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Zuckerberg's Increasingly Bizarre War on Whistleblowers

Hacker News · Jun 27, 2026, 2:38 PM

Key takeaways

  • Lukashenka's secret police still called the KGB routinely terrorize and kidnap pro-democracy activists, and all forms of protest are banned.
  • One of these flash mobs was an ice cream social: activists converged on a public square to eat ice cream cones.
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20070609164305/http://pics.livejournal.com/litota_/gallery/0000bcch

More than a decade ago, a group of young, internet-connected Belarusian dissidents launched a series of increasingly high-stakes, increasingly surreal confrontations with the corrupt, authoritarian government of Alexander Lukashenka, a man who is often called "the last Soviet dictator."

Lukashenka's secret police still called the KGB routinely terrorize and kidnap pro-democracy activists, and all forms of protest are banned. It was against the backdrop of this unrelenting oppression that the activists launched a series of whimsical "flash mobs" that challenged the Lukashenka regime's willingness to crack down on even the most innocuous behavior.

One of these flash mobs was an ice cream social: activists converged on a public square to eat ice cream cones. Lukashenka's thugs beat them and dragged them away:

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