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

171–180 of 491 posts

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

#171

Post by chitowneats »

dragonwriter wrote: post #83

> 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 act…

Are they supposed to be helping the CIA get around their mandate not to interfere domestically?

https://nitter.moomoo.me/mtaibbi/status/1606701405443874816#...

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

#172

Post by beej71 »

pannSun wrote: post #112
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…

Did you miss [1]? The US govt. used its influence over Twitter to help sell its foreign policy (military interventions included) to the US and global audience. The only way you could not take issue with it, is if you're fine with govt. psyops/undisclosed propaganda. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34111071

I'm struggling to understand what punishment needs to be handed out, here. The government asked Twitter to keep some of their fake propaganda accounts online and Twitter did. What laws have been violated?

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

#173

Post by [deleted] »

whatsu wrote: post #94
froggertoaster wrote: post #29

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?

It is true that governments have always had an influence on how we live our lives, whether through traditional media like newspapers and television, or more modern platforms like social media. This is not a new phenomenon, but rather something that has always existed in society. However, with the proliferation of the internet and social media, it has become easier for governments to monitor and regulate online conten…

[deleted]

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

#174

Post by colpabar »

robert_foss wrote: post #123
pannSun wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you miss [1]? The US govt. used its influence over Twitter to help sell its foreign policy (military interventions included) to the US and global audience. The only way you could not take issue with it, is if you're fine with govt. psyops/undisclosed propaganda. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34111071

It used to be CIA and TV. Nothing new under the sun.

I really don't get this response. Cops treating black people horribly is also "nothing new under the sun". Does that make it ok? Has everyone just given up on the idea of reigning in these federal agencies?

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

#175

Post by acdha »

SyzygistSix wrote: post #158
stefan_ wrote: post #5

Can't wait for Matt to hit the motherlode: Elon banning journalists out of personal spite, making a poll to unban them but underhandedly demanding they delete their (never rule-breaking) tweets. Just a few more searches and he will hit it for sure! Unless his handlers demand he ignore that, of course.

What on earth happened to Matt Tiabbi and Glenn Greenwald? Does a certain amount of exposure to news and conspiracy break people at a certain point? I occasionally worry that they didn't change but that I did.

I think it’s a combination of never having been as good as we might’ve liked (Taibbi’s stories from when he was working for The eXile suggest where this came from) and valuing being contrary to the establishment more than being right (Matt Yglesias is another good example of that). That can give them a big hit when the establishment is wrong (Iraq, whether bankers should be punished in 2008) but it sets them up for failure when it’s not (Trump), and since they have made their careers on that it’s extra hard to reconsider since that means acknowledging that their defining instinct led them astray.

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

#176

Post by retinaros »

bell-cot wrote: post #131
retinaros wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so? the history of mankind is built on people picking other people thinking they will do X while they will use all their force to do Y.

Which is why the admirals of the Imperial Japanese Navy refused to attack Pearl Harbor when ordered to do so...right? The ones who do Y instead of X are often pretty interesting. But that's partly because they're pretty rare.

[flagged]

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

#177

Post by Avshalom »

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.

Everything the FBI did here was under republican leadership. It's the fucking FBI, it's a fundamentally right wing organization that has always and will always be so.

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

#178

Post by [deleted] »

lurquer wrote: post #166
acdha wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I could see a world where ‘see if it violates your own policies’ is a code for extortion with plausible deniability. This is possible but I would expect people to look for evidence of it before presenting it as a fact. Something like that would show up in internal communications either directly or as people talking like they didn’t really have a choice, or as a trend of tweets being taken down for reasons which don…

The US is a limited govt. No govt agency can do anything for which it isn’t explicitly authorized. The FBI is not authorized to be ensuring private companies adhere to their policies. If a agent is being paid — with taxpayer dollars - to check on Twitter and give it ‘advice’ on how to run itself, that agent is acting outside the scope of his authority. It’s an abuse and misuse of power. It doesn’t matter what the ‘gr…

[deleted]

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

#179

Post by nverno »

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…

> current average level of comfort with government involvement

It really all comes down to this- it's largely a matter of personal comfort/risk tolerance. Personally, I'd be happy to see entire agencies wiped out, the CIA and the NSA obliterated, the FBI cut back to where it was in the 60s or so, preferably focused on mob/cartel activity and the like. The CIA should never have been separated out from the military and given so much free reign. From my point of view, the CIA's history is just a series of catastrophic mistakes. There's arguments to made on both sides, but no objectively clear right or wrong choice.

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

#180

Post by eternalban »

froggertoaster wrote: post #29

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?

This buck stops with congress. Be alarmed if you want but make sure you address the actual root cause.

In our system of governance, it is the responsibility of Congress to hold the executive accountable. All these agencies are part of the Executive arm of the United States of America. If there is over-reach by secretive agencies of the Executive, it is the duty and responsibility of congressional members, representatives of the public, to be rigorous in the exercise of their duty and hold them accountable.

https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/artifact/senator...

[p.s. Support archive.org .. ^ is archived below]

"Allegations of domestic spying by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) surfaced in the 1970s, triggering public demand for an investigation of federal surveillance operations. In 1975 the Senate established the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, headed by Senator Frank Church of Idaho. The Church Committee’s reports exposed abuses and led to legislation governing domestic and foreign surveillance—most notably, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. House and Senate permanent select committees established at that time now oversee U.S. intelligence.

The critical question before the committee was to determine how the fundamental liberties of the people can be maintained in the course of the Government’s effort to protect their security."

https://web.archive.org/web/20180227204516/https://www.visit...

--

I'll admit I never read the Church Committee report before, but it's actually shocking in the sense that an official report from the Senate of the United States would today be read almost as a 'radical' position, which itself is a telling reflection of the changes that have occurred in the past 47 years:

"Our investigation has confirmed that warning. We have seen segments of our Government, in their attitudes and action, adopt tactics unworthy of a democracy, and occasionally reminiscent of the tactics of totalitarian regimes. We have seen a consistent pattern in which programs initiated with limited goals, such as preventing criminal violence or identifying foreign spies, were expanded to what witnesses characterized as "vacuum cleaners"," sweeping in information about lawful activities of American citizens."

The Church Committee Report: "INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES AND THE RIGHTS OF AMERICANS - Final Report - 1976"

https://loveman.sdsu.edu/docs/1976Churchcommittee.pdf

Post reply on HN