The Role of Apps and Technology in the Hong Kong Protests
Something rare happened on Wednesday, the fourth of September. A government, a gargantuan beast that’s known to be an immovable object at the best of times, relented in the face of protests.
Carrie Lam’s promise to nix the extradition bill came as a pleasant shock but it is arriving on the heels of a long battle. It’s just a small step to meet the demands of those out on the streets, protesting for freedom. However, this olive branch from Lam is a major change in the discourse and it could be the first inch that the protesters need to take back their rights and their freedom.
All of this was achieved through persistence and an impeccable coordination effort, which was realized through groups on the Telegram app. According to dispatches, the messenger seems to have played a central role in the protests. Hong Kong citizens used the app’s sprawling groups to agree the timeline of their civil unrest and inform compatriots whenever needed. The citizens came together and saved lives by sending doctors to treat the injured and prevented a much darker outcome to the fight for freedom by exposing moles in the movement.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the protests would have gotten nowhere if they weren’t so well-organized and successful. Today, it’s high time to take a look at the online community that made all of this possible and the future possibilities of using the internet resources in the ongoing fight for a free future.
Anonymity In Battle
There’s nothing more precious to a citizen oppressed by China’s surveillance state than anonymity. This could be seen when Hong Kong citizens cut down “lamp posts” that served as facial recognition beacons and when they began using Telegram.
The app famously requires nothing but a phone number to register an account and doesn’t request any extra information for further use. This means it could, in a less oppressed country, be easily used in conjunction with a burner SIM to guarantee that your real identity isn’t linked to the account. In Hong Kong, however, getting a SIM that’s not connected to your name is tough.
Protesters would have been out of luck if it wasn’t for the ability to hide your number, replacing it with a username that wouldn’t give away identities. There were some reports that a mole could, ostensibly, add consecutive phone numbers to their contacts and find out their usernames on Telegram, thus outing people. However, a new update is combatting this exact scenario by giving an option that hides your phone number from everyone. Not even your contacts list would know your digits and, more importantly, neither would your enemy.
Everyone Is Invited
Weirdly enough, protesters have already stated that one of the main reasons they turned to Telegram wasn’t just anonymity. Apparently, the app is seen as a place to strategize thanks to the group chats that are available to everyone. Unlike WhatsApp’s groups that are limited to 256 people, Telegram groups hold a mind-boggling 200,000 users. Still not as staggering as HK’s protests of 1.7 million people but it’s a mountain next to WhatsApp’s molehill.
Arguably, this kind of freedom to organize and add anyone could also be harmful without a thorough vetting process. While the current trends are encouraging and would seem to suggest that no moles have managed to wreak any substantial havoc, it’s likely to become a problem for any future revolutionaries. This issue, however, falls on the shoulders of the protest leaders.
Telegram groups offer the option to assign admins from among the group members one trusts. This means that the moderation of these populous chats wouldn’t fall on just one person’s shoulders, making the task of finding saboteurs much easier. The process could also be automated through bots, which would automatically block spammers and those that were reported by the vigilant users. It seems that a competent group that can lead the charge is still as important as ever even when the strategy and communication happen through smartphones.
The Future Is Online
While the true heart of civil resistance will always remain with in-person contributions and protests need people to show up to be effective, apps like Telegram are a major basis for organizing and coordinating these actions.
Telegram isn’t alone in its bid for privacy and freedom as smaller apps like Signal, Wire, and Briar have been lurking in the wings. They are growing to be more than blips on the radar quite fast and might even factor into the next revolutionary moment.
Even now, it’s easy to point to some of the easily fixable flaws. If they were dealt with it could usher in a new generation of messengers and related apps. For one, protests need the masses so apps have to keep up with the demand and start to offer large groups.
It’s also imperative to have encryption available by choice and, even more crucially, reject cooperation with totalitarian and oppressive governments. While Telegram has helped the fight against terrorism by shutting down public ISIS channels, the company vehemently rejected all requests to disclose user information. The same is true for its aforementioned budding competitors but, for every single one of them, the question now stands not about their past but about their future. Will they hold off against pressure from the likes of China and Russia or cave to the state-sponsored attacks? Time will tell but, for now, the forecasts are optimistic.
Facing Uncertainty
It remains to be seen whether this concession from HK government will be just the beginning in a historic win for the people. But, regardless of the outcome, this situation should be a lesson for others the world across. It illuminates what technology can do for the people and how valuable this type of safe harbor can be.
We don’t yet have tools aimed directly and openly at helping people fight back against oppression and totalitarianism. But, as the case of the Hong Kong protesters and Telegram proves, help is always available if you look for it.
