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Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

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Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#551

Half of a billion in lobbying dollars well spent by FAANG[1] - business as usual continues for facebook despite their decreasing popularity and repeated scandal and failure, from Cambridge Analytica to Libra. Those in my immediate circle have mothballed or closed their accounts, although Instagram seems to have more holding power. 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajdellinger/2019/04/30/how-the-...

> their decreasing popularity FTFY: in the US > repeated scandal and failure At this point what large company hasn't had breaches or cancelled projects? Hell, is your company doing OK in terms of security? Are they hashing passwords correctly? How large is the security team? My company doesn't even hash passwords... At some point you need to stop living in a bubble and recognize that plenty of people, businesses, com…

> At this point what large company hasn't had breaches or cancelled projects?

'Breaches' and 'cancelled projects' aren't the only scandals and failures to come out of Facebook ... just the other day on HN front page was an article (from 2018) where Facebook openly admitted that their platform enabled the Myanmar crisis.

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#552
post #542
post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How large is the security team? More importantly, how big is their whiskey budget? It's not the greatest proxy, but how regularly your security team drinks is a not-terrible way to gauge how much trouble your org is going to be in should something happen.

Is the correlation positive or negative?

As things seem worse, the whiskey budget per person grows.

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, there is credence to the old saying: "One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter". But I really don't think we need to devolve to whataboutism here. We're talking about the actions of people storming the capitol building, to try and say 'yes well X group of people are also terrorists' is a completely moot point and an intentional deflection.

This thread started with you saddened at folks downplaying the events at the Capitol. I'm much more concerned with the media being complicit in downplaying what we both agree is domestic terrorism elsewhere. I suppose that's a "what about", but I fear the current structures of power colluding to form narratives more than angry trumpers.

93% of the BLM protests were peaceful [1] despite protestors numbering in the millions, if not tens of millions - compared to the tens of thousands at the capitol. The most notable violence during the BLM protests was an incident where far right extremists, members of Bugaloo boys group involved in the capitol attack, used the protests as cover to murder cops [2].

To compare the two is disingenuous.

[1] https://acleddata.com/2020/09/03/demonstrations-political-vi...

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/17/boogaloo-st...

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#554
post #45

It's chilling how quickly the tech industry has coalesced around oppressive and biased social media censorship policies. A scant few years ago, the tech industry was a beacon of free expression.

I agree with your use of “chilling” but more in the traditional sense when it comes to expression: that any censorship/bans/etc will likely have a chilling effect on this type of speech. In this case I think “this type of speech” comes down to people expressing their violent fantasies or plans, and I don’t think it’s bad if we have less of that particular kind of speech. As the classic argument goes, however, you can…

I would like to believe you that this would be even handed at all violent talk and extremism, but blm from just months back stands as a major counterpoint.

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#555
post #513
post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think they had an incentive to prevent it? The President was the one encouraging the insurrection!

By explicitly telling people to “be peaceful“?

Maybe be telling people for weeks that the election was a fraud (without providing proof, and presenting "bogus" proof), that he actually had won, and saying the result would not be accepted?

P.S.: I'm not american and never have been to USA.

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#556
post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Far-right terrorism in the US has never really been taken seriously. No one took them seriously. Until the Capitol was attacked. The Feds are starting to roll up high ranking militia members, so hopefully they learned their lesson this time.

Far-right terrorism in the US has never really been taken seriously. No one took them seriously. That's not really true. Far-right terror was taken very seriously in 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing. The FBI hired 500 agents specifically to focus on domestic terrorism [0], particularly the then-new militia movement. Virtually every state and federal law enforcement agency established a domestic terror unit. Throu…

They have not taken this threat seriously. You specifically mentioned militias, but the domestic terror threat is not just militias.

Look at this case for example. He has left many threatening voicemails to congress members over several years, including while under probation, and the FBI just told him to knock it off without arresting him. So he kept doing it. They only finally arrested him after the terrorist attack on the capitol.

>According to the complaint, Capriotti repeatedly called multiple Congressional offices in Washington, D.C., between October 2019 and January 2020 and left “disturbing, anonymous messages” that often included “profanity along with derogatory remarks concerning the race, religion, political affiliation, or physical appearance” of some members of Congress.

>FBI agents located Capriotti and interviewed him last February, according to the complaint, which states that Capriotti admitted making the calls but insisted he was “just f---ing with them” and “didn’t mean any ill will.”

>The agents advised Capriotti to stop making the calls, but phone records showed he continued to do so between February and November 2020. A series of voicemails Capriotti allegedly made to Congressional offices in November and December were then detailed in the complaint.

https://news.wttw.com/2021/01/12/chicago-heights-man-charged...

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2021/1/12/22227466/feds-a...

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#557

Half of a billion in lobbying dollars well spent by FAANG[1] - business as usual continues for facebook despite their decreasing popularity and repeated scandal and failure, from Cambridge Analytica to Libra. Those in my immediate circle have mothballed or closed their accounts, although Instagram seems to have more holding power. 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajdellinger/2019/04/30/how-the-...

> their decreasing popularity FTFY: in the US > repeated scandal and failure At this point what large company hasn't had breaches or cancelled projects? Hell, is your company doing OK in terms of security? Are they hashing passwords correctly? How large is the security team? My company doesn't even hash passwords... At some point you need to stop living in a bubble and recognize that plenty of people, businesses, com…

> My company doesn't even hash passwords...

I understand this is somewhat my privilege speaking here, but I don't think I could continue working at a company that didn't do something as basic as hashing passwords (and refused to prioritize fixing that as soon as I pointed it out). It's a massive ethical, if not legal (IANAL), liability -- and a huge breach of users' trust. It's 2021, hashing user passwords is astonishingly easy; I can't imagine any remotely justifiable excuse for something like that.

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's weird that the discussion has centered around censorship, rather than like... why didn't law enforcement shut this down sooner? Or at least properly prepare for it?

Far-right terrorism in the US has never really been taken seriously. No one took them seriously. Until the Capitol was attacked. The Feds are starting to roll up high ranking militia members, so hopefully they learned their lesson this time.

> The Feds are starting to roll up high ranking militia members, so hopefully they learned their lesson this time.

Here’s a post that basically says that. I think someone posted it here.

https://arcdigital.media/qanon-woke-up-the-real-deep-state-7...

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#559
post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been plenty of extremely well organised, sophisticated and technically competent terrorists. The IRA, the Red Amy Faction, the PLO and Black September, Al Qaeda. Aside from 9/11 none of them have operated successfully in the US and your domestic terrorism has mainly been perpetrated by individuals or very small one off groups of just 2 or 3.

It's worth noting the Weather Underground were well organized and sophisticated terrorists, although they were admittedly a lot less violent and long-lasting than the listed groups.

They are still active, just not violent.

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#560
post #513
post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think they had an incentive to prevent it? The President was the one encouraging the insurrection!

By explicitly telling people to “be peaceful“?

Blurting out the words "be peaceful" during a half hour word salad about the evil Democrats stealing an election isn't "explicit", it's a pathetic attempt at doublespeak and plausible deniability.

It's not fooling anyone but the brain dead and comatose.

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