this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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"Signal is being blocked in Venezuela and Russia. The app is a popular choice for encrypted messaging and people trying to avoid government censorship, and the blocks appear to be part of a crackdown on internal dissent in both countries..."

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[–] freedomsailor@programming.dev 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

It’s like a medal of honor for a privacy preserving app πŸ˜„

"Banned in 15 dicatorships!"

[–] reallyzen@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Indeed. If whatsapp isn't on the list, then I have all the confirmation I need.

[–] ivn@jlai.lu 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The Russian government has also allegedly begun preparations to block the WhatsApp messaging app.

https://kyivindependent.com/messenger-signal-blocked-in-russia-media-says/

[–] whydudothatdrcrane@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Some US bank got in trouble for using it internally.

[–] Omniraptor@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] whydudothatdrcrane@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago

This is a story from August 2023, and was covered in many outlets (I quote here NYT for reference only)

Federal regulators continued their crackdown against employees of Wall Street firms using private messaging apps to communicate, with 11 brokerage firms and investment advisers agreeing Tuesday to pay $549 million in fines.

Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, SociΓ©tΓ© GΓ©nΓ©rale and Bank of Montreal were hit with the biggest penalties by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Together, the brokerage and investment advisory arms of those four financial institutions accounted for nearly 90 percent of the fines, according to statements released by the regulators.

Original NYT

Archived version

[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago (3 children)

could matrix.org be as easily blocked, since it's decentralized I'm wondering?

At least it means that Signal is working as intended if they are blocking it, I guess that they don't have back doors.

[–] ivn@jlai.lu 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Being decentralized prevents DNS or IP blocks but not blocks through DPI.

Signal has an option to masquerade it's traffic as regular HTTPS, I don't know if Matrix can do such a thing.

https://x.com/signalapp/status/1821979304626155930

[–] TarantulaFudge@startrek.website 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I can answer this! All matrix calls are over https APIs. Ports and addresses are stored in a text file on the base domain or in DNS txt entry.

[–] ivn@jlai.lu 1 points 10 months ago

Thanks, nice to have someone knowledgeable.

Would you say matrix is censorship resistant? I've very limited knowledge of it but given what you said I imagine that if I was trying to block matrix I would just need to query the url of the text file and check the DNS text entry, if either exist just add the domain to the blocklist.

[–] foremanguy92_@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Matrix is in fact decentralized but in reality it is not so much, I don't know the number exactly but the majority of users use the matrix.org server

[–] steersman2484@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

Those numbers only include instances that have telemetry enabled

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

could matrix.org be as easily blocked, since it’s decentralized I’m wondering?>

Or SimpleX?

[–] TarantulaFudge@startrek.website 1 points 10 months ago

It cannot be easily blocked especially if you use your own homeserver every homeserver replicates the channel and it can operate without the original server! That's why signal and telegram are inherently flawed.

[–] Jocker@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago

Signal honored!

[–] dm9pZCAq@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago (5 children)

why telegram is not blocked? makes you think...

[–] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

WhatsApp supposedly uses Signal protocol.

Why is THAT not blocked? Certainly they wouldnt roll their own encryption and bypass Signal security protocols after having Moxie come in, right? Right????

[–] Rose@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Russia is reportedly planning to block WhatsApp as well.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 10 months ago

It is owned by Meta and is proprietary

[–] ivn@jlai.lu 1 points 10 months ago

Telegram is not secure, I guess if you can listen to it better not block it.

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[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Would peer to peer apps be resistant to this sort of thing?

[–] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It depends. Somehow it has to discover the peers. Other than that, they could block traffic between residential IP addresses and there goes large part of the P2P network

[–] MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes, but you'll have to install them from sources other than what governments deem official. Like F-droid.

Now, if they block p2p traffic that's a different story

[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

I am totally cool with F-droid.

[–] Railcar8095@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Why countries that do not prosecute political dissent bock apps used by political dissenters? /s

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Honestly I would've expected it to be blocked much earlier

[–] dirtybeerglass@hexbear.net 1 points 10 months ago

Unless you click the β€œunblock” button.

Gotta love Verge.

[–] Catsrules@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago
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