Are the UK and China Authoritarian? (programming.dev)

submitted 1 day ago by CoderSupreme@programming.dev to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I've often heard that China is authoritarian, particularly due to events like the suppression of student protests in Hong Kong. However, I'm curious about more recent examples. Conversely, I've been hearing about the UK's Online Safety Act being used to target Wikipedia editors and silence protests, which raises questions about authoritarian tendencies there as well. What specific examples do you have that demonstrate whether these countries are authoritarian or not?

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[-] CoderSupreme@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

And of course you send me the article from a paper that's the mouthpiece of some US billionaire. Would you take it seriously if a chinese paper said the US 'secret police' is disappearing people? They are going to paint the worse possible picture since they are rivals.

[-] arcterus@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It takes 0 effort to find other sources if you actually try to look this sort of stuff up. I feel like you've basically decided the answer and are just looking for people to validate your opinion.

[-] CoderSupreme@programming.dev 6 points 1 day ago

I may have my mind made up, but I could change it if people said something more easily verified, like the kind of police brutality that happens in US, instead of people disappearing like the chinese has ufos contracted, that just sounds like conspiracy theories made up by the americans.

[-] arcterus@piefed.blahaj.zone -2 points 1 day ago

I find it sort of amusing that your example for the UK is the Online Safety Act given that China has the GFW. Like, I find the Online Safety Act problematic (along with a number of other things the UK has done), but the scale is barely even comparable lol.

[-] CoderSupreme@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago

This is the kind of thing I'm looking for, not ufos disappearing people.

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this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025

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