The march was supposed to end at the US consulate. But about 3pm NSW police sent out a mass text message to phones throughout the city ordering the pro-Palestine march to stop due to safety concerns, with authorities turning protesters around at the north end.
Uh huh, “safety concerns”. And what, the cops can just broadcast to people’s phones? Oz is such a nanny state.
Messages sent to all phones in contact with specific towers is not only technologically trivial (for the operator if the cell tower), but also commonly used as part of emergency alert systems all over the world. It doesn’t violate privacy rights, so I don’t really see an issue with the method of alerting.
And avoiding crowd crush is a valid concern if a demonstration turns out 6 times larger than expected (organisers claim 300k+ people, when 50k were expected).
Uh huh, “safety concerns”. And what, the cops can just broadcast to people’s phones? Oz is such a nanny state.
Messages sent to all phones in contact with specific towers is not only technologically trivial (for the operator if the cell tower), but also commonly used as part of emergency alert systems all over the world. It doesn’t violate privacy rights, so I don’t really see an issue with the method of alerting.
And avoiding crowd crush is a valid concern if a demonstration turns out 6 times larger than expected (organisers claim 300k+ people, when 50k were expected).
I see this as an absolute win.
Americans have no ground to stand on, shove off.
It’s not a contest