5 ms·

Can china make linux illegal?

dhosek 10mo ago
What makes you think they wouldn’t if they felt it would be useful? Or more likely, require a particular government-endorsed Linux.
raincole 10mo ago
They can make iPhone illegal. Would they? Unlikely, given iPhone creates a lot of jobs there. But if iPhone becomes the de facto devices for Chinese citizens to access illegal content then the chance is none-zero. (And of course they can make Linux illegal too. It's just harder to enforce than making iPhone illegal.)
bitwize 10mo ago
If Brazil can, China can.
- sabatonfan 10mo ago
  Can you give me the source of where brazil made linux illegal? I am sorry but I tried to search and the only references I could find were of brazil banning twitter/X for some reason. I am genuinely curious how someone can decide linux to be illegal. How would the ban even work out?
  - bitwize 10mo ago
    Brazil has what is known as the Felca law, which requires providers of app stores and "terminal operating systems" to do age verification and to provide secure auditable APIs that meet government standards for doing the same. Presumably, specific distros like Red Hat can go through a government approval process in order to be legal to distribute in Brazil, but without such certification and without providing such system-level APIs, a random distro like Debian will be illegal to distribute in Brazil.
BurningFrog 10mo ago
Not only that, they can ignore their laws and disappear/kill you whenever they feel like it. They're not killing their own people by the millions like in Mao's days, but it's still a brutal dictatorship when it wants to be.
- underlipton 10mo ago
  Oh, we do that, too. And we also don't protect our own in other countries.
- skinnymuch 10mo ago
  Chinese people lives are getting better and they largely are on the same page. Meanwhile the US has DEI in the govt while the govt says DEI is bad. Minority authoritarian rule in the US with the Senate. The US is a brutal dictatorship all the time. China thankfully has a govt that is on the same page as the people.
  - wiseowise 10mo ago
    Obvious troll or just mentally sick. Country with social credit, LLMs that have a seizure at "Tiananment square", Winnie the Pooh and Taiwan, Great firewall, cultural genocide of Uyghurs is a country where "lives are getting better" while US is a brutal dictatorship, my fucking sides.
    - tgma 10mo ago
      Is that so? I have not surveyed the Chinese, but will not be surprised if the approval was higher than you'd imagine. If anything, the core ideas of communism have clear demand in the west and people are voting for them when they are shown with a lipstick on top.
      - wiseowise 10mo ago
        > I have not surveyed the Chinese but will not be surprised if the approval was higher than you'd imagine. If anything, the core ideas have clear demand in the west and people are voting for them when they are shown with a lipstick on top. Ask other dictatorships while you're at it. Systems so great one wonders why stupid democracies haven't adopted the model still.

dhosek 10mo ago

What makes you think they wouldn’t if they felt it would be useful? Or more likely, require a particular government-endorsed Linux.

raincole 10mo ago

They can make iPhone illegal. Would they? Unlikely, given iPhone creates a lot of jobs there. But if iPhone becomes the de facto devices for Chinese citizens to access illegal content then the chance is none-zero. (And of course they can make Linux illegal too. It's just harder to enforce than making iPhone illegal.)

bitwize 10mo ago

If Brazil can, China can.

sabatonfan 10mo ago
Can you give me the source of where brazil made linux illegal? I am sorry but I tried to search and the only references I could find were of brazil banning twitter/X for some reason. I am genuinely curious how someone can decide linux to be illegal. How would the ban even work out?
- bitwize 10mo ago
  Brazil has what is known as the Felca law, which requires providers of app stores and "terminal operating systems" to do age verification and to provide secure auditable APIs that meet government standards for doing the same. Presumably, specific distros like Red Hat can go through a government approval process in order to be legal to distribute in Brazil, but without such certification and without providing such system-level APIs, a random distro like Debian will be illegal to distribute in Brazil.

BurningFrog 10mo ago

Not only that, they can ignore their laws and disappear/kill you whenever they feel like it. They're not killing their own people by the millions like in Mao's days, but it's still a brutal dictatorship when it wants to be.

underlipton 10mo ago
Oh, we do that, too. And we also don't protect our own in other countries.
skinnymuch 10mo ago
Chinese people lives are getting better and they largely are on the same page. Meanwhile the US has DEI in the govt while the govt says DEI is bad. Minority authoritarian rule in the US with the Senate. The US is a brutal dictatorship all the time. China thankfully has a govt that is on the same page as the people.
- wiseowise 10mo ago
  Obvious troll or just mentally sick. Country with social credit, LLMs that have a seizure at "Tiananment square", Winnie the Pooh and Taiwan, Great firewall, cultural genocide of Uyghurs is a country where "lives are getting better" while US is a brutal dictatorship, my fucking sides.
  - tgma 10mo ago
    Is that so? I have not surveyed the Chinese, but will not be surprised if the approval was higher than you'd imagine. If anything, the core ideas of communism have clear demand in the west and people are voting for them when they are shown with a lipstick on top.
    - wiseowise 10mo ago
      > I have not surveyed the Chinese but will not be surprised if the approval was higher than you'd imagine. If anything, the core ideas have clear demand in the west and people are voting for them when they are shown with a lipstick on top. Ask other dictatorships while you're at it. Systems so great one wonders why stupid democracies haven't adopted the model still.