Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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[Matrix/Element]Dead
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The police confiscated the 1.058m yuan ($145,092) Ma had earned as a software developer between September 2019 and November 2022, describing it as "illegal income," as well as fining him 200 yuan ($27).
So you can't work for a Turkish company from China? Using a VPN is normal for work.
If your company needs a VPN it needs to be approved by the government first.
Wtf is wrong with China?
According to hexbear lemmy.ml and some other idiots: Nothing. This is actually a good thing. And in reality it's the US that is at fault
Its basicly 1984. They brain wash there population and the government is the supreme authority
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The programmer, surnamed Ma, was issued with a penalty notice by the public security bureau of Chengde, a city in Hebei province, on 18 August.
Ma said the police seized his phone, laptop and several computer hard drives upon learning that he worked for an overseas company, holding them for a month.
Charlie Smith (a pseudonym), the co-founder of GreatFire.org, a website that tracks internet censorship in China, said: “Even if this decision is overturned in court, a message has been sent and damage has been done.
VPNs, which help users circumvent the “great firewall” of internet censorship by making it look as if their device is in a different country, operate in a legal grey area in China.
The government generally turns a blind eye to the relatively small number of individuals who use the technology to access websites such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and, often, view pornography.
In June, Radio Free Asia reported that a Uyghur student, Mehmut Memtimin, was serving a 13-year sentence in Xinjiang for using a VPN to access “illegal information”.
The original article contains 682 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 74%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I'm often confused about China's laws.
If doing business outside of China is now illegal doesn't that rather undermine the basis of theur whole cheap manufacturing economy?
The 1m was confiscated because it was ‘illegal income’, not because he used VPN. Yes, it’s still shitty that using VPN to access GitHub makes his income illegal, and yes Chinese government just sucks. But it’s amused that those news agencies intentionally use misleading titles. They are no better than the Chinese government.
Not spelling out the whole story to your satisfaction in the headline is no better than capricious law enforcement giving out penalties for something that shouldn't be a crime ranging from nothing, to a $27 fine, to confiscating 3 years of income, to 13 years in prison?
The headline isn't simply just a bad summary of what happened, it's a gross, intentional misinterpretation of the facts to spread an agenda
Isn't it illegal because he used a VPN? Seems like semantics.
let’s say you use weeds and weeds is legal where you are, but it’s illegal to drive after using weeds.
Now you’re arrested for DUI. Next day you make to the headline: “Man arrested for using weeds”. Is it the fact? Yes. Do you think it’s all the necessary facts?
Your opinion is based on the assumption that everyone should be allowed to use VPN to do anything. I may agree with you, but it doesn’t change how bad the article is.
I do assume people have the right to believe what they want and to seek life, liberty and happiness
Intentionally misleading by summarizing partial facts is simply evil. Not sure if anyone may be satisfied with this approach, but even if some do, I’m willing to bet they will become unsatisfied if missing part of the facts is actually what they care about.
How is it misleading? Based on the info we have it seems accurate.
“Man’s income of 1m was confiscated due to using VPN for work’ would be accurate.
‘Man is fined 1m for using VPN’ is not.
There’s no evidence (yet) that someone will be fined this much by simply using vpn in China to browse otherwise banned sites.
Chinas court system isn't controlled by the people. Punishments in China can be whatever the party wants then to be
You're just being pedantic... and calling this "simply evil" sounds like satire it's so extreme
The 1m was confiscated because it was ‘illegal income’, not because he used VPN.
Yes, it’s still shitty that using VPN to access GitHub makes his income illegal
using VPN ... makes his income illegal
Yes, they fine wasn't a flat 1m or whatever, but because he earned it while using a VPN on and off(cuz the great firewall periodically blocks github). None of that would of happened if he didn't use a VPN, so saying that the direct reason he's in trouble isn't why he got punished is less honest.
If your complaint is about how the number was determined, perhaps it would be better as "Chinese programmer ordered to pay entire income(1m yuan) for using Virtual Private Network." Honestly, either headline is fine as long as the details of how that number was chosen is in the article.
That's just circling around the issue.
The income is illegal according to the Chinese government because he used a VPN to do work, he wasn't charged for using the VPN directly he was charged for using the VPN to do work, but functionally it's the same thing.
They don't like people doing stuff they don't know about because they're a draconian oversight obsessed dictatorship.
it wasn't because he used a VPN, it was because his income was illegal. It's just that using a VPN is what made the income illegal
He didn't die from being shot, it's just that all of his blood leaked out of the otherwise harmless bullet hole
In fact, the Chinese government probably says his existence didn't happen and that anyone with memories of him should seek help with a state doctor
This kind of reporting is the reason people in the west hate Chinese government.