Your QR code scanner showns you the URL before you choose to open it, right? So I don’t really get the comparison to short URLs. As with any normal link, you get to see the link before you choose to “click” the QR code after you scan it.

Nice crop to hide the fact these are rows 11,12,13… not 1,2,3 and there are probably in fact numbers above so that it does sum up to 15.

I don’t like AI but this is fake

Everyone is suggesting Immich, which is the answer if you want to self-host. But you say you are not very tech savvy, so you might want a service you don’t need to self-host, and in that case take a look at Ente Photos.

You get end to end encrypted photos and don’t need to do anything. They have guides on how to move your photos from Google Photos as well.

Ente can also be self-hosted, so you can compare what you like more.

On your first experience that sounds like an extreme reaction by any chance do you remember what you said specifically?

It was many years ago now, but your explanation of the firewall makes much sense to me. Not sure why wouldn’t they just said something similar.

Also it’s CPC not CCP. CCP is the acronym pushed by the US

I knew both acronyms are in use, but good to know CPC is preferred, I will keep that in mind.

On your closing paragraph I think 3 anecdotes really doesn’t give a good view of a society of 1.4 billion people

I completely agree, but I assume any media is biased, so it’s hard to know what to trust without ultimately only relying on personal experiences, even if these are obviously not representative.

Thank you for the response, I appreciate the time.

I didn’t join Lemmy for politics so I usually read these discussions from the sidelines, but there are some points that maybe you guys can help me with.

As someone against US’s imperialism and capitalism, I seem to be a prime candidate to support the Chinese worldviews, but it’s really difficult for me to get past my concerns. First of all I always see these rebuttals to criticism about China that compare it to the US or say that “westerners” are in no position to criticise. Which from my Eastern European point of view is just annoying because I’m far more critical of these anyway and the whataboutism doesn’t actually address anything.

I had 3 “personal experiences” with Chinese people. One back when I was at university and was studying with a Chinese exchange student. We were talking about university stuff for days being all buddies, when I was helping him with some app not working on his phone, which turned out to be due to the lack of Google services. Being relevant to the topic, I asked about the Chinese firewall. I expected anything between “It’s not a problem, we use Chinese services anyway”, or “It’s not a problem, it’s easy to work around”, or “I think it’s good, it protects against X and Y” or even “I prefer not to talk about it”. But instead he looked at me as if I just insulted his grandma, left, and never interacted with me again.

A few years later I was talking with a Chinese acquietance at a bar, there were some local political news on the TV and he cracked a joke about the politician shown, I joked back about the CCP. He looked insulted and stopped talking to me. Come on you started and it’s all in good heart… Maybe these 2 people were just weirdos and not representative, but that’s my experience.

Then there was a Chinese person making science videos online, posted on BiliBili and YouTube that I watched for a long time. One time they made a different video about how they are disillusioned about life in China and it was critical of some aspects of Chinese politics. After years of making content, it was their last video and all their social media were deleted shortly after. I’m not saying it’s government intervention, maybe they did want to just randomly stop making content without saying a word, everything is possible.

But all these experiences tell me Chinese society is not accepting of even apparent criticism, which does not look like a free society to me. Someone else under this post says all criticism, even if constructive and in good faith, serves western propaganda interests. Which… Sure I don’t disagree, but how can anyone buy in to an idea if they are not allowed to question it? I personally never got into these communities because I know I’m more likely to be accused of being US-paid bot or whatever than to get a good faith answer to my questions.

I don’t know where I’m going with this. I guess I’m just telling you lot that you could be more approachable because I think you are pushing back on would-be allies.

And Facebook Messenger and Gmail Chat (or whatever it was called)! There was a glorious period of time where you could talk to pretty much anyone on any service from one chat app.