SMH @ activists using techno-fascist platforms for communications during an operation subject to state-actor level interference. I thought we recognised and acknowledged this problem 15-20 years ago already.
https://xcancel.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1965431513320927706
56 Comments
incentive@lemmy.ml · 79 pts · 339d
I use WhatsApp cautiously with friends who still refuse to jump over to Signal (let alone Matrix or Session). But it's def mind blowing to read an activist group was relying on it for organizing. Reminds me of FB being used for organizing G20 and BLM demos -_-
ch00f@lemmy.world · 47 pts · 339d
Considering their entire marketing campaign is "nobody, not even WhatsApp can see your messages," I can see how folks would fall for that.
kionite231@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 338d
But they can see the metadata!
ctry21@sh.itjust.works · 25 pts · 339d
I think a lot of non-techie people only know signal from the Trump admin using it illegally earlier in the year. In a lot of people's minds because of that they think Signal = insecure because they don't get the nuances of why using it in that specific context -- on personal phones, using a third party app, with a random journalist in the mix -- was bad, but that for most people it's still one of the best options. WhatsApp on the other hand has a lot of marketing around it and if you didn't know that Meta is Facebook I think some people wouldn't even realise who the owners are.
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net · 16 pts · 338d
I had a friend who heard signal was backdoored and that a regular old cell call was more secure. Had to correct that
rapchee@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 338d
wasn't it telegram that got hacked?
also i vaguely remember the signal ceo getting sued or something because they couldn't/wouldn't let some government body read someone's messages, because it's encrypted
Zagorath@aussie.zone · 71 pts · 339d
I mean, based on the source, they're still even on Twitter which is a lot more overtly fascist than WhatsApp. So…yeah…
brachiosaurus@mander.xyz · 19 pts · 339d
There are some unofficial pages on the fediverse: https://mastodon.bida.im/@globalsumudflotilla
But yeah no links or mentions to mastodon and federated platforms on their website
https://globalsumudflotilla.org/
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 338d
That's fucked
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 49 pts · 339d
A sad reality of political activism is the inability of many groups to follow proper opsec.
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 36 pts · 339d
The number of people who are like "are you on Whatsapp? " fir secure conversations....
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net · 33 pts · 338d
WhatsApp Supports starving children to death
zaknenou@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 338d
Meta*
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca · 32 pts · 339d
Yeah, that's curious. I'd think they'd be prepared with Signal at the very least and some backup self-hosted channel, as well as cameras and backup cell hotspots.
eldavi@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 339d
they were prepared for the drone hit the other day; so hopefully for this as well.
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 339d
I'd imagine they could have a few spread out boats further and further behind, each with its own cell hotspot, beaming WiFi all around, so that they have to be jammed simultaneously to stop the livestreams from capturing the attacks.
randompasta@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 339d
Or fiber optic cable.
eldavi@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 339d
it sounds like it would be easier to pick them off one-by-one if they were far apart.
fodor@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 338d
eldavi@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 332d
I think the notoriety is the point; since this flotilla is incapable of carrying anywhere near enough supplies to make a dent for the gazans; and also what netantayu desperately wants to avoid so that this can be more easily ignored; like everything else so far.
Sinking boats filled with famous people and foreign nationals whose gov'ts who would be forced to respond on their citizens' well-being would bring more attention and pressure; which is exactly what netantayu wants to avoid.
We saw the western govts pressure isreal by pretending to push for recognition of Gaza and the isrealis responded w air supply drops; more pressure might force them to stop slowly killing the Gazans.
herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml · 29 pts · 339d
This is why you don't use whatsapp
rmuk@feddit.uk · 23 pts · 338d
ftfy
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 28 pts · 338d
toppy@lemy.lol · 8 pts · 338d
Maybe the aim of the flotilla was to just make people aware that there are activists who are worried about gaza. Just to create media buzz.
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 338d
ICastFist@programming.dev · 7 pts · 338d
Keep in mind the tweet refers to the group chat as used by the flotilla to communicate with their European supporters, not necessarily for their internal communications.
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 338d
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 7 pts · 338d
They literally broadcast their location publicly on their website.
This public tracking is the only reason they didn't all get murdered on the last boat
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 338d
fodor@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 338d
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 338d
AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 339d
Did they select Whatsapp as a main communication channel and direct their supporters to it?
Or did they just start a group chat to reach out to supporters who were already on the app?
rmuk@feddit.uk · 14 pts · 338d
Amazing that they weren't using Signal for comms outside their group, but for internal comms it's even more amazing they weren't using something like Meshtastic.
deafboy@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 338d
Can only say a person who has never used meshtastic.
Source: The struggle.
rmuk@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 338d
Not sure what you mean. I use Meshtastic a lot, both as a hobby but also for remote sensor reading and herd tracking. Works a treat.
tamal3@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 338d
I know this is off topic, but herd tracking? Critters? I'm always curious about people's lives.
rmuk@feddit.uk · 11 pts · 338d
Cows.
A friend of mine was taking over his family farm with access to open moorland for grazing and as an experiment we wanted to see if we could implement tracking without giving a monthly small fortune to a company for a proprietary product or noisy polluting methods like a helicopter. BLE beacons are cheap and long-lasting so each cow got one, and we bodged together about twenty solar powered Meshtastic nodes with GPS that were small enough to be worn on their collars (since the cows tend to heard together only one in the group needs a node), plus another dozen we could install at choke points on the land (old gates, land bridges, etc) the cows were likely to traverse. The nodes were like this, but smaller and shitter. The nodes were programmed to report every time they saw a BLE beacon nearby, with the mobile ones also reporting their own GPS location, all being fed into Home Assistant for mapping. I just checked and apparently, aside from a couple of storm-damaged fixed nodes and replacement batteries it's still going strong after two years.
WhoIsTheDrizzle@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 338d
That's cool as hell
buttnugget@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 338d
Thank you for telling me about meshtastic!
For anyone like me who never heard of it before:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meshtastic
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 338d
I wouldn't rule it out. But you can't do public comms over Signal.
Again, I wouldn't rule it out. But if I'm on a public group that's very likely compromised by the IDF, I'm not going to announce all the other protocols they need to block.
He's just reporting one avenue that's been closed to the protesters by a corporate entity that is now complicit in genocide.
Shamber@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 338d
With all respect to a privacy advocates(I'm one), but blaming them on using WhatsApp is besides the point, these people are not trying to hide their activities, or locations, and many of them are not tech-saavy, the shame is on the cess pool that is Meta, and all the other goons...this is so fucked up on so many levels.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 338d
WhatsApp admins are explicitly interfering with a public protest in order to satisfy a genocidal foreign government.
This is at least as big a deal as TikTok censorship of anti-China posters. It's just on behalf of a US ally, so we're defending it rather than threatening to interfere in their business practices in turn.
Who appoints WhatsApp administration heads if not Meta? It's the same picture.
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 338d
lemmyknow@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 338d
I don't think Meta's the one they're going against, here
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 338d
Core_of_Arden@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 339d
So happy not to be using Whatsapp...
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 338d
All the more reason to use Signal.
Korkki@lemmy.ml · 11 pts · 339d
100% CIA and mossad were watching those channels realtime.
protogen420@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 10 pts · 339d
I am pretty sure those groups were public
appropriateghost@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 338d
another reason why not to use whatsapp? for all that is good, don't use meta or any corporate technofascist company. there are better options.
manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 338d
At least they werent organising on discord, maybe its intentional to send a message to people about meta
warm@kbin.earth · 8 pts · 339d
Was this their main channel of communication or just a group they had for supporters?
paaviloinen@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 338d
Doesn't really matter, it's the metadata that reveals your connections and locations. Surprisingly big amount of useful (but not necessarily correct or verifiable) intel can be gathered without eavesdropping into the actual conversations. People have been - on other occasions - targeted because they were connected to a person, who's connections may have been suspicious to some state actors.
warm@kbin.earth · 3 pts · 338d
Huh? I was just curious, because it's quite different if they used this as their main-channel. Using WhatsApp for that would be crazy.
paaviloinen@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 338d
My point was that even one phone with the WhatsApp app itself can mean compromised opsec. No matter if it's used for operational communication or not, or whether or not the messages can be read by 3rd parties or not.
ohshit604@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 338d
Damn, didn’t know Nitter still existed.
irelephant@programming.dev · 1 pts · 338d
It was resurrected in February.
ohshit604@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 338d
Ever since the Nitter matrix server got blasted with CSAM with no moderation I’m hesitant to spin up an instance, cool to see they have resurrected it I suppose.
irelephant@programming.dev · 1 pts · 334d
When was that? I'm guessing it's when the project was abandoned, so there was no one there to remove it.
I'm in the room right now, and there is no spam.
MrSulu@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 338d
So the Trump ass-kissers have given the King of Fools another gift for his pleasure. The cost to freedom is immense
xc2215x@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 338d
Very odd from Whatsapp.
Korkki@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 338d
Totally consistent Meta is joined at the hip with US government and therefore more or less in league with Zionists, neocons and Israel just like every american big tech, bank and media company.
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 338d
Lol wut? Meta has been working with the IOF and NSO and US for years
amzd@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 337d
Do not use a centralized service for civil disobedience
PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml · -4 pts · 338d
Sounds like this group is more of a social media vibe group, rather then a group interested in real undermining of Zionism. Maybe stop being pawns for slacktivists with rich parents and try joining the PLO instead?