| Hi, this is Vlad in Tokyo. My experience of the George Floyd protests for racial justice in the U.S.—like much in the Covid-19 era—has been remote. Half a planet away in Asia, I've been unable to take my eyes off a stream of news about the chaos on the streets of the world's preeminent military power. From here, though, it's hard not to see some parallels between U.S. unrest and the yearlong protests happening closer to me, in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy activists fear an erosion of their freedoms under Chinese rule. During the Hong Kong protests that started last year, people have taken great pains to guard their identities from quickly advancing facial recognition technology, using anonymous apps and covering their faces. Masks have the dual purpose of both thwarting surveillance cameras and keeping tear gas at bay. The government's response was to ban face coverings at protests so that the people it perceived as wrongdoers could be identified. A Hong Kong court voided the ban, but it still stands for unauthorized gatherings, despite the spread of the coronavirus. There are similarities in the way U.S. protesters behave. Besides frequently wearing masks, a number of activists have urged fellow social media users to refrain from sharing photos or video of protesters' faces. Someone has even developed a tool for scrubbing out metadata from images and blurring identifiable features. Frequently-shared tips for U.S. activists advise people to turn off geo-location and Face ID on their phones, keep it in a signal-blocking bag, or use a burner if possible. In both places, social media has proved to be a powerful catalyst for public outrage. The prime example, of course, is the spread of cellphone camera footage of George Floyd repeatedly pleading "I can't breathe," viewed countless times. Hong Kong protesters have similarly used social tools to try to galvanize global support. But social media use goes both ways. Misinformation and context-less videos can spread quickly. One particularly grisly example over the weekend was the video clip of a man being beaten by protesters in Dallas, ostensibly for trying to defend his store. However, the full video showed that his method of defense was to charge at the crowd, swinging a sword. Another man, interviewed by a local Fox affiliate, claimed he was beaten by two African-Americans merely for saying, "All lives matter." Later, video seemed to show that he'd been wielding a large knife and aiming a bow and arrow before incurring his facial injuries at the hands of Caucasian protesters. Thanks to new tech, it's now easier than ever to get a glimpse into protest mechanics. There's more footage of police brutality, protest scenes and even an electronic record of the real-time evolution of diplomatic propaganda. Chinese officials have recently seized on U.S. unrest to fire back at American criticism of new national security rules in Hong Kong. On Monday, after a State Department official called out China for the new rules, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman responded: "I can't breathe." —Vlad Savov | 
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