2y ago

EXCLUSIVE: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

www.hackingbutlegal.com EXCLUSIVE: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

When China's prodigious tech influencer, Naomi Wu, found herself silenced, it wasn't just the machinery of a surveillance state at play. Instead, it was...

Apparently, the Chinese government brought the hammer down on Naomi for pointing out how they spy on Signal used via a third-party keyboard on phones

#Tech #Infosec #security #China

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I never heard of Naomi Wu before.
All of the sudden, articles like this one are all over the place showing a woman with red hair in provocative outfits claiming to be a tech activist being silenced.
Would anyone care to give me a two line summary of who she is and what her deal is?
- She’s a techie just like a lot of folks. Likes to indulge in 3D printing, hardware modding, things like that. Just happens to also be a woman who likes to dress provocatively. Each to their own, of course. Been a while since I watched anything of hers, but what stuck with me is her emphasis on the fact that women can be engineers just as well as men can. She’s decently well-known in the modding community, I’d say.
- Big celebrity of the "maker" space. Often showed signs of protest against the CPP, while living in China. Often controversial due to appearance.
  
  What is "maker space"? What is the CPP besides a C++ file? A Chinese agency?
  
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  They mean "makers," the kind of people into making using a variety of technologies including but not limited to woodworking, 3D printing, metalworking, leatherworking. Not usually all at once, but sometimes all at once. Incidentally you can rent a "maker space" which is just a physical space with tools to make things. Also, I think they meant CCP (Chinese Communist party).
  
  Cpp is a misspelling of the acronym Chinese Communist party aka CCP.
- She’s a tech activist who’s being silenced, just like you said
- hardware / software hacker living in china (shenzen) has a great youtube channel and lots of other socials that advocate for open source hardware, builds cool shit, breaks shit in cool ways. just as willing to hack at her own body for fun and personal interest. uses her look to both be disarming / educate folks; her motto is "if I can do it, anyone can do it"
  some extras: from being a subscriber to her youtube channel and a fan for many years now, she is indeed hyper capable / knowledgable, has some views that wouldnt be considered conventional by various western queer types but come from an honest experience living as a queer person in non western systems. she has also been more bitter about treatment by western media and other folks who assume their preconceptions are more valid than her lived experience, something I am personally familiar with being from a slightly controvercial country myself.
  
  I'm curious what queer Eastern values are unconventional to queer Western values? I assume her views are common to queer Chinese.
  
  I'll try but dont trust me, feel free to read up herr very well written views on twitter (unless they've been wiped from the internet) I feel like she bucked at the expectation to be constantly fighting the chinese system on behalf of a lot of people who saw her as their revolutionary on the inside while those same people refused to listen to anything positive she would say about the more recent and relevant life experience of those living under the same system.
  I felt some parallels being someone who'se living a very lefty life in the US but is FROM Israel and each and every mention became an opportunity for someone to ask me to affirm all their various badly held beliefs coming from which ever side they chose to take in the telenovela version of the country they knew about.
  there are more specific cases like how queer culture over there is practiced VERY differently (which honestly was interesting) and wasnt really acknoledged by people
  I think it's the corollary to "Everyone is the hero of their own story" which is "everyone mistakenly treats others as merely side characters in their own story" and it happens at all levels of society.

41 comments