Amazon Tells Signal's Creators To Stop Using Anti-Censorship Tool (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The team behind secure messaging app Signal says Amazon has threatened to kick the app off its CloudFront web service unless Signal drops the anti-censorship practice known as domain-fronting. Google recently banned the practice, which lets developers disguise web traffic to look like it's coming from a different source, allowing apps like Signal to evade country-level bans. As a result, Signal moved from Google to the Amazon-owned Souq content delivery network. But Amazon implemented its own ban on Friday. In an email that Moxie Marlinspike -- founder of Signal developer Open Whisper Systems -- posted today, Amazon orders the organization to immediately stop using domain-fronting or find another web services provider. Signal used the system to provide service in Egypt, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where it's officially banned. It got around filters by making traffic appear to come from a huge platform, since countries weren't willing to ban the entirety of a site like Google to shut down Signal. "The idea behind domain fronting was that to block a single site, you'd have to block the rest of the internet as well. In the end, the rest of the internet didn't like that plan," Marlinspike writes. "We are considering ideas for a more robust system, but these ecosystem changes have happened very suddenly. [...] In the meantime, the censors in these countries will have (at least temporarily) achieved their goals. Sadly, they didn't have to do anything but wait."

Comments

Fascists can die in a fire

[Anonymous Coward]

This just in: fascist corporate America doesn’t give a shit about protecting your rights if it doesn’t have a way to monetize that.

Re:Fascists can die in a fire

[GLMDesigns]

Amazon and Google are fascist. OK.

What is fascism?
What makes something fascist? I don't know anymore. It used to be relatively simple. It was defined by Mussolini but now everything is Fascist.

Hey - you libertarian over there are you for free speech and free markets? "Yup" Well, then, you're a fascist.

Now I'm not fond of either Google or Amazon.

I use Brave or Firefox, use DuckDuckGo unitl and unless I'm forced to go to Google. I've reduced my use of gmail. (Using protonmail)

It can't be because they oppose free speech and the free expression of ideas? Because then Antifa would be fascist? Right?

So, what the fuk is fascism.

Re:Fascists can die in a fire

[HeckRuler]

More like Amazon and Google are yielding to pressure from Egypt, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (or from one of their friends) that don't like when people bypass their bans, which itself is pretty fascist when they dictate how you can use the Internet.

What makes something fascist? I don't know anymore. It used to be relatively simple.

Yeah, I get that. Some asshat called me a fascist and assumed I agreed with NAZIs because I had the audacity to defend free speech. But that sort of hyperbole has always been around. It's bullshit and has always been bullshit. It's a cheap and easy low-effort insult by pseudo intellectuals who can't stop their rage-boner against Hitler. Tribalism through and through. They simply hate the other side enough to hate anyone near them as well.

There's a bunch of little things that taste like fascism, but I think it boils down to trying control what people do. If they're free to make their own decisions without being forced, compelled, threatened, or encouraged than it's not fascist. And yeah, that's a sliding scale. If China instituted fines for muslims instead of outright confiscating their prayer mats that'd be a step away from fascism... but it's still pretty fascist. If NY added a sugary-drink-tax to try and make people be less fat... that's a little fascist.

A handful of shitty countries are trying to control how people use the Internet. That's fascist. They're pressuring these companies (or their political allies, like the USA govt) to put a stop to the workaround. These companies are yielding, or helping out, probably just because it helps make them a buck as well. That's aiding fascists.

Maybe that's reading into it though. Maybe they really just want to control the internet a little more and make it a little more regulated (which WILL help them profit). That's a slight amount of... controlling others. Forcing Internet services to have a more truthful identification. Imagine if slashdot suddenly forced you to stop using "GLMDesigns" or being an anonymous coward and enforced "real names only". In the name of stopping shitposting. That's control. Regulation. And it's a little fascist.

So, what the fuk is fascism.

Authority enforcing unity through the threat of capital punishment. "Do things our way and conform or we'll chop you down to size".

move to azure in the meantime

[williamyf]

Marlinspike writes. "We are considering ideas for a more robust system, but these ecosystem changes have happened very suddenly. [...]

While you consider and implement these "ideas for a more robust system", move to azure to buy yourselves more time.

AFAIK, Azure still supports domain fronting. Granted, is a little different than Google's and Amazon's (in that both the fronted domain and the final destination have to be azure hosted), but still, is better than the alternatie of having your app censored while a new solution arrives, which can take, weeks, months or even years...

What do you want to bet....

[MAXOMENOS]

...the actual reason for the changes has to do with another country telling Amazon and Google to quit enabling Signal, or else?

Censorship! bad!!

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

OK we got that part. Censorship is bad. And this domain fronting is one way to evade censorship.

So we heard about *one* legitimate noble use of domain fronting.

Amazon and Google are banning probably to improve their tracking and their own bottom line. Fine.

Now are there illegitimate uses for domain fronting? Is it used by scammers? Is it used by malware hawkers? Can we have some balance in reporting and mention the dark underbelly of domain fronting? Or has slash dot is PR fronting for some scammers and spammers?

*DO* Be Evil

[Citizen of Earth]

How many thousands of political dissidents have Google and Amazon enabled totalitarian dictatorships to murder?

Re:*DO* Be Evil

[DRJlaw]

How many thousands of political dissidents have Google and Amazon enabled totalitarian dictatorships to murder?

I don't know, how many have you?

I mean, you've defined "enabling murder" as simply not allowing someone else to run their communications through their computers. Do you allow that?