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The FBI was the primary link between the intelligence community and Twitter

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Re: The FBI was the primary link between the intelligence community and Twitter

#21

Post by machina_ex_deus »

If you don't see anything wrong with the government forcing censorship on controversial political questions, such as whether elections are safe and fair, just imagine your own reaction if after the 2016 election, Trump's FBI would be monitoring Twitter for any information about Cambridge Analytica / Russia's interference, labeling them as misinformation and censoring and banning everyone mentioning them.

If your values only apply when they fit your wanted outcome, they aren't values they are pathetic excuses.

By the way, this opens the door to all the other agencies of the world outside US to demand same kind of access. Including European. Maybe China wants it too.

And for the record, I think Elon banning Elon Jet and journalists is wrong too. But there are too many people who only care about the censorship when it hurts them, and cheer for it when it suits them.

Re: The FBI was the primary link between the intelligence community and Twitter

#22

Post by themagician »

monsecchris wrote: post #13

The people trying to minimise every intelligence agency working with every tech company on behalf of the Democratic Party are the same people calling this a dangerous far right conspiracy theory not long ago.

Not really. What are the intelligence agencies supposed to do if not exactly what is being “revealed”? Are they not allowed to talk to private companies or citizens?

If it was being revealed that they were making demands and forcing companies to do things that would be a serious issue. Instead they are asking, nicely, and even paying them for their time and work.

Re: The FBI was the primary link between the intelligence community and Twitter

#23

Post by petesergeant »

mef wrote: post #9

I’ve been trying to read these Twitter files threads thoughtfully, and maybe it’s just a sign of the current average level of comfort with government involvement with social media platforms, but I’m generally not seeing much issue with the stuff being revealed. the worst thing about this particular thread seems like the govt agencies talking to Twitter about foreign influence are overreaching a bit (eg asking them to…

> I’ve been trying to read these Twitter files threads thoughtfully

I stopped after the first one. If there’s any meat to be found then the last vestiges of respectable right-wing media will amplify it. Until the WSJ posts anything more than “This Is Sort Of Bad! But We Already Reported It In Full Last Year!” then there’s no point subjecting yourself to it.

Re: The FBI was the primary link between the intelligence community and Twitter

#24

Post by joshmn »

cyberphobe wrote: post #16
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #11

We're seriously still doing this? https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/12/the-core-argume...

Yes, this website full of brain dead right wingers.

I’m not sure brain-dead is accurate because that would mean unwittingness.

Re: The FBI was the primary link between the intelligence community and Twitter

#25

Post by rc_subreme »

Americans are living in a world with a land war in Europe with an old foe on one side, and the increasing pressure exerted on Asian trade and policy partners by a Pacific rim empire we've not seen eye to eye with in the past 100 years.

I'd like to see more effort expended on spying and undermining our rivals than ourselves. But such large diplomatic/economic/(hopefully cold)military projects require long term thinking we're poor at. Its so much easier to just fight the latest culture war against domestic weirdos and malcontents.

Every time we have one of these internal thought-purity checks, it sows discord in an already discordant country made of too many different races religions and regional cultures to ever work if we're going to try and weaponize our own governmental security apparatus against each other, vying for control on the airwaves and at the polls, just so we can stick it to our domestic rivals for a few years.

The cowboy and the indian are both Americans.

Re: The FBI was the primary link between the intelligence community and Twitter

#26

Post by akira2501 »

mef wrote: post #9

I’ve been trying to read these Twitter files threads thoughtfully, and maybe it’s just a sign of the current average level of comfort with government involvement with social media platforms, but I’m generally not seeing much issue with the stuff being revealed. the worst thing about this particular thread seems like the govt agencies talking to Twitter about foreign influence are overreaching a bit (eg asking them to…

The Hunter Biden laptop story was real. The FBI knew it was real. The FBI lied to corporations like Twitter to stop accounts from legitimate publications from reporting on it right before an election where it certainly could have impacted the outcome.

Twitter went even further and prevented people from exchanging the story with each other in DMs.

I honestly don't see how you could be comfortable with this, unless you're willing to disregard their actions because they happen to protect the party you agree with at the moment; or because you're presuming that the FBI would never use this relationship to operate in bad faith.

Twitter didn't go to the FBI to ask for verification, the FBI on their own accord decided to take their "intelligence" to Twitter for action that they desired. This is obviously backwards.

If Twitter wants to call up the FBI for verification or for information on a particular subject, tweet, or account because they wanted to investigate.. that would obviously be fine. That is clearly not what is happening here.

Re: The FBI was the primary link between the intelligence community and Twitter

#27

Post by asynchronous »

cyberphobe wrote: post #15
mef wrote: post #9

I’ve been trying to read these Twitter files threads thoughtfully, and maybe it’s just a sign of the current average level of comfort with government involvement with social media platforms, but I’m generally not seeing much issue with the stuff being revealed. the worst thing about this particular thread seems like the govt agencies talking to Twitter about foreign influence are overreaching a bit (eg asking them to…

Yeah, these people are just desperately trying to generate outrage over nothing. It’s really really dumb. No need to give them too much thought

[flagged]

Re: The FBI was the primary link between the intelligence community and Twitter

#28

Post by tosc »

epivosism wrote: post #17

I think it's pretty reasonable to worry about a system of punishment (depriving someone of the right to use a communication platform) administered by the government, which doesn't obey the normal rules of justice: 1) right to see evidence 2) right to confront your accuser 3) right to judgement by a jury of your peers. OFC there is a role for private info and possibly preventing malicious, foreign government manipulat…

So every troll and bot farm should be able to have each tweet judged by a jury?

Re: The FBI was the primary link between the intelligence community and Twitter

#29

Post by froggertoaster »

You can downplay this all you want - but remember: stuff like this is a microcosm of a larger issue.

Sections of your government worked directly with Twitter to control what information you saw.

Much bigger organizations - Facebook comes to mind - must be doing the same thing every.single.day. And no one finds this even a little bit alarming?

Re: The FBI was the primary link between the intelligence community and Twitter

#30

Post by potatototoo99 »

themagician wrote: post #12
martythemaniak wrote: post #6

It's like the boy who cried wolf, except the wolf never comes. But we should keep an open mind, perhaps part 27 will be the bombshell.

BREAKING: tech companies usually cooperate with law enforcement and government when requested. Data shows they are more than 100 times more likely to continue to respond to requests when paid.

I think the important thing here is the lack of judicial oversight. There used to be needed a court order to request things from companies, so someone would actually weight in the evidence and legality of it.

Now it's just someone from a secret agency shutting down news stories about laptops because it makes one political candidate look bad.

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