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US conducted mass spying campaign against leftwing and anti-ICE protesters

theguardian.com

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Re: US conducted mass spying campaign against leftwing and anti-ICE protesters

#41

Post by andai »

CircuitSeuss wrote: post #22
magic_interface wrote: post #9

What measures can protesters take against this? With agents actively infiltrating groups, it seems impossible to prevent this level of spying.

Vet /screen everyone. Cross check personal references, have an onboarding period before introducing new members to anything sensitive, do background checks if you’re concerned about it. There are already experienced community leaders and activists in your network; ask them how they establish trust. Teach people to think more critically about how and why they trust information and people. Make vetting part of recruitm…

So compartmentalization, limiting blast radius... that sounds oddly familiar.

Re: US conducted mass spying campaign against leftwing and anti-ICE protesters

#42

Post by defrost »

pudgywalsh wrote: post #23
throwaway27448 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See? This comment is precisely what building a state around voters who care more about aesthetics than semantics looks like.

[flagged]

Count Binface has a Classics degree and a Real Job as a scriptwriter and speechwriter.

Re: US conducted mass spying campaign against leftwing and anti-ICE protesters

#43

Post by giardini »

CircuitSeuss wrote: post #22
magic_interface wrote: post #9

What measures can protesters take against this? With agents actively infiltrating groups, it seems impossible to prevent this level of spying.

Vet /screen everyone. Cross check personal references, have an onboarding period before introducing new members to anything sensitive, do background checks if you’re concerned about it. There are already experienced community leaders and activists in your network; ask them how they establish trust. Teach people to think more critically about how and why they trust information and people. Make vetting part of recruitm…

IANAL but is CircuitSeuss not committing a crime here by giving the advice:

"If you are discussing illegal shit, don’t do it around people or devices you don’t completely trust. Retain plausible deniability."

Or is it legal to discuss "illegal shit"? Maybe with a lawyer? Maybe with a lawyer present? Maybe "illegal shit" is legal jargon I'm unfamiliar with?

Re: US conducted mass spying campaign against leftwing and anti-ICE protesters

#45

Post by giardini »

andai wrote: post #41
CircuitSeuss wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vet /screen everyone. Cross check personal references, have an onboarding period before introducing new members to anything sensitive, do background checks if you’re concerned about it. There are already experienced community leaders and activists in your network; ask them how they establish trust. Teach people to think more critically about how and why they trust information and people. Make vetting part of recruitm…

So compartmentalization, limiting blast radius... that sounds oddly familiar.

[flagged]

Re: US conducted mass spying campaign against leftwing and anti-ICE protesters

#46

Post by CircuitSeuss »

andai wrote: post #41
CircuitSeuss wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vet /screen everyone. Cross check personal references, have an onboarding period before introducing new members to anything sensitive, do background checks if you’re concerned about it. There are already experienced community leaders and activists in your network; ask them how they establish trust. Teach people to think more critically about how and why they trust information and people. Make vetting part of recruitm…

So compartmentalization, limiting blast radius... that sounds oddly familiar.

Irl network security has its similarities

Re: US conducted mass spying campaign against leftwing and anti-ICE protesters

#47

Post by nxobject »

giardini wrote: post #29

[flagged]

> If the meetings are open to the public then anyone can attend (i.e., "spy") on them.

It’s the systematic, motivated, and targeted collection of data that makes it spying. When the KGB takes photos of licence plates of people leaving a military base, we call it “spying”. Replace this with Homeland Security and a neighborhood organizing meeting.

Re: US conducted mass spying campaign against leftwing and anti-ICE protesters

#48

Post by aw1621107 »

giardini wrote: post #43
CircuitSeuss wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vet /screen everyone. Cross check personal references, have an onboarding period before introducing new members to anything sensitive, do background checks if you’re concerned about it. There are already experienced community leaders and activists in your network; ask them how they establish trust. Teach people to think more critically about how and why they trust information and people. Make vetting part of recruitm…

IANAL but is CircuitSeuss not committing a crime here by giving the advice: "If you are discussing illegal shit, don’t do it around people or devices you don’t completely trust. Retain plausible deniability." Or is it legal to discuss "illegal shit"? Maybe with a lawyer? Maybe with a lawyer present? Maybe "illegal shit" is legal jargon I'm unfamiliar with?

> IANAL but is CircuitSeuss not committing a crime here by giving the advice

> "If you are discussing illegal shit, don’t do it around people or devices you don’t completely trust. Retain plausible deniability."

> Or is it legal to discuss "illegal shit"?

The answer to that question is extremely jurisdiction-dependent. That being said, in the US the statement you quote is almost certainly not illegal under current 1st Amendment jurisprudence. The main case of interest is Brandenberg v. Ohio [0], which held:

> Freedoms of speech and press do not permit a State to forbid advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.

[0]: https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep...

Re: US conducted mass spying campaign against leftwing and anti-ICE protesters

#49

Post by jojobas »

fragmede wrote: post #38
enquirewithin wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Making things less bad for poor people isn't automatically communism. Use your words, be expressive. It doesn't have to have a one word label, but if you must, how about Zohranism?

[flagged]

Re: US conducted mass spying campaign against leftwing and anti-ICE protesters

#50

Post by jojobas »

krapp wrote: post #27
jojobas wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Imagine using the term "commies" in 2026 and expecting to be taken seriously.

Imagine being incensed by use a pejorative term used towards a movement that almost always killed more people in peacetime than even fascists.

Remove outliers like Hitler and Pol Pot and you can drop "almost".

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