Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook • Hacker News Board

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#861

Post by jpster » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 1:14 PM UTC

_etyf wrote: post #289

whoknew1122 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Far-right terrorism in the US has never really been taken seriously. No one took them seriously. Until the Capitol was attacked. The Feds are starting to roll up high ranking militia members, so hopefully they learned their lesson this time.

Far-right terrorism in the US has never really been taken seriously. No one took them seriously. That's not really true. Far-right terror was taken very seriously in 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing. The FBI hired 500 agents specifically to focus on domestic terrorism [0], particularly the then-new militia movement. Virtually every state and federal law enforcement agency established a domestic terror unit. Throu…

But in 2009 Homeland Security published a report on the domestic terror threat. Republicans reacted badly. The agency backtracked and eventually closed the division.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dhs-domestic-terror-warning-ang...

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#862

Post by downandout » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 1:17 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #843

downandout wrote: post #839

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re referring to me being silent, the discussion seems to have made my point for me. I didn’t see the need to further interject. But here’s my take... If you listen to mainstream media, you’ll see them telling their audience that Parler was “deplatformed” because the planning for the Capital attack occurred there - in fact you would get the impression that the planning only occurred there. Yet it turns out that…

> If you listen to mainstream media, you’ll see them telling their audience that Parler was “deplatformed” because the planning for the Capital attack occurred there I do listen to, and read, mainstream media (and others), and I haven't seen that explanation. I've seen lots of people on the right attributing it vaguely to the MSM to lead into arguments against it, but that's the only place I've seen that explanation…

Read this video description [1]. "NBC’s Anna Schecter reports that extremists are recalibrating and planning for January 20th even though their preferred app to plan, Parler, was shut down". Does that not directly say that Parler was the "preferred" app for the planning of right-wing election violence? I won't spend all morning detailing the rest of them (there are too many), but arguing that mainstream media is not saying that planning occurred on Parler is about as ridiculous as Kamala Harris' argument that the US Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over California jails - an argument she made when she was trying to keep nonviolent prisoners in custody in direct violation of a Supreme Court order [2].

The larger point, though, is the hypocrisy surrounding the continued operation of Facebook while Parler was shutdown. The first paragraph of this [3] pretty much says it all:

"Parler all but vanished from the internet this week. Major tech platforms, including Apple and Amazon, booted the social network popular with the far-right for what the companies said was a failure to moderate incitement and violent rhetoric on its service that contributed to last week's deadly Capitol riots."

Does the report we are discussing in this thread not clearly underscore the fact that Facebook also failed to "to moderate incitement and violent rhetoric on its service that contributed to last week's deadly Capitol riots"? If that is the standard by which all social networks are judged, then should Facebook not meet the same fate? It's hypocritical that they are still online today.

Are you arguing that Facebook is not guilty of the exact same crime for which Parler was executed?

[1] https://www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/far-right-extremists-...

[2] https://prospect.org/justice/how-kamala-harris-fought-to-kee...

[3] https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/12/tech/parler-online-violence/i...

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#863

Post by mancerayder » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 1:17 PM UTC

If this is true, why did big tech and the mainstream media (and many of us here) focus on killing Parler, and not Facebook? It feels like Facebook is too useful to many people, so gets a pass. Parler, because it hosts our ideological opponents, must be shut.

Despite blaming Parler and the media putting free speech in scare quotes ("free speech"), the attack was planned on Facebook all along?

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#864

Post by simonh » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 1:21 PM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #824

simonh wrote: post #809

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a WP article on it. I remember seeing video of a woman retreating from the Capitol saying something about them being on the same side as the police and complaining why they weren't joining them, but I can't find it, sorry. One of the protesters was carrying blue lives matter flag. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IKWa_6...

Is this the same woman who was crying, “they pushed me down and maced me” while dabbing her face with an onion?

That's the one. There's a theory that onions help neutralise the effects of mace, they've been used by protesters in the Middle East for this and it's possible some of the Capitol rioters came with them and gave her one.

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#865

Post by tomp » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 1:24 PM UTC

meowster wrote: post #848

meowster wrote: post #708

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't read the news much, so this is the first I'm hearing of people attacking the White House. These supposedly Trump-supporters... were attacking Trump?

What am I doing wrong?

You’re being lazy and/or arguing in bad faith.

There’s a few links to a few sources a couple of comments above.

It was a BLM/Antifa attack/riot in May 2020.

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#866

Post by eganist » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 1:28 PM UTC

masonic wrote: post #795

eganist wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Firstly, nobody was terrorized. I can count six DC-area thousand+ employee firms that provided grief counseling in response. And as a reminder, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism - even if a subset of people implemented violence with political ends in mind (breaking in, beating innocent people, attempting to take hostages, all in the name of overturning a legitimate election), at the very least, that subset me…

The Capitol was breached as part of a coordinated and failed plot. Last time this happened was 1814. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol_shooting...

Ah, TIL. Thanks!

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#867

Post by downandout » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 1:31 PM UTC

AzzieElbab wrote: post #827

nl wrote: post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the OP, but it's the reason AWS gave: In an email obtained by BuzzFeed News, an AWS Trust and Safety team told Parler Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff that the calls for violence propagating across the social network violated its terms of service. Amazon said it was unconvinced that the service’s plan to use volunteers to moderate calls for violence and hate speech would be effective. “Recently, we’ve seen a stea…

Even that does not say any planning was done on parler.

This does [1]. According to the description, Parler was the "preferred" platform for planning of right-wing election-related violence. According to the video, now that Parler is gone, Telegram, a tool that over 500 million people use everyday for entirely legitimate purposes, is now nothing more than an outlet for Qanon. If this isn't a prima facie example of the completely balanced, factual, and accurate reporting by our friends at MSNBC, I don't know what is.

[1] https://www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/far-right-extremists-...

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#868

Post by acdha » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

e40 wrote: post #268

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure public support for removing Facebook from app stores wouldn't be too different than Parler. If we are principled people, and FB is failing to moderate, then any reasonable person who supported Parler's removal would support Facebook's. What would be different between the two decisions is the sheer magnitude of money on the line, in the case of Facebook's removal -- in capital markets, in employment, etc.

A coworker has a lot of conservative friends. All of them were banned from FB until the 23rd. Even her daughter, who has never written any posts supporting DJT, but liked a few posts, was banned for the same time frame. I've read absolutely nothing about this in the news. She even shared a screenshot one of her friends shared with her. It said: "Your account is restricted right now. You're temporarily restricted from…

If you know someone like that, ask them what they shared beforehand, and yourself whether they're leaving out some of their posting history to build sympathy. I also have conservative friends, none of whom had any bans or restrictions — but they also weren't suggesting violence as a response to losing an election or sharing QAnon dreck.

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#869

Post by philwelch » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 1:40 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #864

philwelch wrote: post #824

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this the same woman who was crying, “they pushed me down and maced me” while dabbing her face with an onion?

That's the one. There's a theory that onions help neutralise the effects of mace, they've been used by protesters in the Middle East for this and it's possible some of the Capitol rioters came with them and gave her one.

That sounds dubious to me. Have you chopped onions? What I’ve heard is that she probably wasn’t maced and was just using the onion to irritate her eyes and force tears to fake being maced. (People who actually get maced tend to be slobbery, snotty messes.)

Re: Capitol Attack Was Months in the Making on Facebook

#870

Post by tw04 » Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

CivBase wrote: post #644

tw04 wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Where was this rhetoric when Antifa and BLM burned and looted for months with the blessings of all corporations and the mainstream media? Surely the Capitol Hill has an insurance policy? Or does that moronic point only apply to the common folk? Blessing? The blessing was for peaceful protests, the rioters were universally condemned. >Susan Rosenberg literally bombed the Capitol in 1983 and now serves as vice chair o…

> The blessing was for peaceful protests, the rioters were universally condemned. I know many people who defended the BLM rioters on social media. The actual rioters - not just the protesters.

We aren't talking about random idiots on social media. He said "corporations and mainstream media".