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Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

theguardian.com

421–430 of 810 posts

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#421

Befuddling that this happened again. It’s not the first time - Paul Manafort court filing (U.S., 2019) Manafort’s lawyers filed a PDF where the “redacted” parts were basically black highlighting/boxes over live text. Reporters could recover the hidden text (e.g., via copy/paste). - TSA “Standard Operating Procedures” manual (U.S., 2009) A publicly posted TSA screening document used black rectangles that did not remov…

> - Associated Press + Facebook valuation estimate in court transcript (U.S., 2009) The AP reported it could read “redacted” portions of a court transcript by cut-and-paste (classic overlay-style failure). Secondary coverage notes the mechanism explicitly. What happens in a court case when this occurs? Does the receiving party get to review and use the redacted information (assuming it’s not gagged by other means) or…

What a joke…

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's absolutely bewildering how ridiculous everything has been so far in terms of competence and this really takes the cherry on the top near Christmas too. how much lower can they go ?!

This low https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abuse_in_Pakistan aka a society where child abuse is simply accepted and mainstream, with the child abuse of child labour and dhijhadism being just additional nightmare fuel on top.

If we survive long enough I do believe historians will look back on this period and state as a matter of fact, rape and child abuse were completely acceptable, because it seems it’s totally fine with our elected leaders. If these leaders were democratically elected there is only one conclusion to draw from it…

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#423

Stupid question: why is the government even allowed to redact stuff? Isn’t the government keeping secrets from the people totally antithetical to democracy?

Because some are allegations without proof, and some are names of people who are victims. They have a right to privacy

It's not correct that there is a legal duty to redact names of people who might be accused of wrongdoing, but where the allegations haven't been proved.

The only two reasons that redactions are allowed are a) to protect the privacy of victims and b) to protect the integrity on ongoing investigations.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's the opposite, it's fairly damaging. Previously they could claim, dubiously but plausible, that all redactions were about protecting victims (the only redactions allowed under the act). A lot of the "undone redactions" are solely about protecting the abusers, illegal under the law. Whether breaking a law actually matters anymore is another question though, as crime is legal now.

Crime may go unpunished by this is why statues of limitations exist. The window on some crimes stays open for a very long time.

"Some" is 99% crimes against the state with the occasional bone they throw the peasants to look like they care. Heck, murder probably wouldn't even be unlimited if not for the fact that it thumbs it's nose at the state's monopoly on violence.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#425
post #400
post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you can leak the content of a file that you printed out and couldn't redact properly by using an inferior method

But such a document is obviously unredacted. A black boxed PDF appears to be redacted, but isn't. Accidents happen.

Now that you've shifted the goalposts back closer to the original discussion, what's your point? Yes, you can leak the "nonexisting" file in multiple ways, including the printed one, and yes, "accidents" happen. So are they more likely to happen if you ban digital search and force paper and ink redaction instead? Are they more likely to happen if you black out digitally before printing or underline digitally and ink out physically?

And the "obvious word needle in a haystack of many thousands of pages" isn't as self-healing as you appear to think it is.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#426

Befuddling that this happened again. It’s not the first time - Paul Manafort court filing (U.S., 2019) Manafort’s lawyers filed a PDF where the “redacted” parts were basically black highlighting/boxes over live text. Reporters could recover the hidden text (e.g., via copy/paste). - TSA “Standard Operating Procedures” manual (U.S., 2009) A publicly posted TSA screening document used black rectangles that did not remov…

This has happened so many times I feel like the DoJ must have some sort of standardised redaction pipeline to prevent it by now. Assuming they do, why wasn't it used?

DOGE

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to believe this is malicious compliance.

Since hundreds of people were involved the most likely explanation is incompetence

> Since hundreds of people were involved the most likely explanation is incompetence

Hundreds of people might be involved, but the only key factor required for a single point of failure to propagate to the deliverable is lack of verification.

And God knows how the Trump administration is packed with inexperiente incompetents assigned to positions where they are way way over their head, and routinely commit the most basic mistakes.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to believe this is malicious compliance.

Since hundreds of people were involved the most likely explanation is incompetence

I'm sure not all those hundreds have been involved with every document.

I'm kinda surprised (and disappointed) nobody has done a Snowden on it though.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#429

Befuddling that this happened again. It’s not the first time - Paul Manafort court filing (U.S., 2019) Manafort’s lawyers filed a PDF where the “redacted” parts were basically black highlighting/boxes over live text. Reporters could recover the hidden text (e.g., via copy/paste). - TSA “Standard Operating Procedures” manual (U.S., 2009) A publicly posted TSA screening document used black rectangles that did not remov…

Not to mention when the White House published Obama's birth certificate as a PDF. I remember being able to open it and turn the different layers off and on.
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