Faine Greenwood: I started my career reporting on how people were using the Internet in dictatorships, and if there's one BIG thing I learned from talking to a bunch of people who literally had served jail time for political blogging, it was "choose your battles wisely, and don't say dumb things in dumb places."

I started my career reporting on how people were using the Internet in dictatorships, and if there's one BIG thing I learned from talking to a bunch of people who literally had served jail time for political blogging, it was "choose your battles wisely, and don't say dumb things in dumb places."

if there is one survival skill I would REALLY like everyone opposed to the fascist GOP to learn right now, it's "do not say things on the public internet that will provide authorities with useful pretenses for coming after you."

Abso-fucking-lutely right. (Different country, but...) When I was a kid in a socialist family, my parents would always say "Do not get tattoos when you're old enough. You need to have no identifiable physical characteristics". It comes from the same place: do not make yourself a target.

yeah tbh that is one of the reasons I don’t have any and generally maintain a pretty boring appearance

This would have worked for me, unfortunately I had 9 operations with visible scars as a kid, and then got big fat scars in a road crash as an adult! 🤦 But I still can't bring myself to do it! The message was too strong. I am so sickened and worried for you all, it's such a deeply dangerous time xx

I've seen pictures on the internet with blurred faces and crystal clear tattoos. Some people don't realize that while face recognition software was being developed, the authorities were developing tattoo recognition s/w. It progressed much more quickly because the problem is so simple.

All us bitches need Signal

I have Signal. If anyone wants my Signal id they can PM me for it.

And by anyone, I probably mean mutuals.

Slay

Smarter people than me can explain why signal isn’t automatically safe. It’s better but you can still end up hearing someone read transcripts from it in court.

if state actors access your device and you have stuff written down on there that's bad for you you will have problems. use message retention. if you're discussing something that could be bad for you in court, use signal to coordinate irl meetings or calls (on signal).

There's no safety if they have physical access to the device. If they can take and unblock your device, they can read your messages in any app.

It's one of the reasons why I don't like people complaining about how more Russians aren't out on the streets protesting. I don't *want* them protesting, and thus getting flagged by the Kremlin as a threat, and neutralized. I want them silently sabotaging the Russian war effort off-grid.

i think a lot about talking to my chinese friends at the bar vs how they come across on wechat

This is true, but I transcribe a lot of criminal trials and if they want to get you they will take a bunch of shit you said out of context and use it anyway. Or else they will make shit you thought was perfectly legal, illegal. Like protesting or criticizing the government

We need to find that balance between not bragging on the internets about the big crimes we want to do, but not being so afraid to speak out at all that we fail to build community and rally around a desire for action and change

Yep, there’s a balance. But there’s also basic pitfalls people can avoid.

Agreed. I just want people to know that you’re probably not talking about anyone other than the ones discussing the real naughty stuff that I’m sure none of us would ever do IRL 😇 But I’m getting worried about discussing even the non-naughty stuff at this point honestly

My mother brought me up in the before times with ‘Never write anything in a letter that you wouldn’t want on the front page of the newspaper’. (She had in mind incriminating love letters, I guess). Now it’s ‘Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want used as evidence in your criminal trial”. 🤷‍♀️

I’ve sat through far too many criminal and civil trials and so every time I send a text I’m like, “How would you feel if this text were read out of context in open court” 😬 I have witnessed some shit

Excellent advice, something I can absolutely concur with having been hounded for years by the relevant organs of the CCP for writing about Xinijang and Tibet. People, it is perfectly acceptable to post on social media under a screen name and if other users don't like it they can ignore or block you.

Affinity networks - the pre-internet organising model that still works in the Internet age.

pretty sure that what some people say on the Internet is just going to be "addtional evidence" for some of us, after they put out the executive orders allowing them to seize and examine pharmacy records and medical records for "national security purposes".

do not underestimate your enemies, but do not assume godlike and infallible powers from your enemies either

Fun fact: this is actually one of the things fascist are incapable of doing.

I don't assume godlike and infallible. I assume "how evil can they try to be", then go down a level. I also skimmed the 2025 book to know what they were hoping to do.

It’s also really important to pay attention to the difference between what your enemies want to do and what they’re actually *capable* of doing

We’re talking at least in part about Trump here. “Godlike” and “infallible” are not exactly the words that first spring to mind. 😜

Oh, I am so boned.

A lot of people on this website think it's safe for them to make jokes about [redacting] people just because bluesky doesn't have a moderation platform on par with Facebook yet.

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