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FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal chats tracking ICE

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Re: FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal chats tracking ICE

#112
post #74

Why? That's unequivocally constitutionally protected speech. Why is our tax money being wasted on this?

They're "investigating", presumably with data gleaned from arrests and CIs; you have a right to speech, and a right not to be prosecuted for speech, but a much, much narrower right not to be "investigated", collapsing to ~epsilon when the investigation involves data the FBI already has.

Yeah whenever people say “the first amendment is not a freedom from consequences” it is only a freedom from certain consequences (and that freedom only goes as far as the government is willing to protect it). It is a freedom from being convicted. They can still arrest you, you can still spend time in jail, prosecutors can even file charges. A court is supposed to throw those charges out. And in extreme cases you can be convicted and sent to prison for years before SCOTUS rules.

Re: FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal chats tracking ICE

#113
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The steps to trouble: - identify who owns the number - compel that person to give unlocked phone - government can read messages of _all_ people in group chat not just that person Corollary: Disappearing messages severely limits what can be read

Unless they compel people at gunpoint (which prevents the government from bringing a case), they will probably not have much luck with this. As soon as a user sets up a passcode or other lock on their phone, it is beyond the ability of even most parts of the US government to look inside. It's much more likely that the government convinces one member of the group chat to turn on the other members and give up their pho…

https://xkcd.com/538/

Re: FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal chats tracking ICE

#114

I’ve never seen a set of voluntary fall guys like Noem, Patel and Miller. (And Hegseth for when a military operation fails.)

Miller is not the fall guy. The other clowns, yes, but not him. He's the most hard-core fascist in the bunch.

I don't know if I'd classify Noem as a patsy or fall gal, either.

When you mention an anecdote about shooting a hunting dog in your autobiography, that shows something beyond just being a "true believer" or stooge. That is willingly pointing out that you are willing to act out your lack of empathy through violence towards an animal.

I'm not a clinician (and haven't met Noem) but that just seems to me to be something indicative of a personality disorder.

Re: FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal chats tracking ICE

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they haven’t. This kind of advocacy crosses from lazy nihilism to negligence.

> > > Why is our tax money being wasted on this? > > The fascists won. That’s why? > No, they haven’t. Yes, they did, that’s why they are able to use the executive branch of the federal government to enforce their wishes at the moment, with virtually no constraint yet from the legislative branch, and no significant consequences yet for ignoring contrary orders from the judicial branch. They may lose at some point in…

They are not able to enforce their will unchecked. The legislature is more than willing to turn on Trump when he crosses the line, hence the whole idea of "TACO."

The fascists haven't won because if they did, they would be killing a lot more dissidents in the street. They killed two and the public outcry is so angry that Kristi Noem might be impeached. Democrats are willing to shut down the government to starve ICE if they have to. Even GOP legislators are criticizing Trump, which is a dangerous activity for any Republican looking to keep their seat.

Re: FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal chats tracking ICE

#116
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The steps to trouble: - identify who owns the number - compel that person to give unlocked phone - government can read messages of _all_ people in group chat not just that person Corollary: Disappearing messages severely limits what can be read

Unless they compel people at gunpoint (which prevents the government from bringing a case), they will probably not have much luck with this. As soon as a user sets up a passcode or other lock on their phone, it is beyond the ability of even most parts of the US government to look inside. It's much more likely that the government convinces one member of the group chat to turn on the other members and give up their pho…

or convince one member of a group chat to show their group chat...

Re: FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal chats tracking ICE

#117
post #6

I don't know signal very well but when I have spoken to others about it they mention that the phone number is the only metadata they will have access to. This seems like a good example of that being enough metadata to be a big problem.

Was starting to think about setting up a neighborhood Signal group, but now thinking that maybe something like Briar might be safer... only problem is that Briar only works on Android which is going to exclude a lot of iPhone users.

Re: FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal chats tracking ICE

#118
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're "investigating", presumably with data gleaned from arrests and CIs; you have a right to speech, and a right not to be prosecuted for speech, but a much, much narrower right not to be "investigated", collapsing to ~epsilon when the investigation involves data the FBI already has.

Yeah whenever people say “the first amendment is not a freedom from consequences” it is only a freedom from certain consequences (and that freedom only goes as far as the government is willing to protect it). It is a freedom from being convicted. They can still arrest you, you can still spend time in jail, prosecutors can even file charges. A court is supposed to throw those charges out. And in extreme cases you can…

Nobody has been charged.

Re: FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal chats tracking ICE

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they haven’t. This kind of advocacy crosses from lazy nihilism to negligence.

I should’ve clarified. They won the 2024 election. And the democrats are controlled opposition who take money from fascists. For all intents and purposes they have won. That may not be a permanent state of affairs.

[flagged]

Re: FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal chats tracking ICE

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlocking isn't necessary, We've already seen that Apple and Google will turn data over on government requests. https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-complies-percent-us-go...

Non-paywalled link?

https://archive.ph/copyn

It wasn’t paywalled for me, BTW.

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