You are missing my argument completely. What I'm saying is that yes, Tolkien may have envisioned Middle Earth as proto-European fantasy, but when you're arguing for "historical accuracy", you can't pick and choose. You're arguing about skin color as if a) no people of color lived in Europe at the time, and b) you're completely avoiding touching on the origin of Tolkien's evil races and nations, and in particular orcs. If hobbits, men, and elves need to be white, then orcs necessarily need to be black and brown people, no? They need to be uncivilised brutes who only want to destroy with no mind of their own? That is a simplified depiction of Tolkien's works, but do you think that those prejudices hold, or that they should be depicted in modern media? If yes, then you are a bigot and a racist, and if no, it's WEIRD how the inclusion of people of color is where you're putting your foot down.
PS: read "you" as in the collective you, not you specifically.
When you say European, except for the fact that Tolkien wrote the story, what part of the show thus far has given you an explicit European feel? Did the Harfoots resemble British subjects, or do the race of men have to be from the European continent because of their skin color? Which city did Lindon look like? If we're already in a fantasy setting, why is there such a focus on relating the setting of the fantasy to our own European history, rather than telling a good fantasy story. Can you not relate to the story if it isn't explicitly describing a historically accurate proto-Europe?
If the argument is that Middle Earth should reflect a proto-European history, should we just accept that everyone from the east are pictured as orcs; mindless, ugly, uncivilized brutes? Is everyone from Africa part of the Haradrim or the Easterlings? The comparison to a proto-Europe only works as long as you wilfully neglect the horribly racist parts of the comparison. Or are you okay with those parts too? If the addition of a black Harfoot, black elves, or Durin's wife being black is your critique of the show, then you should reflect on why you feel that way and why you're able to so easily excuse the clear racism in favor of defending "authenticity".
It's legit WILD to read some of the remarks about the show on reddit and IMDb. It's horribly racist rhetoric disguised as a defence of authenticity and staying true to Tolkien's work. If portraying the racist parts of Tolkien's work is * that * important, maybe we shouldn't make media based upon it?
What does Apple even do in this situation? That media won't match known CSAM, but if you modify childhood images so that its hash matches CSAM, what does Apple do. There are just SO MANY things that can and will go wrong as people try to exploit this system.
Jup. As others have pointed out, if Apple were willing to lie about the extent of this system and its inception date, why should we suddenly trust that they won't extend its functionality. They themselves explicitly state that the program will be extended, so if this is the starting point I don't think I will be around for the ride.
It's a shame as I really love some of their privacy-minded features (e.g. precision of access to the phone's sensors and/or media).
Well that depends on the situation. Regardless the sender would be charged if found, but if they were able to get legitimate CSAM on the receiver's phone the receiver could possibly be charged too, or at least investigated. Just the idea of getting investigated in these kinds of attacks, much less being exposed publicly as being under investigation is a horrible thought.
Yeh I was talking in hyperbole, but the possible attack vectors this system enables are so powerful I felt it warranted. Under this system you are able to artificially ddos organizations that verify if CP is sent by sending legitimate, low-res porn whose hash has been modified. You can trigger legitimate investigations by sending CSAM through WhatsApp or through social engineering. You can also fuck with Apple by sending obvious spam.
* With regard to the legislative branch, they can even mandate changes to this system they aren't allowed to disclose. Once this system is in place, what is stopping governments from forcing other sets of hashes for matching.
The sender would of course be charged with wasting police efforts, defamation attempts+++. In the case of false positives the receiver of course wouldn't be charged, it's more about the fact that this system can be manipulated with too much ease. Even if you're not charged, an investigation takes time away from already limited law enforcement resources. I'm also not interested in buying products from a company that blatantly spies on me. Today it's CSAM, but as others have pointed out, the hashes can be changed to look for anything.
Lending your phone to someone for a call, then a quick airdrop. Legitimate-looking emails with buttons. There's probably a list somewhere of proven attack vectors.
I meant * could *. My point is that social engineering is a clear weak link in this system. They can also be sent regular photos whose hash matches the database, or use this repo to transform a regular pornographic photo's hash, making it hard for manual confirmation on Apple's part.
This is the really scary part. Of course getting someone to download blobs that corrolate to CSAM would be one thing, but downloading regular photos that have nefarious hashes is a trend /pol/ could start in an afternoon.
Also as dannyw pointed out, you don't even have to send CSAM to trigger the system. If they found you you would still be charged, but not with possession of CSAM.
Most people wouldn't of course. In this scenario you'd get someone to download the CSAM unknowingly. If they have iCloud sync it automatically uploads to iCloud, thereby triggering the system. At that point the authorities will be alerted by Apple, and you can inform media outlets. They in turn will ask law enforcement who will confirm the investigation, and the reputation of the person investigated will be tarnished.
Somehow this didn't solidify my trust in Apple! By this standard you can probably mount a half decent defence off "ignorance" if you are even caught sending the colliding material. Add this whole debacle on top of what's going on in the EU parliament and 2021 has been WILD for privacy.
This is just getting wilder and wilder by the day, how spectacularly this move has backfired. As others have commented, at this point all you need is someone willing to sell you the CSAM hashes on the darknet, and this system is transparently broken.
Until that day, just send known CSAM to any person you'd like to get in trouble (make sure they have icloud sync enabled), be it your neighbour or a political figure, and start a PR campaign accusing the person of being investigated for it. The whole concept is so inherently flawed it's crazy they haven't been sued yet.