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Comment by ceeniwer | Hacker News Reader

I wonder why is it that folks in Hong Kong, xinjiang and Tibet can’t effectively work together using telegram to start a massive nation wide riot. There are so many Folks in those regions who are oppressed (millions) and they are being organ harvested, forced to work in factories as slave labor, held in concentration camps, disappeared without trials, and tortured for democratic ideals.

Or these folks can coordinate with protestors in other parts of the world, to raise awareness and stop consumers from buying from a dictatorship.

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People who would be interested in rioting generally don't show up to riot unless they can be sure there are a lot of other people who will do so as well. A "one-man riot" is just a stupid vandal the police have no trouble arresting. And so communication of intent to riot is not really enough. There's a coordination problem akin to a massive game of chicken that needs to be solved.

Usually, the way this problem is overcome is that rioters show up to peaceful protests and engage in a sort of signalling game to other would-be rioters. The usual trigger to begin the riot is the sound of shattering glass. Until someone is ready to throw that first brick, you aren't likely to see much of anything.

Authoritarian countries know all this and they try very hard to prevent riots by banning all peaceful protests. Much harder to start a riot when there aren't any people on the streets to give cover.

>"to start a massive nation wide riot"

- Keyboard warrior? This is a crime in any country including the the US. Can you imagine what it will do to you in a country like China?

>"Or these folks can coordinate with protesters in other parts of the world, to raise awareness and stop consumers from buying from a dictatorship."

- What prevents you from not buying from a dictatorship now? Do you need to be directed by people from Tibet about it?

The protests in Hong Kong are organised over Telegram but there is not much appetite for rioting thankfully.

In Xinjiang, the Uighur population are obliged to run a version of Android with surveillance software installed on it that is constantly phoning home about all activity on the device. So, even if it were possible to install a chat app that evades the Great Firewall, everything that one reads and types on that phone would still be sent on to the authorities regardless. Belarus is a dictatorship, but far less authoritarian in the digital realm than Xinjiang.

Protesters in Hong Kong have been using Telegram. And they did use it to start a massive city wide riot.

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