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Comment by no_time | Hacker News Reader

LINE,telegram,threema and WeChat are not even american companies. Can't they just tell the FBI to suck a fat one when they ask for user data?

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Not if they want to operate in the United States or have access to our banking system.

You don’t get to pick your jurisdiction and then operate globally. You’re obligated to follow the laws where you want to operate.

I wonder how this affects nonprofits like Matrix/Element and Signal. What can they do with them? Gangstalk their developers? Coerce big tech to ban them from their appstores?

Doesn't Signal's dev already get bothered every single time they travel?

The design of these decentralized/federated platforms is specifically so they can't easily coerce their owners into disclosing incriminating information. In some sense, it's similar to how Bittorrent implicates it's users.

Refusing a valid court issued search warrant/order is a criminal offense. I think 180 days for each refusal of a legal order.

Well signal does not have the data, they comply with such orders with the tiny amount of metadata they have (like a timestamp of when your account was created and that’s about it)

The issue is a bit more complex. I was thinking more on the lines of "will I get bothered for making crypto available for the masses that nobody can crack?"

IRRC Didn't they jail a guy for that?

Fwiw if you want to do any sort of FX whatsoever or accept credit cards, you need access to the American banking system.

Telegram, as I understand it, can access your messages when stored in their Cloud[1]. They just make a choice to not provide the content of those to anyone.

[1] - https://telegram.org/privacy#4-1-storing-data

Yes but they can still:

- block the company nationwide, see Huawei (also includes ceasing contracts with app stores, both of which are American)

- block access to your website, see TPB

- harass you when you travel, either to the US or fellow countries.

Depends on whether the countries these companies exist in have agreements with the U.S for surveillance and stuff

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