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Comment by hn_throwaway_99 | Hacker News Reader

I will say Google Meet has gotten much better since the pandemic started, e.g. support for many more participants in its grid view.

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Is Google really any better? They may simply be better at hiding their surveillance apparatus. We need to decentralize, i.e. destroy large non-decentralized organizations.

No it is not. I'm planning on switching to jitsi for my personal and non-profit projects, and I guess I'll advocate for it at work. Switching from Zoom to Google/Microsoft/Cisco anything is like switching from Evian to Aquafina.

US citizens have a significant better chance at fighting a warrant. Personally, we've been using Jitsi for video. It's not amazing, but it is free in many senses of the word.

Two comments recommending Jitsi. Suspicious.

If you find a better one that is not absolutely arcane and frustrating to use, let me know.

Until then, Jitsi is "good enough", even if it's still pretty rough in certain parts.

I love Jitsy for Video, but for schooling i prefer BigBlueButton it's also FOSS, but yes it's really not the same 'product-category':

https://bigbluebutton.org/

Jitsi is pretty good. If you know a better FOSS tool for videoconferencing, I'd be happy to check it out.

Shameless plug: https://github.com/havfo/multiparty-meeting

Why is that suspicious?

Zoom is a US company founded by an American citizen.

Zoom is a US company founded by an immigrant from China with 700 employees in China where the software and product development teams are. All 700 of those employees can be leaned on to break security generally or to break it for one specific person or meeting, even if we don’t believe there management of the Chinese or American parts of the firm won’t just do what the CPC ask them to do.

Which closed the account of a US-based activist for hosting a Tiananmen event.

Absolutely, don't be ridiculous. Google is not and will never be complicit to Chinese censorship in America. This is classic whataboutism and we don't benefit from such hyperbole.

Google does engage in censorship in the U.S.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google#United_St...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKwr3DDvFpw

>Google is not and will never be complicit to Chinese censorship in America

Uhh that's a strong stand for something you don't know...especially the 'never' part of it.

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