[-empyre-] *TickTack*: Speculating the emergency law + wider relations to the west

[ellen pau]

Hi all,
I think any piece of technology can be used to support civil disobedience
but technology
<https://nypost.com/2019/09/03/amazon-testing-payment-system-that-uses-hands-as-id/?fbclid=IwAR0UpSqDGRBtcMYZOB2vFnWF9ESzGT6ojiKm_ntDQGXO87Twlbgyy9znrWI>
like this will spark off fear of losing privacy and undermine any anonymous
actions. As artist and technologist, we are trained to build and use
technology in a humanist way but when the techno -sphere is almost
occupying all human -sphere, I feel insecure.

Ellen

On Wed, Sep 4, 2019 at 6:26 AM ellen pau <ellenpau.hk at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks SL, Geert ,and Winnie,
>
> I hope to bring the story of HK to raise the awareness of how media art
> circle could benefit the humanity and resist totalitarian
>
> HK is a very special place that witnessed clashes of many different ends,
> Post imperial and Post colonial democracy , one country two systems,
> capitalist and communist ideologies  US-China Trade War, sharp power and
> the global politics, geopolitics in South China Sea and North Korea and
> many more.
>
>  As the Disillusion and Frustration of a New Generation is Fuelling Hong
> Kong’s Protests
> <https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-disillusion-and-frustration-of-a-new-generation-is-fuelling-hong-kongs-protests>
> , a new kind of Hong Kong activism emerges as protesters mobilize without
> any leaders
> <https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-hong-kong-youth-activism-decentralized-protests-20190614-story.html>
> .
>
> Hong Kong is a great firewall Hong Kong is not China
> <http://bit.ly/2KIpE9T>,
> Hong Kong has been listed as one of the free city in the world but yet
> civic freedom are limited by new technology such as big data and smart city
> program. As Hong Konger still can read about the Hidden Camps in XinJiang
> <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/China_hidden_camps,>, anti
> China's social credit system
> <http://www.ejinsight.com/20190726-why-the-china-social-credit-system-must-be-resisted/> fear
> of tight control of speech  and even genocide are the fear exposed
> underneath the anti-extradition bill.The hijacking of smart Lamp-post is
> one of the examples <https://bit.ly/2yyaxKG%20(Gizmodo)> ON 25 Aug, A
> lamp post was pulled down for examination by protesters to reveal all the
> hardware inside. Many of them are made in China and are possibly connected
> to server in China, infringing privacy and data such as surveillance (heat
> ) image and bio metric data could not be excluded.
>
> Another spotlight is how the protesters are brilliantly using social media
> (Facebook, Telegram, Lihkg ) and mobile communication (airdrop
> <https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49280726>, Bridgefly
> <https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2019/09/02/hong-kong-protestors-using-mesh-messaging-app-china-cant-block-usage-up-3685/#3bd001ab135a>
> etc) to make decisions and to spread their news, to call for support from
> the global communities. While technologies help shaped the movement, many
> chat rooms in Lihkg (a similar version of Reddit) spring up for action and
> tactics discussion, witness's video, while telegram, Tinder and pokermon
> Go
> <https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/evjg74/hong-kong-protesters-are-now-using-tinder-and-pokemon-go-to-organise-people>
> took up the role in organizing the crowd, like Lennon Wall
> <https://today.line.me/hk/pc/article/How+Hong+Kong%E2%80%99s+Lennon+Walls+became+showcases+for+art+and+design+of+extradition+bill+protests-P2RYvr>documentation
> or crowd sourcing resources such as volunteers, advertisement,
> transportation, protective gear, food coupon etc etc. . On the other hand,
> China sends out fake news <https://on.wsj.com/2YWM1lh>, misinformation
> <https://nyti.ms/2korTGh>  about the protests and  DDOS attack on HK
> <http://bit.ly/2Ky5WyM>independent press and chatrooms
> <https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1477922-20190831.htm>. China
> authority will check Mobile phone
> <https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3022828/chinese-immigration-officials-inspect-hongkongers-phones>
> and even take blood sample
> <https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/visitors-to-china-warned-about-phone-checks/>
> to collect biometric surveillance across the border at Shenxhen.  Over 900
> Facebook and twitter accounts were removed because of the state backed
> mis-information.
> There are prediction that the next US presidential election will be
> affected by  social media too.
>
> Beside social media, Media technology that China can't block were used in
> communication on the street  e.g. Mesh messaging
> <https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2019/09/02/hong-kong-protestors-using-mesh-messaging-app-china-cant-block-usage-up-3685/#3bd001ab135a>
> Protesters create tactical media for activists via github (Github was
> banned in China <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_GitHub>)
> e.g. Real Time map and self made 15 channels live feed video
> <http://bit.ly/2yTSxKD> at site of confrontations.
> An AR Lennon Wall <https://padlet.com/lennonwall_hkhk/hk> was build after
> the dispersed sites over HK were vandalized again and again.  Activists
> explore open source and collaborative means and see it as an opposing force
> to the coming totalitarian control and high pressure from the government.
>
> Began as anti-extradition rally, peaceful protestors and Hong Kongers were
> engaged in a leaderless and decentralized network
> <https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/07/21/organisation-future-hong-kongs-open-source-anti-extradition-law-movement/>,
> using a tactic from the Bruce Lee's philosophy - "Be Water". The activists
> are creative, they created hand sign
> <https://graphics.reuters.com/HONGKONG-EXTRADITIONS-TACTICS/0100B0790FL/index.html?fbclid=IwAR29Rj5MDSnUYwy7rPGv-ml7n39e6ylQqbsiCtASbVuZ2afv-eR7C8K9TRg>
> , neologism <https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=44132#more-44132>, amazing
> propaganda <http://bit.ly/2YM6hGL>, creative ways to fight tear gas (Road
> Cone <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAbrQZOcGDo>, Tennis racket
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/30/opinion/sunday/hong-kong-protests.html>
> ) and making use of Blockchain
> <https://medium.com/kepler-blockchain-lab/區塊鏈之於社會運動-cddb780ec1ae> to
> protect the already being washed off history of the real Hong Kong. Hong
> Kong protestors are using pop culture memes
> <https://qz.com/1700030/hong-kong-protestors-cite-pop-culture-to-stay-visible-to-world/>
> to stay visible to the world
>
> I have followed the protest from the beginning and noticed it had gone
> more deadly as the police exerted excessive violence towards protestors.
> HK is burning <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1tUte_vKmk>, as activists
> said "as we burnt, you burnt with us" (from the movie Hunger game) , I urge
> citizens of the world rethink their stance towards protection of humanity,
> freedom and democracy. As the brave new world arrive very soon with 5G,
> social media and surveillance ...
>
> Thanks for listening.
>
> On Sun, Sep 1, 2019 at 11:34 PM //Winnie Soon <rwx at siusoon.net> wrote:
>
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> There are many events and incidents happened in the past few months in
>> Hong Kong. Instead of laying out everything with a long text and
>> reference lists/news, I have selected a short film "Hong Kong's fight
>> for democracy" as a point of departure, which is produced independently
>> by a video producer, photographer and writer Parjanya Christian Holtz
>> who is now based in Denmark. (see here:
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzfgG1CZjc0) The film touches upon
>> various tactics used by Hong Kong people, such as the crowdsourcing
>> newspaper campaign "stand with Hong Kong at G20", decentralized,
>> leaderless and autonomous organization (2:22), social media
>> communications such as telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook
>> (3:44), hand signals (5:14), reaching out international support (5:43),
>> demonstration at the Hong Kong airport, etc.
>>
>> In view of many possible lines of discussion regarding things that have
>> happened, such as the surveillance lamposts (see here:
>>
>> https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/08/26/hong-kong-tech-firm-pulls-smart-lamppost-programme-surveillance-accusations-staff-threats/),
>>
>> decentralization of the leaderless protests, use of telegram and the
>> online forum (especially LIHKG: https://lihkg.com), sending and
>> receiving updates and files via airdrop onsite, this thread would rather
>> focus on the emergency power, which refers to the "Emergency Regulations
>> Ordinance" (see here:
>>
>> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-30/how-hong-kong-protests-could-lead-to-internet-cut-off-quicktake)
>>
>> that was passed by the colonial government in 1922, giving the super
>> power to the chief executive to "make any regulations whatsoever which
>> he [or she] may consider desirable in the public interest". This could
>> include limiting internet access, extending censorship of media and
>> communications, controlling of all transportation systems, and many
>> others. While the western world is speculating on Chinese army may
>> deploy in Hong Kong, this potential deployment of the emergency rule
>> will confer great powers from the HK government to control many aspects
>> of life. This would have huge cultural, economic, political and social
>> implications and consequences across local and international
>> organizations. John Tsang Chun-wah, former financial secretary and a HKU
>> Adjunct Professor, warns this will bring "disastrous results" to Hong
>> Kong. (see here for the full article:
>>
>> https://www.hkcnews.com/article/23244/extradition_bill-emergency_regulations_ordinance-23244/emergency-law-disastrous-john-tsang-warns)
>>
>>
>>
>> Yesterday, LIHKG, one of the HK most local popular chat forums for
>> discussing the protest strategies, was subjected to an unprecedented
>> giant DDoS attacks resulting in internet congestion, blocking sites  and
>> server overload. According to LIHKG, total attack requests exceeded 1.5
>> billion on 31 Aug 219, highest record on the total request frequency was
>> 260k/sec in which then lasted for 30 mins before it is banned.
>> (https://lihkg.com/thread/1525319/page/1)
>>
>> Additionally, Twitter and Facebook, just earlier on, had shut down
>> hundreds of accounts that were spreading misinformation about the
>> pro-Democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong against China. Both platforms
>> identified these as part of a Chinese campaign to change public opinion
>> in the West. Furthermore, it appears that western media and tech
>> companies like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Telegram are somehow
>> involved in the Hong Kong protests and in the wider political regime (in
>> terms of both end users' generated content and corporational policies).
>> See also the latest report on the telegram app update to prevent
>> identity monitoring by authorities:
>>
>> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-telegram-exclusive/exclusive-messaging-app-telegram-moves-to-protect-identity-of-hong-kong-protesters-idUSKCN1VK2NI.
>>
>>
>>
>> In response to the week 1 topic on *TICKTACK* I hear the water running,
>> this thread is more to speculating tactics not only used by protesters
>> locally but also outlining some of the cultural and technological
>> phenomenon in western tech and media companies, and, last but the least,
>> the concerns of emergency power that could extend various kinds of
>> censorship in Hong Kong.
>>
>> best,
>> Winnie Soon
>> www.siusoon.net
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/attachments/20190904/1d416957/attachment.html>