other words, don't go to places like 8chan, and maybe be cautious of clicking random links from people who you don't trust. Same applies to the normal web too! To me, it really seems a lot of these arguments are basically no different from saying "there's some bad websites on the web, so therefore, stay off the entire web".

[–]bobbobbybob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (12 children)

I mean, you're asking me to prove a negative.

Not really. I know that I'm not HOSTING CP, as I don't host any websites. There may be CP on my computer if a TLA has put it there, but that requires a pretty active attack, and does not result in further sharing. Of course, if you invent ever more complex scenarios, it could be that my computer is running web hosting via some obfuscated method that bypasses my local and network firewalls, doesn't show up in my task manager or registry and evades various anti-malware and anti-viral protections, but now we are getting into silly territory.

If I used zeronet, I'd have no idea what i was hosting, and any compromised website out of thousands may have resulted in my machined downloading and then sharing CP without my knowledge or consent. Of course, I'd be responsible, because I would have fucked myself by installing zeronet in the first place, and enabled all the image downloading and sharing protocols.

What I was doing was highlighting the difference in attack surfaces, and the risk profile. Since this is so obvious, it seems to me that zeronet is being deliberately unsafe in not allowing fine control over the site download and sharing settings.

If you were honest with yourself, you'd recognise this increased risk and perhaps share concerns, instead of fanboying it.

Unless you glow....

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah, and just visited a site with CP can land you in prison, since it downloads the files to your PC.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

ZeroNet is full of viruses, especially crypto miners.