[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia and the politics of encryption

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,

Fred, what is different in your scenario from what happens in the USA ?

Thanks,
      GerardM


On 3 September 2013 00:23, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:

> > On 31/08/13 15:17, Erik Moeller wrote:
> >> It could be argued
> >> that it’s time to draw a line in the sand - if you’re prohibiting
> >> the
> >> use of encryption, you’re effectively not part of the web. You’re
> >> subverting basic web technologies.
> >
> > China is not prohibiting encryption. They're prohibiting specific
> > instances of encryption which facilitate circumvention of censorship.
> >
> >> So, what to do? My main suggestion is to organize a broad request for
> >> comments and input on possible paths forward.
> >
> > OK, well there's one fairly obvious solution which hasn't been
> > proposed or discussed. It would allow the end-to-end encryption and
> > would allow us to stay as popular in China as we are now.
> >
> > We could open a data centre in China, send frontend requests from
> > clients in China to that data centre, and comply with local censorship
> > and surveillance as required to continue such operation.
> >
> > It would be kind of like the cooperation we give to the US government
> > at the moment, except specific to readers in China instead of imposed
> > on everyone in the world.
> >
> > It would allow WMF to monitor censorship and surveillance by being in
> > the request loop. It would give WMF greater influence over local
> > policy, because our staff would be in direct contact with their staff.
> > We would be able to deliver clear error messages in place of censored
> > content, instead of a connection reset.
> >
> > -- Tim Starling
>
> Their orders would be classified; disclosure of them would be a crime.
> Not a problem for us, but a big problem for staff on the ground in China.
>
> Fred
>
>
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