This is such a disgrace. Naomi Wu is one of the most interesting personalities out there. Absurdly enough, she was always very careful to not paint China in a negative light. She also managed to show everyday life and culture in China from an inside perspective, which is rare enough. It's a real shame and a huge loss to the maker community. Let's hope this gets some publicity, which may help protect her.

[–] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 70 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (17 children)

The problem was that after Vice published her info, she basically lost any protection she had. Also how no foreign press is really saying anything or asking about her. She was protected when China thought the world was watching her; now that they know they’re not, she’s been silenced.

Her girlfriend is also Uighur, which had her in another precarious situation. She’s said she can’t leave China because her girlfriend can’t.

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[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

she was always very careful to not paint China in a negative light.

A few times she even called out Chinese companies that were acting scummy to foreign customers and asked that they act better to not damage China's reputation.

(I'm sure that language ws specifically chosen to have maximum impact for someone who understood they might face very real consequences over damaging China's image)

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago

That visit to the UMIDIGI office for GPL compliance was 👌

Ben commented:

Hi,

You can request the shareable source codes (most of them are not free and owned by MediaTek) at our Shenzhen office (only Chinese speaking) in working hours.

The address is:

405-407 Jinqi Zhigu Building , 4/F , 1 Tangling Road , Nanshan District , Shenzhen City, P.R.C

Kind regards, Ben - UMIDIGI

Ben changed the status to Waiting for customer.

https://www.androidauthority.com/watch-youtuber-android-source-code-2735089/

[–] ImpossibleRubiksCube@programming.dev 57 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hope Vice is satisfied, their lackluster journalism may have gotten someone killed as a response. She was my favorite tech internet personality, and I always marveled that she got away with all of that in China of all places.

(As a clarification, I didn't get the news from whatever YouTube this is; that's my least favorite platform for news stories. I looked it up.)

[–] u_tamtam@programming.dev 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can you elaborate? To me it reads like she outed herself by going against tencent, or more probably/accurately, her government and one of its convenience spyware. She had already said for many years that she was under scrutiny, and her assumption was that her western followers would somehow compel the CCP to back off.

I'm not a hater, but for anyone paying attention that's ludicrous. With her knowledge, she couldn't be that naive.

[–] ImpossibleRubiksCube@programming.dev 48 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Vice exposed a lot of information about her in their article, which they were specifically asked not to; this compounded the situation beyond what she was prepared to deal with. Outing her sexuality, as an example. It was a terrible and inhuman move.

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[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 31 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=ei7OQDVOYDY

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[–] legenderic@feddit.ch 24 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Tl;dw?

Btw is there a bot to post automated video transcripts?

[–] FurbyOnSteroids@sopuli.xyz 96 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Renowned Chinese maker Naomi Wu has been threatened and questioned by Chinese authorities, facing imprisonment if she continues posting openly online.
Wu has brought attention to privacy issues with popular third-party keyboards in China that could record keystrokes and send them to developers like Tencent.
Researchers recently confirmed this vulnerability in a report to Tencent, who were slow to address the problem.
Shortly after, Wu was detained and warned to limit her online discussions or face consequences.
Wu feels silenced and that Western audiences who once supported her have abandoned her.
The video creator blames Elon Musk for ruining Twitter and limiting their ability to stay connected to people like Wu.
Centralized social platforms play a role in protecting dissenting voices by giving them visibility and an audience.
Frequent disruptions to platforms force rebuilding connections and communities elsewhere.
Wu's outspoken views on technology and politics in China came with risks, which authorities are now cracking down on.
There are calls to raise more awareness of Wu's situation through media coverage and online sharing.

(Used kagi summarizer for this)

[–] CoderKat@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Man, I utterly detest Musk and think he's dumb as bricks, but blaming Musk for this feels like a big stretch. Not, you know, Tencent or the CCP?

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That part of the video is more "it sucks these rich assholes are ruining our ability to stay connected by destroying the experience we'd come to enjoy and become used to." It's not saying he meant it, just mentioning how hard it is to stay connected with people online while switching platforms, and how easy it is to lose track of things you found important before.