Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 491 posts

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

#81

Post by cyberphobe »

petesergeant wrote: post #23
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.

[flagged]

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

#82

Post by epivosism »

tosc wrote: post #28
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?

Definitely not.

I'm more looking for a gesture towards respecting our values, and a more open negotiation process for developing safe use for this kind of powerful control system. The fact that the administrators of the process on the twitter side were quite polarized politically makes people doubt its fairness, as does the fact that it was mostly done in secret.

i.e. it was more of a China-style "the state doesn't like you and bad things will happen to you and your family" style of punishment where you don't know what has actually happened (limitation of tweet reach, weird glitches in your tweet's spread with no acknowledgement) than a clear "you are charged with X and have received this penalty Y for time Z."

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

#83

Post by dragonwriter »

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

Being the primary domestic component of the intelligence community is overtly part of the FBI role, so that would be expected to be true with any domestic actor in the place of “Twitter”.

Similarly, “major international public and private communication platform with a history of being used to recruit and organize insurrections and other acts of violence, execute international influence operations, single out targets for violent reprisals, etc., attracts lots of attention from intelligence, counterintelligence, and law enforcement agencies, of which the FBI is the lead federal domestic agency for all three purposes” is... not surprising.

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

#84

Post by complex_exp »

smitty1e wrote: post #31
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…

We pay fat piles of taxes for the government to secure liberty. The idea that that government is "managing" that liberty is Constitutionally murky. The "private property" fig leaf is scant comfort.

Uh, no, private property is subjogated to national interest. Personal freedom is subjogated to national interest (you may be conscripted). In all countries. The only way for things not to fall into a terrible state of affairs (like in Russia or Iran) is for the civil society to perform political acts, like engage in honest journalism, activism and critical thinking. And even then freedom and security are not guaranteed.

Thinking that you can be a free-from-all libertarian is like being a house cat that does not comprehend the system that keeps him alive. It is only because the system works that you can enjoy personal freedoms.

Russians have fully outsourced their both internal politics (resulting in for example the absolutely atrocious state of the courts of law) and foreign politics (mobilization! yay, go die in a trench!) to the tzar and look how that turned out. They also paid taxes and generally speaking accepted the offered social contract, but didn't monitor the situation and react to transgressions.

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

#85

Post by [deleted] »

phphphphp wrote: post #58
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.

If any party was responsible for this FBI behaviour, surely it would be the party that was in power at the time? The Republican party were in control in 2020.

[deleted]

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

#86

Post by phphphphp »

slenocchio wrote: post #75
phphphphp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If any party was responsible for this FBI behaviour, surely it would be the party that was in power at the time? The Republican party were in control in 2020.

Not necessarily. The FBI doesn't change much from administration to administration, no?

Donald Trump famously had huge influence over the FBI (and more broadly, the justice department). He fired James Comey because he did not achieve Trump's desired political aims: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismissal_of_James_Comey

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

#87

Post by hotpotamus »

phphphphp wrote: post #58
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.

If any party was responsible for this FBI behaviour, surely it would be the party that was in power at the time? The Republican party were in control in 2020.

Not to mention the only party from which FBI directors have ever been appointed. It is not a culturally liberal/progressive federal agency in the slightest.

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

#88

Post by marcosdumay »

elurg wrote: post #47
themagician wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The distinction between the government "asking nicely" and "making demands" is not strong enough. In theory could Twitter could have resisted but the costs would have been quite high. The government should be prohibited from making such requests. It's also apparent that regarding the Hunter Biden story the FBI outright lied in order to make web platforms censor the story.

> The distinction between the government "asking nicely" and "making demands" is not strong enough.

A democratic government is usually forbiden fron "asking nicely". So the difference is that one of those exists, the other doesn't.

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

#89

Post by cyberphobe »

machina_ex_deus wrote: post #21

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 valu…

I’m fine with the government shutting down anti-democratic movements. I’m not fine with anti-democratic governments shutting down legitimate discussion that looks bad on them, or serving a foreign power. These are not the same thing.

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

#90

Post by asynchronous »

cyberphobe wrote: post #81
petesergeant wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

[flagged]

[flagged]
Post reply on HN