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A comment on Zoom to bring end-to-end encryption to all users, including non-paying. Parent comment

Re:Zoom to bring end-to-end encryption to all users, includi... by tw04 on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @01:44PM (#23554315)
I guess I don't consider that the same thing at all. They're censoring searches coming from china to google.cn (hosted in China). They didn't really have a choice, the servers are in China, the users are in China.

What they aren't doing is actively blocking users from China getting to www.google.com, and they aren't censoring searches Chinese users do on www.google.com because those resources aren't hosted in China and aren't subject to Chinese law.

Zoom on the other hand IS blocking users from China accessing resources in the US and while they may have "undone" the ban, they banned US users from their platform for breaking a Chinese law that they aren't subject to. Namely talking about the Tienanmen Square massacre.

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Re:Zoom to bring end-to-end encryption to all users, includi... by g-b-r on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @05:23PM (#23556952)
they didn't have a choice not to use servers in China?
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Re:Zoom to bring end-to-end encryption to all users, includi... by tw04 on Thursday June 18, 2020 @12:55PM (#23565046)
They actually didn't. Their options were filtered servers in China or no services in China at all. We can collectively be upset at their decision but they ARE beholden to their shareholders as a public company. Abandoning the Chinese market entirely is something they could've tried, but their major shareholders made it pretty clear there would be a change of leadership if they tried.

Unless you've got a magic bullet to give Wall Street a conscience, that wasn't going to happen.

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Re:Zoom to bring end-to-end encryption to all users, includi... by g-b-r on Thursday June 18, 2020 @02:26PM (#23566048)
Ok it was the fault of their major shareholders, but then it's ok to make them pay their decision, I think (hoping that they're still holding those shares).

By the way, in general my understanding is that the "beholden to their shareholders as a public company" (and thus forced to make the most remunerative decisions) belief is a myth, a public company is free to make ethical choices (if its major shareholders don't oppose them).

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