It breaks my heart to see these stories.

When I first started studying censorship circumvention, it was often Indian hackers who wanted to practice their English who would learn about VPNs and things to try to pirate movies (alongside closed caption srt files) to improve their English.

Before I drop an emo wall of text, here's the meat:

One hack you can do is get a magnet link[0] and/or SRT file via the VPN or Tor. Then, you go somewhere you know has fast wifi, pay for a drink it makes sense to drink slowly-ish (15--50 minutes), and download your files in the clear to a machine not logged into any social media then immediately get on a bus or tuk tuk, pretend you're getting a water or something, then get back on something in the opposite direction to ditch any lazy tails.

To clear: this works once or twice, eventually they may come drag you out of the café you're shitposting from - it has happened to me and it might happen to you.

I was lucky to live in a republic, so aside from wound to my pride and my body, I'm still alive and posting.

(I'm actually at the same damn cafe, waiting on a meeting, because I'm THAT autistic -- I'll look you in the eye, tell you what I'm going to do, do it as my Twitter block list blows their brains out one by one[1], and post harder every damn time I wake up annoyed about fascist bullshit.)

Because in real life, in America at least, being a "hacktivist" isn't anything like "Swordfish"[2-NSFW]

You sit in the corner of a basement bar in the Midwest, pounding brown liquor because despite being one of the most powerful hackers in the world, because folks who met you as a child refuse to hire you for anything that would take you out of precarity, then try to label you as a sped or a spy when you stick up for others who feel that way because they're all overwhelmingly folks being exploited while here on a visa, despite actually trying to do their schoolwork[3].

(Meanwhile, over in the education department, they were handing out bullshit doctorates to friends of the PRC left AND right to the few who didn't cheat on the TOEFL[4].)

Anyways, there I go, mansplaining technology policy again.

To swing it back to the topic at hand:

VPNs are cool and good. You can use them to just get a magnet link and srt file, then pick someplace you don't need to sign into the wifi that's FAST to get what you need in the time it takes to finish a cappichino with a cutesy little heart in it.

Anyways, there I go, mainsplainin' technology policy again despite never even having done an entire PhD -- sorry for forgetting to get an opt in :-)

Indian VPN policy is terrible as are the chilling effects it will have on what some used to term "civil society", if such a thing exists[4], especially since India used to be a contrast the cyberpunk hellscape that is China. (What are ya gonna do, make the entire country into Xinjiang[5]? They'll have another cultural revolution, or several constructed in parallel, if you keep that behavior up!)

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to definitely not violate the Logan Act like I promised that drunken Canadian[5].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_URI_scheme

[1] What part of "I don't want to give any more money to abusers, get with the program or get in the ground with Jeffrey Epstein" was unclear? Be specific! https://www.vice.com/en/article/nzg4yw/fuck-you-and-die-an-o... and https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7dmqb/richard-lowtax-kyanka...

[2] NSFW: "Swordfish - breaking code in 60" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atbjI_BIMXc

[3] Here's a good longread, start at the beginning but 3 is the best one https://magazine.atavist.com/he-always-had-a-dark-side/

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_Police_Files

[5] Spoiler alert: not gonna marry my way out of my home county due to literal jack booted thugs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Act