I mean... do you expect the results of these calls to be... good?
'Cause like, if your standards for the outcome of these calls aren't too high, then just go down to the nearest bar and buy some half-drunk guy another round to make the call for you.
On the bright side, you probably won't be obligated to call that person again!
All fines should be at least as much as was profited from the crime.
No no.
All revenue from the crime should be forfeit, and redistributed to the victims. This is not the penalty for the crime, it's just restitution.
Then a fine of some amount should be paid, as the actual penalty for the crime.
Sure, then you get outbid by another contractor who is willing to cut corners.
Basically, giving something away for free that would normally have a cost is a market manipulation tactic. Epic does this as a means to draw customers away from their competition, primarily Valve, thereby reinforcing their position in the capitalist market.
Hey, would you like to buy some dehydrated water?
Easily produce your own water whenever you need it!
To make 1 liter of water, just add 1 liter of water!
Oh, I don't know, putting labels on things can be very effective for general public awareness. Plenty of people using Instagram never think about these kinds of things, it's just not part of their normal concerns. The notifications might be an annoyance, but they will also start a lot of conversations between people that would not have happened otherwise, conversations that will turn into "wait, why do we let this company do this kind of thing at all?" and "hmm, if they do stuff like this, do I really need Instagram?"
Uyghurs in China are being rounded up and forced into labor camps
I think this set of photos of one of the camps in Xinjiang is particularly illustrative:
This isn't some short-term persecution for the sake of political influence, it's not the whim of a few local officials, and it's not just basic racism. This is a systemic problem, not just with the government but with Chinese culture broadly. Uyghurs are seen as inferior, and therefore it is acceptable to use them as labor or worse. What's being done to these people is akin to the African slave trade of the 1800s, it's just being done mostly within China's borders. It is exploitation at an industrial scale plotted by the highest levels of political power and executed ruthlessly.
To change this would require forcing large portions of the Chinese population to see the Uyghurs as equals, as fellow humans with a right to self-determination, and then act on that conviction to change the government.
With China being a nuclear country, military intervention is out of the question.
Yeah, pretty much. Even a non-nuclear conflict at any level that would affect regime change would be devastating.
So the only option left is political
Even if the entirety of the UN got together and unanimously condemned the PRC for the treatment of Uyghurs, I doubt they would care. China is about as likely to change domestic policy based on external political pressure as they are to collectively tap-dance to the moon.
and economical pressure and sanctions.
Effective economic pressure requires a position of economic superiority. China is the second largest economy in the world, which means they are inextricably intertwined with the largest economy (the US) and so nobody has that position.
Long term, I believe we can get our balls out of their death grip, and then sanction them properly.
I doubt it. The situation is not just a death grip... China is the second largest economy in the world. In order to effectively sanction another nation you have to be in a position of economic superiority, such that you can affect the trading decisions of other nations. Even if western nations could extricate their manufacturing needs from China, they would still be dependent on raw materials trade. There just isn't a way to cut trading ties with China, short of a broad collapse of international trade... and then, well, a lot of people die.
If there are still any Uyghurs left by then…
This is the part that feels so wrong. Choosing to not do anything about this terrible thing that we know is happening seems self-interested. I feel that at some point in the future the descendants of the Uyghurs will look at the world and ask, "Why didn't you do anything to help us?", and what could be our answer then?
But... doing something in practice would mean so many deaths, and so much suffering before the conflict was resolved, and more suffering after while trying to pick up the pieces.
I disagree... beyond just saying shit, the actual biggest problem is that no one (west, east, whatever) can do shit because that would basically require direct military intervention... which would probably have a much higher human cost.
At what point is the cost of negligence too high? At what point is it ethically valid to commit the lives of troops from your country to change the behavior of a government of another country within its own borders?
Historically, the answer is never. No country will commit its own military in this way without an initial military provocation, except when using the human rights abuses as a pretext for territorial acquisition.
It's still important to talk about the truth of these atrocities, to not let their perpetrators pretend they're not happening. But... the reality of this will not change without regime change in the PRC.
The underfunded, understaffed, outsourced to death IT department, fuck yeah it has. Believe it or not, if you actually invest some resources in cyber defense instead of cutting it because it doesn't make profit, you get some functional cyber defense.
It's not impossible to do this stuff right, there are plenty of companies that do. It is impossible to do it on a shoestring budget with 3 staff to cover a 5,000 employee multinational.
If cybersecurity has outgrown your IT department, the CFO is the most likely problem.