Two weeks ahead of China’s 20th communist party congress, censors seem to be blocking TLS-based circumvention tools that locals use to bypass the Great Firewall (TechCrunch)

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:
A look at Iranian activists’ fight for internet access amid the regime’s crackdowns, including using Tor servers inside Iran to bypass internet blockades  —  Activists in Iran are working with outsiders to fight the regime’s censorship  —  As protesters flooded the streets of Iran in September …

Coco Liu / Bloomberg:
Study: Chinese netizens are permitted to air environmental concerns and criticize polluters on social media, resulting in lower emissions from some factories  —  In spite of China’s intensifying crackdown on political dissent, residents still have plenty of leeway to air their environmental concerns …

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Fortinet confirms a critical remote authentication bypass vulnerability in FortiOS, FortiProxy, and FortiSwitchManager is being exploited; a patch is available  —  Fortinet has confirmed today that a critical authentication bypass security vulnerability patched last week is being exploited in the wild.

Financial Times:
Chinese internet censors suspend thousands of WeChat accounts and remove posts after a rare protest in central Beijing against “dictator and traitor Xi Jinping”  —  Banners hung from bridge call for leader’s removal ahead of Communist party congress

Wall Street Journal:
Chinese protestors are holding up blank pieces of paper as a protest against censorship, leading platforms and censors to quickly remove the images  —  Protesters are using few or no words in public and online demonstrations to speak out against Beijing’s zero-Covid policies

Washington Post:
With Republicans poised to take over the House in 2023, a look at the prospects of the bipartisan American Data Privacy and Protection Act in a divided Congress  —  With Republicans poised to take over the House next year, a divided Congress looms.  The result could be two years of partisan strife and gridlock.