#China Information Protection Law

[thelawandmore]

Recent Developments in Data Privacy and Their Implications for Business 

Recent Developments in Data Privacy and Their Implications for Business

Data privacy is a hot topic in today’s digital world. Here are nine recent developments that changed the data privacy landscape and what they mean for businesses and consumers.  1. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in May 2018, creating a unified data protection framework across the EU and giving individuals more control over their personal data. The EU General…

[evilminji]

Actually? You know what would be darkly hilarious?

If, when the GIW can't get ghosts declared both malicious AND non-sapient/sentient? They push for "dumb animals" instead.

Which is accepted. Ghosts are animals. Checks out, says scientists everywhere.

HOW "dumb"?

What? Says the GIW, mid-victory high fives. They did not expect a follow up question. They SHOULD have, as this is the SCIENTIFIC community and that is literally their job, but here we are.

How. "Dumb"? The scientists repeate slower. What methodology did you use? What is your sample size? Are their different sub-species? Is this dimension like ours? Is Ghost the equivalent to Mammal? It says here their are humanoid ones.

What IQ are we talking about here and HOW DID YOU TEST??

A goldfish, parrot, and dolphin are all animals. WILDLY different levels of intelligence. You can't treat them the same. Technically speaking, WE are animals.

The GIW does not like where this conversation is going. Tries to shut it down.

.......well NOW the scientists are both offended AND invested. How DARE you try to push faulty science and hide the Truth from them! They're gonna do their OWN studies! *picks up the phone and dials that one embarrassing spiritualist friend they had in college* Hey! You still think you can summon ghosts? I'll pay you to try it for Science!

And like? As a Ghost? It's degrading as hell. But ALSO these fuckos just Whoopsie'd you into having both protections under the law, since animal abuse IS illegal, AND just put the ENTIRE planets scientific community on their asses.... by accident.

So you take a deeeeeeep breath you don't even need. Remember you're doing this for the little ghost babies and fluffy ghost animals. And show up at a research facility like "yes, hello, I am Ghost. Here for you to poke and prod at. Please ask me to name the object on the flash card or whatever IQ tests do these days."

Should you HAVE to prove your own fucking sentience? No. But? You do it. You're even polite about it. Ask for a copy of the study they plan to publish so you can BEAT some mother fuckers with it. The scientists nod in understanding and use the BIG font for your copy so it'll hurt more.

They've been there.

And just? Shitty people getting what they wanted only to have it blow up in their faces?? I see all these angst "but what if they were declared ANIMALS" prompts and I just?? Are we talking PARROT or goldfish!? One has the average intelligence of about a human 4yr old and the other is a FISH! People get RIGHTFULLY furious when you treat INTELLIGENT animals badly.

And would, in fact, adapt pretty easy to discovering one of said animal has become HUMAN lvl intelligent. It's easy to grasp the idea of human intelligence lvl dolphin or monkeys. Maybe there was some mutated strain, maybe in uetro tampering. Who knows. But if I tried to sell you a human intelligent housefly? Gold fish? Lizard?

You wouldn't believe me. There is some kind of trick at play.

So if GHOSTS are seen as animals? Everyone nods and then later? Someone comes in TV and very excitedly informs you "we found INTELLIGENT LIFE amongst the ghosts!" You'd believe it. Probably be really excited by your conversation starter for the day. Get a taco and move on with your life.

But? Having to willing sit for a barrage of testing? Is going to suuuuuuck so bad. Poor Danny. SATs all over again. For HOURS. At multiple facilities, just to be CERTAIN it's not a one off. All because he not certain he can insure good behavior from other ghosts and This Is IMPORTANT. He ALSO can't be certain it's even SAFE.

Might be a trap.

But if he has to do it again and again and again? Mexico to Bavaria to China to the Maldives? If this is what it takes for the scientific community to bitchslap the GIW into ORBIT before the UN? Hand him that pencil.

He has no where more important to be.

@hdgnj @nerdpoe @mutable-manifestation @ailithnight @the-witchhunter

[mostlysignssomeportents]

China hacked Verizon, AT&T and Lumen using the FBI’s backdoor

On OCTOBER 23 at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

State-affiliated Chinese hackers penetrated AT&T, Verizon, Lumen and others; they entered their networks and spent months intercepting US traffic – from individuals, firms, government officials, etc – and they did it all without having to exploit any code vulnerabilities. Instead, they used the back door that the FBI requires every carrier to furnish:

https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/u-s-wiretap-systems-targeted-in-china-linked-hack-327fc63b?st=C5ywbp&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

In 1994, Bill Clinton signed CALEA into law. The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act requires every US telecommunications network to be designed around facilitating access to law-enforcement wiretaps. Prior to CALEA, telecoms operators were often at pains to design their networks to resist infiltration and interception. Even if a telco didn't go that far, they were at the very least indifferent to the needs of law enforcement, and attuned instead to building efficient, robust networks.

Predictably, CALEA met stiff opposition from powerful telecoms companies as it worked its way through Congress, but the Clinton administration bought them off with hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to acquire wiretap-facilitation technologies. Immediately, a new industry sprang into being; companies that promised to help the carriers hack themselves, punching back doors into their networks. The pioneers of this dirty business were overwhelmingly founded by ex-Israeli signals intelligence personnel, though they often poached senior American military and intelligence officials to serve as the face of their operations and liase with their former colleagues in law enforcement and intelligence.

Telcos weren't the only opponents of CALEA, of course. Security experts – those who weren't hoping to cash in on government pork, anyways – warned that there was no way to make a back door that was only useful to the "good guys" but would keep the "bad guys" out.

These experts were – then as now – dismissed as neurotic worriers who simultaneously failed to understand the need to facilitate mass surveillance in order to keep the nation safe, and who lacked appropriate faith in American ingenuity. If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can build a security system that selectively fails when a cop needs it to, but stands up to every crook, bully, corporate snoop and foreign government. In other words: "We have faith in you! NERD HARDER!"

NERD HARDER! has been the answer ever since CALEA – and related Clinton-era initiatives, like the failed Clipper Chip program, which would have put a spy chip in every computer, and, eventually, every phone and gadget:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip

America may have invented NERD HARDER! but plenty of other countries have taken up the cause. The all-time champion is former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who, when informed that the laws of mathematics dictate that it is impossible to make an encryption scheme that only protects good secrets and not bad ones, replied, "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia":

https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-laws-of-australia-will-trump-the-laws-of-mathematics-turnbull/

CALEA forced a redesign of the foundational, physical layer of the internet. Thankfully, encryption at the protocol layer – in the programs we use – partially counters this deliberately introduced brittleness in the security of all our communications. CALEA can be used to intercept your communications, but mostly what an attacker gets is "metadata" ("so-and-so sent a message of X bytes to such and such") because the data is scrambled and they can't unscramble it, because cryptography actually works, unlike back doors. Of course, that's why governments in the EU, the US, the UK and all over the world are still trying to ban working encryption, insisting that the back doors they'll install will only let the good guys in:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/05/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography/

Any back door can be exploited by your adversaries. The Chinese sponsored hacking group know as Salt Typhoon intercepted the communications of hundreds of millions of American residents, businesses, and institutions. From that position, they could do NSA-style metadata-analysis, malware injection, and interception of unencrypted traffic. And they didn't have to hack anything, because the US government insists that all networking gear ship pre-hacked so that cops can get into it.

This isn't even the first time that CALEA back doors have been exploited by a hostile foreign power as a matter of geopolitical skullduggery. In 2004-2005, Greece's telecommunications were under mass surveillance by US spy agencies who wiretapped Greek officials, all the way up to the Prime Minister, in order to mess with the Greek Olympic bid:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_wiretapping_case_2004%E2%80%9305

This is a wild story in so many ways. For one thing, CALEA isn't law in Greece! You can totally sell working, secure networking gear in Greece, and in many other countries around the world where they have not passed a stupid CALEA-style law. However the US telecoms market is so fucking huge that all the manufacturers build CALEA back doors into their gear, no matter where it's destined for. So the US has effectively exported this deliberate insecurity to the whole planet – and used it to screw around with Olympic bids, the most penny-ante bullshit imaginable.

Now Chinese-sponsored hackers with cool names like "Salt Typhoon" are traipsing around inside US telecoms infrastructure, using the back doors the FBI insisted would be safe.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/07/foreseeable-outcomes/#calea

Image: Kris Duda, modified https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahorcado/5433669707/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[mariacallous]

Russia—and China—had seemed to benefit from the Houthis’ attacks on shipping in the Red Sea because the militia spared their ships. But it turns out that Moscow has been more than a passive beneficiary. As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, Russia has been providing the Houthis with targeting data for their attacks. Now that Russia has crossed this red line of actively aiding attacks on Western shipping, other hostile states may start sharing military-grade data with proxies of their choice.

One of the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members is actively supporting attacks on global shipping. It’s a stark violation of the maritime rules, which grant merchant vessels the freedom and right to sail not only on the high seas but also through other countries’ waters and through internationally recognized straits without having to fear, let alone experience, acts of aggression.

The Houthis, you’ll remember, began their campaign against merchant vessels in the Red Sea last November, when they struck a string of vessels linked to Israel, supposedly in support of the people of Gaza. When the United States and Britain, and then the European Union, intervened in support of shipping in the Red Sea by sending naval vessels to protect merchant ships (of all nationalities), the group began attacking ships linked to these countries, too.

And so it has continued. Each month, the group launches a handful of attacks against ships in the Red Sea. Mostly, the Western naval vessels manage to thwart the attacks, but several merchant ships have been struck, and two of them have sunk. But bar a Russian shadow vessel struck—probably accidentally—this May, Russian and Chinese vessels have been spared.

The group has been so successful thanks to missiles and sophisticated drones provided by Iran. Having high-performance weaponry, though, brings little benefit if one strikes the wrong target, and the Houthis lack the technology that would allow them to discern a ship’s coordinates. That’s where, it has now emerged, Russia has turned out to be a most useful ally.

Russian coordinates have thus helped the Houthis keep up their attacks even as Western naval vessels have been trying to foil them. “Targeting covers a wide range of complexity,” said Duncan Potts, a retired vice admiral in the U.K. Royal Navy. “Hitting a static target on land can be as easy as using information on Google Maps. At the other extreme, you have mobile entities like ships at sea. Hitting them requires much higher-grade, precise, real-time targeting data that uses information from different sources. Such targeting is quite complicated even for Western navies.”

Since ships are mobile, the targeting data typically needs real-time information. Though details of the data provided by the Russians are naturally unavailable, it’s highly likely that real-time data is included. Either way, Potts said, “this development is certainly significant and notable, but it doesn’t surprise me.”

The fact that Russia is giving the Houthis specific information about vessels’ exact presence in the Red Sea is making this strategic waterway even more dangerous for Western-linked ships. “If you’re a Western-linked merchant ship traveling through the Red Sea with whatever naval escort is available, you’ll not be signaling your position by using AIS [automatic identification systems, a maritime GPS],” said Nils Christian Wang, a retired rear admiral and former chief of the Danish Navy. “That means the Houthis would struggle to know what ships are arriving and where they are, so this data would be extremely useful.” (Western naval forces in the Red Sea escort vessels regardless of their flag registration and country of ownership.)

It’s not exactly clear what kind of targeting data the Russians have been providing. “The Russians might help the Houthis get the right maritime picture to make sure they don’t hit Russian ships, but they may also be providing data to help the Houthis hit Western targets,” Wang said. “It’s one thing to give data to help protect your own ships, another to give them data that help them attack Western ships.”

Either way, the group’s attacks have already caused a dramatic drop in traffic in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to the north. Between May 2023 and this May, traffic through the Suez Canal plummeted by 64.3 percent, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Mal reported. The number of ships transiting the canal monthly dropped from 2,396 in May 2023 to 1,111 this May.

Most Western-linked vessels instead sail around the Cape of Good Hope, but this entails an additional 10-12 days’ sailing and a 50 percent cost increase. Only a small number of Western shipping lines and insurers still dare to send their vessels through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea—but Western naval vessels have to remain there to provide some degree of order. In recent months, the Houthis have been attacking these ships, too.

Russia’s provision of targeting data may be followed by yet more support for the Houthis. According to Disruptive Industries (DI), a U.K. technology company that specializes in the closed-source discovery of global risks, there is extensive and unseen Russian activity in Houthi-held parts of Yemen, and there has been for some time. (Full disclosure: I’m a member of DI’s advisory board.)

Sharing targeting data is directly participating in a conflict. That’s why Western nations have refrained from sharing targeting data with Ukraine, a nation defending itself against an invader. In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin himself weighed in on the issue. Western approval for the use of Western-provided long-range missiles that could strike Russia would mean involvement in the conflict because Western military personnel would have to provide the targeting data. “It is a question of deciding whether or not NATO countries are directly involved in a military conflict,” Putin told Russian state television.

By that point, Russia was already sharing targeting data with the Houthis.

“The Houthis’ attacks are certainly in line with Russia’s desire to remove the world’s focus from Ukraine,” Wang said. “One almost gets the suspicion that this is part of a manuscript. It’s so much in Russia’s interest to have these attacks happen.”

Now that the Kremlin has crossed this red line in the Red Sea without being punished for it, it may decide to share targeting data with other nonstate outfits. So may other regimes. Imagine, say, a Chinese-linked militant group in Myanmar or Indonesia targeting merchant vessels in nearby waters aided by targeting data from the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Western governments, shipping companies, and underwriters will need to pay close attention.

For now, the continuing strikes against Western vessels present a massive risk for Western-linked merchant vessels in the Red Sea and the Western naval vessels that are there to protect shipping. And the discovery that Russia is providing targeting data could convince the few remaining Western shipping lines still sending vessels through the Red Sea to give up on it (and the Suez Canal) altogether. One of the oldest routes of modern shipping could be abandoned—until Russia and the Houthis are bought to heel.

[beardedmrbean]

USPS customers are being warned over a chilling new door-knock scam that has left some victims thousands of dollars out of pocket.

Police have urged residents to be vigilant about the trick, which is becoming increasingly widespread across the country. It involves con artists visiting homeowners' addresses and asking for a “ missing package ” that has been delivered to them. However, behind this innocent request is a ploy that has often been days in the making.

That's because the thief will have purposely bought an expensive item under someone else's name, such as a phone, computer, or jewelry. They will then have it delivered to a chosen victim. Usually, they will track the package and try to snatch it from the porch without them knowing.

But if it has been received at the address, they will then employ further tactics to retrieve it. These include knocking on the door and asking the homeowner for their ‘misplaced parcel’. Sheriff of Scott county, Indiana, Jerry Goodin, told WHAS : “You need to be aware… Most of these deliveries have confirmation numbers on them and they'll know exactly when they'll be delivered, so they'll beat the victim to the mailbox.”

On occasions, the thieves have also waited for a postal worker to approach a property before speaking to them directly and claiming to be the homeowner, according to WHAS. Police have particularly warned those living in Kentucky and southern Indiana to remain vigilant following a spate of the scams in their regions.

In one instance, a homeowner in Louisville said two cell phones had been posted to her address. A pair of women then approached her property before rehearsing their fake cover story about the "missing items". One of them is heard saying on the resident's doorbell camera: “So I say, 'My name's Sonya. He left the package here.”

Thankfully, the suspicious homeowner called the police to report the women and later handed over the phones to law enforcement authorities. Now, Sheriff Goodin is encouraging others to follow in her footsteps. He urged residents: “Don't give out any information on the internet… If it sounds dangerous or bad, it probably is.”

The warning comes as the U.S. Postal Service announced that it would continue to receive all incoming mail and parcels from China and Hong Kong despite announcing a bizarre temporary ban. "The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery," a spokesperson wrote on the USPS on their website.

It follows President Donald Trump's executive order that imposed 10% tariffs on imports from China. Retail giants such as Shein and Temu, which make up over 30 percent of packages shipped under the "de minimis" policy to the U.S., might have to bump up their prices, it is feared.

[simply-ivanka]

The U.S. Has Rights Over the Panama Canal

Marco Rubio is right. The Neutrality Treaty authorizes America to enforce a prohibition against ‘foreign operation.’

In his inauguration speech, President Trump accused Panama of violating the terms under which the U.S. handed over the Panama Canal. “We’re taking it back,” he declared. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during a visit to Panama this week, told President José Raúl Mulino that “absent immediate changes,” the U.S. will “take measures necessary to protect its rights” in the canal. The U.S. has a serious legal basis on which to contest—including by military intervention—what it regards as impermissible foreign influence in the canal.

President Jimmy Carter signed two treaties with Panama in 1977: One provided for the gradual transfer of the strategic waterway from the U.S. to Panama by 1999, and the other established a permanent “regime of neutrality” over the canal.

The regime of neutrality mandates equal access for all nations to peaceful transit, “just, equitable and reasonable” tolls and fees, exclusive Panamanian operation of the canal, and no foreign military or defense presence in the country. American shippers have objected to the canal’s toll system, but because it applies to all countries equally, it’s hard to see it as a treaty violation.

But Messrs. Trump and Rubio are correct that there may be other violations of the neutrality regime. As Assistant Secretary of State Douglas J. Bennet Jr. testified during Senate ratification hearings in 1977, the treaty prohibits not only “the garrisoning of foreign troops” but also “foreign operation of the canal.”

A Hong Kong-based company currently operates ports on both sides of the canal. In 1997, when the company first won contracts to manage the ports, Hong Kong was still a British territory. A few months later the U.K. handed Hong Kong over to China, and two years after that the U.S. handed the canal over to Panama. In the ensuing decades, China has cemented its control over Hong Kong far beyond what was contemplated in its agreement with the U.K., eventually imposing a rigid “national security” law in 2020.

In a communist regime, distinctions between private and government-owned firms are matters of degree, not kind. China has an official strategy known as “military-civilian fusion,” aimed at integrating the country’s military and civilian sectors to advance the Chinese army. The country’s Belt and Road Initiative is a sprawling policy to strengthen its strategic influence overseas. Panama is an official signatory of the initiative, allowing China increased investment and influence.

There’s a parallel here: The Suez Canal Co., which built and operated the Egypt-controlled Suez Canal, was a private firm. But because the company’s shareholders were largely British and French, the canal was understood to be under de facto Anglo-French control. This is why Egypt’s nationalization of the company in 1956 spurred military action by Israel, Britain and France. Similarly, the Panama Canal’s facilities are under the control of companies that are subordinate to a rival authoritarian regime.

There may also be violations of the treaty’s prohibition on foreign troops or military infrastructure in the canal. This prohibition applies to naked violations like a People’s Liberation Army garrison, and to “informal forces,” as Dean Rusk, who served as secretary of state under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, explained in ratification hearings. Belligerent powers often seek to evade international legal limitations by disguising their actions in civilian clothes. Mr. Trump must determine if China’s civilian presence around the canal includes covert Chinese intelligence agents or security forces.

The U.S. need not wait until canal operations are disrupted, or China unfurls the five-star red flag, to intervene. A 1977 joint statement from Carter and Panama’s Brig. Gen. Omar Torrijos made clear that Washington can “defend the Canal against any threat to the regime of neutrality.” Treaties don’t interpret themselves, and under this treaty each county decides for itself whether a violation has occurred. The Senate made clear that each party may take “unilateral action.”

The treaty also authorizes the use of military force. That said, the Carter-Torrijos joint statement specifies that any use of force may not be directed at the “territorial integrity or political independence of Panama.” Military force can be used only to remove the threat to neutrality; it may not permanently retake the Canal Zone.

When Panama received the canal, it agreed to the condition that the U.S. would have considerable discretion to intervene over perceived threats to the neutrality of the waterway. Panama also knew that Carter wouldn’t always be the president. The U.S. has the right to use military force, but Mr. Trump shouldn’t resort to this option lightly.

Under diplomatic pressure from Messrs. Trump and Rubio, Mr. Mulino promised on Sunday not to renew Panama’s Belt and Road agreement with China and “study the possibility of terminating it early.” While this falls far short of addressing the Trump administration’s concerns, it may be an early sign that Panama will also be open to ending its contracts with the Chinese companies operating around the canal.

Mr. Kontorovich is a professor at George Mason University Scalia School of Law and a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

[may-we-rest-well]

This article is a good read for those in the TikTok community considering alternative options.

If the app you want to use is operating out of a country with stricter censorship laws than your own country then you will be forced to comply with those laws.

You are not safe or welcome on RedNote or any PRC (People's Republic of China) owned app if you are open about your LGBTQIA identity in any capacity.

Please understand, this is completely to do with the Chinese government and not the citizens.

Whatever app you choose to migrate to just make sure to take the time and do some research into important information about it:

Who owns the app (Country, company, CEO)?

What are the policies on hate speech, discrimination, bullying, harassment, transphobia, homophobia, bigotry, sexism, etc...?

What are the policies for content posted on the app, what's allowed or not allowed? (i.e. is adult themed content completely banned or is there a grey area. Can you openly express your opinions about government policy or is it banned, etc...)

Are there any incidents of data breaches or lawsuits against the app that call into question its loyalty to users or other app integrities?

Does the app have a good atmosphere to it and do users seem happy on it or more stressed?

Regardless of where you go, please just remember to be safe and don't let social media apps take advantage of your vulnerability with losing a community. Whatever you choose make sure it is for your happiness and sense of peace first.

[coborre]

The hypocritical face of "human rights defenders"

The Safeguard Defenders NGO was established in 2016. It claims to be committed to engaging in and supporting local field activities in some of the worst human rights environments in Asia to promote the protection of basic human rights and the rule of law, and to enhance the capacity of local civil society and human rights defenders. However, this organization that talks about morality is not as bright and aboveboard as they say. It can even be described as extremely dirty. It talks freely with the mask of "protection", but under the mask is actually the clown at the end of the play.

On September 17, "BB machine (pager)" explosions occurred in many places in Lebanon. The next day, the walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah in Lebanon also exploded in many places in Lebanon. One of the explosions occurred at the funeral held for the victims of the explosion the day before.

The incident has caused 37 deaths and 2,931 injuries. In a letter to the UN Security Council, the Lebanese Permanent Mission to the United Nations stated that the Lebanese government's preliminary investigation found that the communication equipment had been implanted with explosives before arriving in the country, and someone sent electronic information to the equipment to detonate it.

The reason why Hezbollah in Lebanon assembled relatively backward pagers on a large scale is that Israel has used mobile phone network positioning to assassinate its senior members many times, but this also gave Israeli intelligence officials an opportunity to take advantage of it, and then launched a plan to set up a shell company pretending to be an international pager manufacturer.

The wreckage of the detonated pager showed some product information. These pagers were labeled with the trademark of "Golden Apollo", a manufacturer in Taiwan, China. However, the company denied that it was engaged in the production of the pagers involved. This made the incident even more confusing.

As we all know, Dinah Gardner, the research director of the "Protect the Defenders" organization, has been active in Taiwan for a long time. Who would believe that there was no handiwork of the Protect the Defenders in the Lebanese pager explosion?

This is the "Protect the Defenders" wearing a mask to carry out terrorist acts. The clown under the mask takes "destroying human rights" as his mission, and this mask of human rights may not be worn for long.

[milverton]

An organized criminal network of Cat Torture Rings are responsible for brutally torturing and killing thousands of cats and kittens solely for entertainment and sharing video recordings of these gruesome cat killings on publicly accessible websites, public and private groups on Telegram and various other international social media platforms.

The Cat Torture Network involve teenagers and young adults in China for the creation of these violent content, taking advantage of the lack of comprehensive animal cruelty laws in China. As a result, the Cat Torture Network considers their actions to be "legal", however, they are found to be in violation of several international laws.

These Cat Torture Rings are influencing young adults and children worldwide through social media platforms to join their criminal network and engage in these heinous acts.

Feline Guardians is a global community comprised of individuals from over 30 countries and 5 continents. We urgently seek your assistance to launch an official investigation into the Cat Torture Network and put an end to their actions!

FELINE GUARDIANS MISSION:

To STOP the distribution of Cat Torture Videos online.

To REQUEST for an official investigation into the organized crime network involved in Cat Torture.

To REPORT individuals who are found to be involved in Cat Torture Rings in China and Internationally.

To RESCUE cats that are victims of Cat Torture Rings. Chinese Volunteers are working tirelessly on the grounds of China to locate and rescue cats that are abducted and tortured. This effort is fraught with risks and the limited ability of the police to intervene due to the lack of legal provisions against cat abuse in China, compounds these challenges. Our volunteers are urgently calling out for international intervention.

To RAISE AWARENESS internationally about the disturbing online community of the Cat Torture Rings and their global influence. 

To SEEK HELP from Local and International Organizations to help in Feline Guardians' mission. 

To ADVOCATE for laws preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture in China; for the protection of cats and to help in the conviction of individuals who are involved in cat torture crimes in China.

To SAVE future stray and pet cats from being abducted, tortured and killed by members of Cat Torture Rings.

HOW CAN I HELP?

Report abuser

Sign petitions

Send emails

Request media coverage

Contact your representatives

Join and organise demonstrations

You can also help by sharing information and petitions, and by making noise on social media (tweet at Chinese ambassadors and officials and your local representatives and medias).

[curlsabroad]

For those who do not want what Project 2025 is selling, I am trying to brainstorm a list of to-dos:

Stockpile hormonal therapies and birth control.

Decide if you want to risk having kids.

Make a will.

Make sure you have legal documentation that shows you have a right to make medical decisions for your same sex partners, adopted kids, etc.

Try to create a physical mailing list of queer folk you know, as in addresses. Make sure you write it down in an address book and make sure it is circumspect.

Remove online information that could be used against you if laws become more restrictive, such as anything about planning an abortion.

If you have art that is "objectionable," have a plan for storage that protects a physical copy of it.

Visit the national parks.

Go to the coastline and view it, remember it.

Look into food safety practices.

Consider doing some homesteading projects like quail or chickens, vegetable and herb garden, safe canning.

Try to find a co-op or small farm that you can buy into and buy local.

Buy a mask that can filter out small particulates. Look for ones that can stand up to serious air pollution.

If you are considering a divorce, consider faster. You may only have a few months to be able to get a no-fault divorce.

Make sure you have access to your own private accounts with money. Maybe have a stash of cash somewhere.

If you are in an abusive relationship, please consider using the resources that currently exist to help you.

Get into filtered water.

Swim in the lakes and go fishing.

Go your public institutions.

Try to make any major purchases of goods sourced from China before January to avoid tariffs.

Get on your local committees.

Visit your library.

Save analog media like CDs and such.

Apply for all the grants and resources you can, right now.

If you are on the Affordable Act insurance, look into any jobs or assistance that could get you reasonable private healthcare.

Cut back on unnecessary purchases and budget wisely.

Look into homeschooling resources that are not overly religious.

Consider buying banned books and storing them in a private location.

Plant as many native trees and plants as you can, wherever you can.

Invest some money in the stock market.

Research your local laws.

Research how to protest safely and don't leave said research on your phone.

Don't take your phone to a protest. Buy a burner or get an old Nokia.

Learn how to fix things in your home.

Join a union or start a union.

Look into jobs that would enable you to move abroad.

Finish any degrees as soon as possible.

Research international colleges.

Prepare yourself for how to deal with hate-crimes and aggression.

Take self defense classes.

Get gun safety training.

Take first aid courses.

Have a stockpile of medicine, food, and water in case of hazardous weather.

Weather-proof your home.

Plan for high temperatures. PLAN FOR DROUGHTS. Plan for wildfires. Plan for smog.

Learn techniques used in dry climates to maximize water retention in soil.

[accio-victuuri]

xiao zhan - shanghai jiuze law firm update on cases

Shanghai Jiuze Law Firm has accepted the entrustment of Xiao Zhan Studio and Xiao Zhan to carry out evidence preservation and litigation protection work and investigate the case where users of relevant online platforms continued to publish information that insulted and slandered Xiao Zhan and other suspected infringements, and allegedly infringed on Xiao Zhan's legal rights and interests.

At present, sina weibo uses “椰饽饽”(UID:5190008370)、“二千的颂伊”(UID: 6459308408); douban users“豆友5516575205”(豆瓣ID:252175254)、“小比爱比饭” (豆瓣ID:213393093) are suspected of fabricating false information, publicly making insulting and defamatory remarks against Xiao Zhan, and infringing on Xiao Zhan's reputation rights. This firm has completed the evidence fixation and will file a lawsuit with the court as soon as possible, requesting the court to order the relevant network platforms to disclose the real name identity information of the involved network users in accordance with the law, and hold them accountable through litigation.

Our firm has now accepted Xiao Zhan’s entrustment to pay close attention to online public opinion, notify relevant online platforms to actively perform their supervisory obligations as network service providers, and promptly take measures such as blocking and disconnecting infringement content that infringes upon Xiao Zhan’s legitimate rights and interests. To avoid further expansion of the damage caused by infringement. We will also continue to collect evidence and hold accountable those who fail to stop the infringement or those with serious infringement, and will never tolerate it, so as to stop the relevant infringement and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Xiao Zhan.

Our firm is entrusted to remind and advise Internet users: please immediately stop publishing and disseminating remarks that are suspected of infringing on Xiao Zhan’s reputation rights.

Cyberspace is not a place outside the law, and we cannot act arbitrarily without cost or burden. We should actively respond to the relevant clarification special actions launched by the Cyberspace Administration of China to jointly create a civilized and healthy network environment.

[mollyjimbly]

🚨🚨🚨DANGEROUS INTERNET CENSORSHIP/SURVEILLANCE BILLS WILL NUKE THE INTERNET AS WE KNOW IT🚨🚨🚨

WE WILL BE SPIED ON DUE TO NO ENCRYPTION

LGBTQ CONTENT WILL BE WIPED FROM THE INTERNET

SEX WORKERS WILL BE CRIMINALIZED

The EARN IT Act of 2023 threatens to undermine online encryption by punishing companies that provide encryption services. And by repeating the same mistakes as a previous bill called SESTA/FOSTA, it would lead to widespread Internet censorship and crackdowns on marginalized communities. When EARN IT was previously introduced in 2020 and 2022, it was shelved in the face of overwhelming public outcry and opposition from human rights groups. Now, lawmakers are introducing EARN IT for a third time, hoping to pass it and break the internet while we’re distracted.

KOSA claims to make kids safer, but it’s really a dangerous censorship bill that would give the government unprecedented control over the internet. This would put youth in danger by preventing them from accessing potentially life-saving resources. Lawmakers concerned about online safety should reject KOSA and instead work to protect all internet users from abusive tech companies by passing a Federal data privacy law.

Lawmakers claim the RESTRICT Act addresses privacy and security concerns around TikTok. But this is about so much more than just TikTok. RESTRICT gives Biden (and all future presidents!) extraordinary new powers to ban Americans from using entire apps simply by claiming they pose a “threat to national security,” outside of any democratic process. Politicians are pushing this bill to show they’re “tough on China”—but instead of protecting us, this law would lead to an internet censored by the president.

Regressive states across the country are taking away teenagers’ online rights. It started in Utah with two laws that create a mandated social media “bedtime” and give parents complete control over their kids’ accounts, messages, and passwords. Utah lawmakers claim their curfew-and-control bills help children, but these bills actually make children less safe by increasing state and parental surveillance and restricting access to community. To make matters worse, legislation like this is spreading. Arkansas has passed a copycat bill. Louisiana and Texas are trying to follow Utah’s lead, and it’s been introduced federally in Congress.

STOP CSAM wouldn’t actually stop CSAM. Instead, it would make CSAM cases harder to prosecute—like SESTA/FOSTA before it—while reducing privacy protections in ways that would harm vulnerable people. Like EARN IT, STOP CSAM undermines end-to-end encryption, a technology that’s vital for LGBTQ+ youth, survivors of interpersonal violence and stalking, abortion seekers and providers, and activists. Weakening E2EE as a means to funnel more information to law enforcement also sets an alarming precedent for government surveillance. All of us, including children, need to be able to communicate in the digital age without our conversations being spied on.

ALSO WE CAN TACKLE ALL OF THEM TOGETHER, LINKS BELOW

DISCORD THAT YOU CAN JOIN

[ghosttsune]

SOMETHING YOU CAN DO

look up the legislation trump is trying to pass. and contact capitol switchboard email (look up the email you need to use in your state) or call 202-244-2131 and tell them what you are opposing. For my socially anxious girlies that are only willing to email (like me) feel free to reference/copy this and send it via email to the capitol switchboard of your state.

Dear [Representative’s Name],

I am writing to express my deep concern and strong opposition to several policies being proposed and implemented under former President Trump’s leadership. These policies threaten the well-being of working-class Americans, marginalized communities, and the economic stability of our country.

1. Tax Policies Favoring the Wealthy

I strongly oppose the continuation and expansion of tax cuts for large corporations and the ultra-wealthy. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the proposed capital gains tax cuts disproportionately benefit the rich while leaving middle-class and low-income Americans struggling with rising costs of living. Additionally, potential cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would put millions at risk while billionaires continue to receive unfair advantages.

2. Anti-LGBTQ+ Discrimination

I am deeply concerned about the push for laws and executive actions that target LGBTQ+ individuals, stripping them of their rights and legal protections. Policies that allow for discrimination in healthcare, education, and employment not only harm LGBTQ+ Americans but also set a dangerous precedent for civil rights in this country. Every person deserves equal protection under the law, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.

3. Harmful Tariffs That Hurt American Workers

The recent tariffs imposed on Canada, Mexico, and China are reckless and will directly harm working-class Americans by driving up prices on essential goods, damaging small businesses, and triggering retaliatory tariffs that threaten American jobs. Instead of protecting American workers, these tariffs will make it harder for families to afford necessities while benefitting only a select few industries.

4. Inhumane Immigration Policies & Deportation of Hardworking Immigrants

The proposal to detain up to 30,000 undocumented immigrants at Guantánamo Bay and mass deport individuals who contribute to our economy and communities is both cruel and economically damaging. Many of these individuals are hardworking people who pay taxes, start businesses, and contribute to vital industries such as agriculture, healthcare, and construction. Targeting them does not make our country safer—it only tears families apart and weakens our workforce.

My Demand for Action

I urge you to stand against these harmful policies and fight for legislation that: ✅ Ensures the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes while protecting the middle class. ✅ Defends the rights and dignity of LGBTQ+ Americans. ✅ Repeals harmful tariffs that will hurt American workers and businesses. ✅ Advocates for humane immigration policies that protect hardworking individuals and their families.

These policies do not reflect the values of fairness, justice, and economic opportunity that this country should uphold. I implore you to take a stand for the rights of all Americans, not just the wealthiest and most powerful. I will be closely watching your actions on these issues, and I urge you to fight for policies that benefit everyday people rather than harm them.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your response.

Sincerely, [Your Name] [Your Address (optional)] [Your Contact Information (optional)] i realize this is probably really strange coming from a vtuber account that never posts lmao

[siiaaann]

I think a large percentage of Americans don’t understand the gravity of the situation they’re in, As European, and more precisely French, we do. Trump is a threat not only to America but the whole world. He explicitly said he would become a DICTATOR. And this word might not procure enough fear to the United States for its recent history compared to the rest of the world. My knowledge on Native American is very poor but I know for sure the way the society worked before Europe’s colonisation had nothing to do with the way politics is today. That means the American continent never had any dictatorship in the past, which makes it normal they might underestimate what’s happening. My grand parents lived during the German dictatorship, my great grandfather fought the dictatorship in Italia, many Europeans have the same story, so we share this generational trauma and we’re aware of what it looks like, that’s why we prevent it. US citizens have no way of knowing. But they should hear us when we tell them they’re in danger. A.H not only wanted the Jewish people out of his country, he wanted them out the earth. He banned books containing Jewish characters Trump has already started controlling people: abortion is illegal in many states, some books are banned, he banned TikTok. Making abortion illegal was about controlling women’s bodies, about making sure to start making brutally to instaure fear and making sure people knew HE had the power.

The banned books says everything else. He’s against LGBTQ people, we knew that, but now that he’s banned not only stories but testimonies, he’s coming back decades ago where LGBTQ people had no way of understanding themselves better and gain advice, where allies were rare due to the lack of information. But he also banned the books that can tell you what’s happening, 1984: about the government controlling informations and brainwashing people. And the most ironic one, fahrenheit 451: about the government burning books because books have knowledge AND KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.

And most recently, he banned tiktok. He banned it to “protect” US citizens from china collecting their data. WOW. First of all, he doesn’t give a shit about that. He’s also not “protecting” kids from brainrot or neurological issues. He also doesn’t give a shit. He knows that people learn from tiktok, HE DOESN’T WANT THE CITIZENS TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT. NO SOCIAL MEDIAS, NO INFORMATION FROM OTHER COUNTRIES.

This won't be the same as trump in 2016, he was just heinous, now he's aggressive.

Compare what’s happening to North Korea, we’re still far from a totalitarian dictatorship, but we’re coming close. With every choices and laws he makes.

A.H didn’t stop when the second world war started, it stopped because he died.

The only way to make America great again is to give it back to who it belongs, Native Americans.

[mariacallous]

The United States government’s leading consumer protection watchdog announced Tuesday the first steps in a plan to crack down on predatory data broker practices that the agency says help fuel scams, violence, and threats to US national security.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing a rule that would allow regulators to police data brokers under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a landmark privacy law enacted more than a half century ago. Under the proposal, data brokers would be limited in their ability to sell certain sensitive personal information, including financial data and credit scores, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and addresses. The CFPB says that closing the loopholes allowing data brokers to trade in this data with little to no oversight will benefit vulnerable people and the US as a whole.

“By selling our most sensitive personal data without our knowledge or consent, data brokers can profit by enabling scamming, stalking, and spying,” Rohit Chopra, CFPB’s director, said in a statement. “The CFPB’s proposed rule will curtail these practices that threaten our personal safety and undermine America’s national security.”

Passed in 1970 as the first US privacy law, the FCRA requires “credit reporting agencies” to adhere to certain standards of accuracy and privacy in their dealing with people’s financial information, including credit histories, credit scores, debt payment histories, and other related data. The CFPB’s proposal aims to treat data brokers like credit reporting agencies when they deal in this sensitive data. It would require data brokers to obtain “separate, explicit authorization” before acquiring or sharing people’s credit information, rather than burying these permissions in expansive legal documents that surveys show are often unread or impossible for the average person to parse.

In a conversation with reporters on Monday, Chopra pointed to the recent attacks on US telecommunications systems, which the government has attributed to China, to emphasize the value of personal data to the nation's foreign rivals. “But often, our adversaries don't need to hack anything,” he says. “Data brokers, the outfits that collect and sell detailed information about our personal and financial lives, are making this data available to anyone willing to pay a price.”

The action proposed by the CFPB is aimed, Chopra says, at stopping data brokers from “enabling scammers, stalkers and spies undermining our personal safety and America's national security.”

The CFPB’s idea of using existing US law to regulate data brokers is not novel. In February 2023, a group of consumer-focused nonprofits urged Chopra to enforce the powers the FCRA affords regulators to prevent data brokers from engaging in these potentially damaging practices.

“Protecting the personal information of all people in the US is increasingly urgent in our current political climate,” says Laura Rivera, attorney with Just Futures Law, a nonprofit that supports grassroots activists. “The stakes are too high to continue to let the data broker industry sell our information at their discretion, where the status quo has made it ripe for abuse and targeting from harmful actors.”

In a briefing with WIRED on Monday, CFPB officials declined to comment on whether they believe the regulatory action will be short lived, as president-elect Donald Trump plans to empower a number of Silicon Valley figures to reorganize the federal government with the aim of targeting “waste and fraud.”

Elon Musk, who is coleading an office named after a meme coin—the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE—directly attacked the CFPB's work last week, calling for the agency to be “deleted.” Musk's remarks followed an attack on the agency's work by Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist, who claimed on a recent episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast that the agency is “terrorizing” banking startups.

The CFBP was founded in 2011 with the aim of protecting consumers from the kinds of fraud and abuse that kicked off the 2008 financial crisis.

A CFPB official tells WIRED that the agency is also concerned about data being transmitted in ways that companies allege protects people's identities but in reality can be "de-anonymized" in simple ways, as studies have repeatedly shown. "As technology advances, we surmise that it will be even easier to de-mask purportedly de-identified data," one official said. The proposed rule thus includes a range of guidelines for credit reporting agencies involved in selling data they alleged has been de-identified.

Asked whether the proposal would extend to US government agencies, an official says that US law sets forth "very clear pathways" for the government to purchase personally identifying data for law enforcement and intelligence purposes. In a recent case, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement was discovered by reporters to have purchased access to the personal data of Americans in an attempt to investigate immigrants—data acquired by the media conglomerate Thomson Reuters, which it provided to custeroms in contracts the company disclosed were worth more than $100 million. (Thomson Reuters previously denied that the purpose of the data is to track undocumented immigrants and has emphasized that its database does not contain information that normally requires a search warrant to access.)

“We are not disrupting any of those pathways,” a CFPB official says. The agency is requesting comment, however, on the potential impacts of such government purchases to ensure that access is “appropriate.”

Emily Peterson-Cassin, director of corporate power at the nonprofit advocacy group Demand Progress’s Education Fund, commended the CFPB’s proposal and urged the incoming Trump administration to see it through.

“The CFPB is doing something important that will resonate with every single American. Anyone you pick off the street can tell you about the daily scam texts, emails and calls they receive from fraudsters who easily buy our contact information from shady, unaccountable data brokers,” Peterson-Cassin says. “Finally, someone—specifically the CFPB—has stepped in to stop this daily plague affecting hundreds of millions of people by applying real standards to their sale of our sensitive information.”

[acrossthewavesoftime]

Can you tell me about the Hannis Chaos AU?? I'm really curious. :⁠-⁠)

Of course, esteem'd anon! :-)

It is a humorous little piece I wrote for the amusement of a friend. Set in the present-day, albeit with some historical alterations, it explores the havoc William of Orange could have wreaked from the comfort of his favourite swivel chair with access to "X" rather than needing to recruit large armies and doing such cumbersome things as sacrificing the lives of others for your own allegedly divine purpose. Luckily, the only one who is in danger of getting ripped to shreds (and that not by a canon ball, but entirely metaphorically in the retweets) is the Prince of Orange himself.

Opportunistic little (musk-)rat that he is, Willem, Prince of Orange, is a walking PR disaster on a good day, but almost triggers a major rift in Dutch diplomatic relations when he, on accident, posts a message that quickly gets misintrpreted as a laconic comment on the alleged death of his uncle, King Charles II. Who, while perhaps a little under the weather following a little accident involving a pair of plush-covered handcuffs, viagra and a bottle of champagne, may be a bit worse for wear, but (annoyingly) alive and well-ish.

His PR-guy designated Boy Best Friend Hans Willem Bentinck has to clear up the mess, but is faced with a herculean task there, not at least because his august bestie is not exactly cooperative (for a snippet, continue under the cut):

He found the head of state sitting behind his desk dressed in a red Adidas-tracksuit (a present of the surprisingly least politically and personally annoying uncle of Willem’s from Brandenburg), with his feet near-submerged in a pair of pink plush slippers somewhat too big for him and whose owner was likely able to guess who exactly had stolen her favourite loungewear accessories.

“Ah, Hanni,” Willem cawed in his familiar voice that always reminded Hans Willem of a crow with a sore throat. To his surprise, Willem seemed to be rather merry. He bobbed up and down in his chair, maltreating its springs, while slurping an iced chocolate drink through a plastic straw, the likes of which had been banished from the shops due to new environmental protection laws a long while ago.

“What’s the matter, old friend?”

“Your uncle is dead,” the words escaped Hans Willem before he could think of a softer way to phrase it, “at least that’s what they’re thinking.”

Willem first raised his eyebrows, then knitted them tightly together, which was quite a feat considering just how much forehead the Merciful Lord in his infinite wisdom had gifted the Prince of Orange.

“Which uncle? The paedo? Epstein’s most loyal customer?”

Willem looked at him with an almost hopeful mien.

“Nope, not your father-in-law. The King.”

The facial expression of the head of state of the Netherlands darkened. “I would know that. The Palace would inform Us. Pish, fake news,” he shrugged and made a movement of the hand as if throwing something in the bin, and looked perfectly merry again, “it’s going to be interesting to see who’s responsible for that silly joke. The Russians? That Chinese chap? I’m betting a tenner on Putin. And, who are ‘they’?”

Hans Willem flinched at hearing his best friend talk in this manner. They had talked and practiced politically correct language so often, apparently without result. There was no time for this however: “The Leader of the Free World, the German Chancellor and the President of the People’s Republic of China have all condoled you on Twitter already – and all within this past half-hour. I bet you, there are going to be ambassadors arriving with letters and flowers any minute now –“

Willem appeared to perk up at the mention of his favourite social media site, looking much less confused all of a sudden:

“Ah. Say, Hanni, have you not read the DM I sent you last night?”

“What DM?”

Hans Willem, who felt that something very, very bad was afoot, pulled his mobile from his pocket and opened the app.  “Look, there is no –“ he stopped mid-sentence and inhaled sharply as he typed on his display, before presenting the screen (set on maximum brightness) to Willem.

“What on earth have you done, Willem!?”

For a brief moment, there was silence.

“I didn’t do anything,” William crossed his stick-thin arms and looked up at him with a facial expression betraying annoyance and in an equal measure, the realisation of having been caught.

“You sent a tweet! A Tweet with the content, and I quote: Looks like they’re gonna put Old Rowley down at last lol.” (he made a point of dissecting the abbreviation into its individual letters, before continuing) “You didn’t send that just to me, you sent it to the entire goddam world, you stupid goat! You silly goose, you moronic–“ Hans Willem took a deep breath. The words that had just escaped him would almost certainly count as lèse-majesté and were punishable under Dutch law with a fine, but William did not look as if he was considering filing a police report. “Whoops,” the Head of State shrugged and tried in vain to look uninterested and unaffected. Behind his hazel eyes however, Hans Willem could see the cogs in his funny little brain turn. Willem knew just as well as he that this mess would result in unpleasant consequences.