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

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

#431
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…

> There is no crime in telling people to ‘vote this Wednesday.’ There is no crime of ‘misinformation.’

The Department of Justice would disagree with you:

“Social Media Influencer Charged with Election Interference Stemming from Voter Disinformation Campaign” [1]

Some guy tweeted in 2016 encouraging Hillary Clinton supporters to ‘Vote from Home’ by sending an SMS to a certain number. For this and other tweets, he was charged with violating 18 USC 241, which prohibits “conspir[ing] to injure, oppress, [..] any person [..] in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States”, where the right in question was the right to vote. With the justice system being as slow as it is, the indictment only happened in 2021 and the case is still pending at the district court level. [2]

His lawyers argue that his actions were protected by the First Amendment; this is a novel legal question with no Supreme Court precedent on point. [3]

[1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/social-media-influencer-charg...

[2] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59249282/united-states-...

[3] https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/douglass-ma...

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

#432
post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but I don’t see a problem with the FBI/CIA/etc having regular discussions with Twitter about potential threats, influence campaigns, etc. You don't? There is nothing special about Twitter as a private business when it comes to acceptable level of government interference. Police agencies are responsible for investigating crimes. That's their remit. They aren't allowed to compel a private individual/business to provide…

> Police agencies are responsible for investigating crimes. That’s their remit. The FBI has a broader official remit than “investigating crimes”.

Please tell me the “remit” of “law enforcement”.

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

#433
post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Police agencies are responsible for investigating crimes. That’s their remit. The FBI has a broader official remit than “investigating crimes”.

Please tell me the “remit” of “law enforcement”.

The FBI isn’t just a law enforcement agency.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a national security and law enforcement agency that uses, collects, and shares intelligence in all it does.” https://www.justice.gov/doj/organization-mission-and-functio...

“The FBI is an intelligence-driven and threat-focused national security organization with both intelligence and law enforcement responsibilities. It is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Justice and a full member of the U.S. Intelligence Community.” https://www.fbi.gov/about/faqs/what-is-the-fbi

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

#434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if you’d have an issue with it if these organisations leaned mostly republican. When this last happened in the 1960s and 70s, when it was the left that was anti establishment, and didn’t want the Vietnam war, or didn’t want Christian orthodoxy imposed on society, the left was obsessed with free speech and being anti government organisations. Suddenly no one can think beyond their own party and as long as the…

> People really need to think longer term. Asking too much. In the past couple months, HN users went from “it’s a private company they can do what they want” when Twitter was a public company working with the FBI to enact specific user censorship… to “OMG Elon banned a handful of journalists, freeze peach was a lie!” when it was a suspension for 12 hours. Where are all those “it’s a private company they can do what t…

> to “OMG Elon banned a handful of journalists, freeze peach was a lie!” when it was a suspension for 12 hours.

I think to a lot of people it was banged on so hard about the 'free speech absolutist' that he was, until it was suddenly legal speech he didn't like then he cast those people out as fast as he could.

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

#435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Except no one’s really doing that, they’re just generating outrage bait to prop up a retarded billionaire’s obviously nonsense claim that Twitter, a huge company, is (or was) secretly staffed exclusively by the far left. All evidence that has come out has shown not that, so they’re trying to come up with something else to be outraged about. FBI asking Twitter to stop criminals seems entirely unsurprisingly.

We've banned this account for using HN primarily for flamewar and ideological battle. You can't do that here, regardless of which ideology you favor; it's abusive no matter who does it.

Please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this website full of brain dead right wingers.

[flagged]

Would you please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments (including ideological battle comments) to HN? You've unfortunately been doing it a lot lately. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for, and we ban that sort of account.

If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.

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

#437
post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Judging by the companies I've worked at and the people I know, it clearly is. This is biased towards the sv part of the industry, which is the largest concentration, though. It is also backed up by the data of who employees of large tech companies contribute to, which is overwhelmingly democrats.

I don’t think you seem to have any kind of understanding of what “ultra left leaning” means in this context. You’re just repeating Fox News headlines here and pretending that it’s some black and white issue once again in spite of the overwhelming evidence in this very thread showing that not to be the case.

Would you also please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments (including ideological battle comments) to HN? You've unfortunately been doing it a lot lately, even stooping to personal attacks (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34131316). None of this is what this site is for, and destroys what it is for, and we ban that sort of account.

If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.

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

#438
post #66

[flagged]

[flagged]

We've banned this account for using HN primarily for ideological battle and ignoring our request to stop. We ban accounts that do this, regardless of which flavor they favor. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

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

#439
post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please tell me the “remit” of “law enforcement”.

The FBI isn’t just a law enforcement agency. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a national security and law enforcement agency that uses, collects, and shares intelligence in all it does.” https://www.justice.gov/doj/organization-mission-and-functio... “The FBI is an intelligence-driven and threat-focused national security organization with both intelligence and law enforcement responsibilities. It is the…

So it collects intelligence? That changes nothing in what I said.

Or do you see a distinction between “law enforcement” and “intelligence agency” when it comes to asking a private business to ban certain customers?

I see no distinction. Both operate with the all the powers vested by the government.

They have no business doing it.

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

#440
post #437
post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think you seem to have any kind of understanding of what “ultra left leaning” means in this context. You’re just repeating Fox News headlines here and pretending that it’s some black and white issue once again in spite of the overwhelming evidence in this very thread showing that not to be the case.

Would you also please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments (including ideological battle comments) to HN? You've unfortunately been doing it a lot lately, even stooping to personal attacks ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34131316 ). None of this is what this site is for, and destroys what it is for, and we ban that sort of account. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguideli…

Noted!
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