If you go back and read my comment, you will see that I referenced the stop and frisk program that has been on again and off again in New York City and other parts of the United States. Where strangers with weapons and a history of violence can stop anyone on the street and search them, for no good reason at all. Phone searches do also happen here, especially during traffic stops or when the police are harassing protesters or the media. But nearly everything we do on our phones in the US is already heavily surveilled, so most folks I know already behave as if their phone is a snitch

The unconstitutional and bone chilling stop and frisk program is apparently another authoritarian idea exported to the rest of the world, if what they are saying about China is true. It takes very little leap to go from what the thugs with badges do here, to the claim that is made about what China is doing.