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I wonder if Signal will be next. Then it will truly mark the beginning of the end for democracy in India.
by bkishan 3y ago
I wonder if Signal will be next. Then it will truly mark the beginning of the end for democracy in India.
- isanjay 3y agoBJP won't last forever. Next general elections aren't too far away
- 0xDEF 3y agoThe rest of the world didn't care about Indian politics before the right-wing populist BJP was elected. Many Westerners have seen Modi's name along with the year 2002 so they assume he has been the sole dictator of India since 2002.
- throwaway384629 3y agoNarendra Modi is the only person ever denied a U.S. visa based on a little-known law on religious freedom. https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-narendra-modi-was-banned-from-the-u-s-1399062010 https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-narendra-modi-was-banned-fr...
- rayiner 3y ago[flagged]
- dang 3y agoYou've been crossing well into flamewar lately and what begins to look like trolling in many cases—in effect if not intent (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=troll%20effects%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...). You're a formidable commenter who has contributed a great deal to HN, often with minority views and that's fine. But we need you to take a few steps into the intended spirit of the site, because your comments have been trending in very much the inflammatory direction. Can you please review the guidelines and recalibrate? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- cool_dude85 3y agoAmerican media loved the USSR? Interesting theory.
- rayiner 3y agoRead this article series on communism from 2017 and compare it to the Times’ coverage of Russia and Trump: https://www.nytimes.com/column/red-century https://www.nytimes.com/column/red-century Article titles include “how to parent like a Bolshevik” and “why women had better sex under socialism” and “why George Bernard shaw had a crush on Stalin.”
- churchill 3y agoUp until the Soviet Union split up, Western academics praised the USSR as the best thing in the world since sliced bread. I remember a story by Solzhenitsyn where he says a journalist came to their gulag and interviewed them. Since they were right before camp guards, they praised the Soviet system of 'correction through labor' since they liked breathing. He assumed the journalist knew it was a scam and wouldn't dare publish it. Years later, after Solzhenitsyn left the gulag, he moved to the West and he saw that interview was published word for word and the journalist wrote a piece praising the 'humane' Soviet system over America's 'cruel & evil' prison system! Another example: during the Holodomor (Stalin's engineered famine) that killed 6 - 8 million in Ukraine, New York Times' Moscow Bureau chief Walter Duranty privately acknowledged to British intelligence that as many as 10 million folks had died. Publicly, he praised the Soviet system and said everything was abundant [0]. I could go on and on, but whether it's the USSR, Mao's China, or Castro's Cuba, there's a pattern of Western academics & media personalities praising brutally violent regimes. Now, I'm not saying Putin's Russia is Christian & right wing; I'm simply pointing out how Western media never misses a chance to support the wrong guys. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Duranty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Duranty
- rayiner 3y agoIt’s completely nuts how you’re being downvoted. My family wasn’t in America for all the anti-communist stuff, and indeed my home country was more Soviet aligned. But it’s apparent even to me that america media covers communism with kid gloves compared to any sort of right wing government.
- coolg54321 3y agoBJP will be there till there is a strong opposition party, congress is a mess
- isanjay 3y agoI don't think they will as many parliament seats as they did last time. I agree with your point though
- 1729now 3y ago[flagged]
- villgax 3y agoThey banned it for gathering data they are not supposed to just like India. But Element & other secure communication services are being banned for a tangential reason
- isanjay 3y agoDid you create a throwaway account just do defend BJP ?
- brokenkebaby 3y agoI don't see him defending whatever. Ongoing assault on private communication is a world-wide problem, nothing specifically Indian.
- isanjay 3y agoHis other comment was flagged.
- abhinavk 3y agoUnlike in US, fascist supporters in India are everywhere in STEM. I would give this person some credit though because usually they are very open in their support.
- hnbad 3y agoYou seriously underestimate how many fascist supporters there are in STEM in the US (and Europe for that matter). Contrary to what you might assume from the public focus on DEI from big tech companies, there's a vast underbelly of reactionaries. Not to mention very influential people like Peter Thiel, who is openly hostile to the concept of democracy.
- 3y ago
- SanjayMehta 3y agoDo these apps link with a functioning mobile number? If not, that's the most likely reason they have been targeted. Interestingly the US is busy pushing the EARN IT act again right now.
- vinay_ys 3y agoThis is so hilarious and disconnected from reality. Democracy doesn't happen on Signal. The biggest sign that democracy is well and good in India is that we have well-run elections and orderly change of elected officials, and we have strong laws on books and more sensible laws get passed as well and all this is done in the open in broad daylight (and broadcast on YouTube). Taxes are paid and collected and spent – yes, there is corruption but that's not a strike against democracy. Also, we are in a vibrant multi-party system and quite a large part of the population identifies themselves with one party or another and volunteer to do party-ideology building work. These are signs of a healthy functioning democracy. Whatever happens to those 13 apps or Signal, it won't matter much to the citizenry of India.
- azurenumber 3y agoBlocking modes of communication will not affect citizens of india and is Democratic? Please Explain.
- 2Gkashmiri 3y agoplease ignore. this is BJP cybercell doing blogspam. this looks copypasta, some carefully crafted text. I bet it would be searchable because it must've been used elsewhere already. let me try
- hnarn 3y agoWhat an incredibly pessimistic definition of democracy. By your standards, even the People’s Republic of China could be considered very close to a functioning democracy, albeit with the caveat that they don’t allow multiple parties. If free speech, independent media, lack of corruption, the right to privacy and the right to fair treatment by the law are not requirements to call something a democracy, then you are just making up your own definition of the word. I’m not saying India isn't a democracy, but it’s not black and white, it’s a scale. The Economists 2022 Democracy Index ranks India at #46 as a “flawed democracy”, together with countries like Poland and Italy. There’s no shame in that. Don’t let your own pride in your country blind you to the problems it has — no country is without them.
- humanlion87 3y agoDoes that mean there was no democracy in India before Signal existed? It does seem like a big exaggeration to mark the "beginning of the end of democracy" just because a single app gers banned. I am curious how many people in India use Signal.