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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

#91

Post by hermitdev »

tosc wrote: post #28
epivosism wrote: post #17

I think it's pretty reasonable to worry about a system of punishment (depriving someone of the right to use a communication platform) administered by the government, which doesn't obey the normal rules of justice: 1) right to see evidence 2) right to confront your accuser 3) right to judgement by a jury of your peers. OFC there is a role for private info and possibly preventing malicious, foreign government manipulat…

So every troll and bot farm should be able to have each tweet judged by a jury?

I'm not going to touch bot farm, but the problem with labeling someone a troll and thus is that is subjective and not clearly defined. There's a level of intent behind being a troll vs being thought of as a troll.

Here, in the USA, we do have the right to freedoms of speech, press and association. These freedoms cannot be encroached on by the government without due process, and yes, that means it would need to go in front of a jury. It's on the government to prove that a law was broken before they can intervene with otherwise lawful speech. It's not up to a government bureaucrat to decide.

Just because you disagree with someone does not a troll make.

My problem with modern discourse is we've lost the ability to disagree with people without resorting to labeling and name calling. And that we think we need the government to protect us from things we may find distasteful or offensive. Because matters of taste are individual and subjective.

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

#92

Post by fl0wenol »

potatototoo99 wrote: post #30
themagician wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BREAKING: tech companies usually cooperate with law enforcement and government when requested. Data shows they are more than 100 times more likely to continue to respond to requests when paid.

I think the important thing here is the lack of judicial oversight. There used to be needed a court order to request things from companies, so someone would actually weight in the evidence and legality of it. Now it's just someone from a secret agency shutting down news stories about laptops because it makes one political candidate look bad.

While I agree with the premise of your statement, remember that: 1) A court order is only required for a subpoena to request information that the service provider isn't already voluntarily providing. It has been common pratice for decades where telecoms and now social media works together with federal entities outside of a legal action. And this was not limited to trap/trace. 2) It's never so specific to be about protecting an individual candidate. It's about the foreign interference, and if that interference backs a specific candidate and attacks their rivals, then it will look like they're trying to protect the rivals. But at the end of the day it they have to trace it back to the foreign influence campaign if they're going to do anything with it. If Twitter jumps the gun and suspends or bans someone they're trying to work backwards from before having evidence its unfortunate but I blame that on Twitter not having stricter standards about such a partnership.

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

#93

Post by elurg »

acdha wrote: post #68
elurg wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The distinction between the government "asking nicely" and "making demands" is not strong enough. In theory could Twitter could have resisted but the costs would have been quite high. The government should be prohibited from making such requests. It's also apparent that regarding the Hunter Biden story the FBI outright lied in order to make web platforms censor the story.

> The distinction between the government "asking nicely" and "making demands" is not strong enough. In theory could Twitter could have resisted but the costs would have been quite high. Really? Companies do this all of the time. For example, how many billions did Apple lose for resisting the FBI’s requests with the San Bernardino shooter? > It's also apparent that regarding the Hunter Biden story the FBI outright lie…

As far as I understand the FBI knew that the Hunter Biden story was real but encouraged everybody else to believe that it was a Russian hoax. Doesn't this count as lying? It's not just lying, it's explicit disinformation with an electoral goal.

This went so far that major web platforms blocked all forms of disagreement and the public dismissed it as a conspiracy theory. It was highly effective.

I hate Trump's guts but it's important to acknowledge the enormous amount of effort that went into covering up the behavior of Biden's son.

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

#94

Post by whatsu »

froggertoaster wrote: post #29

You can downplay this all you want - but remember: stuff like this is a microcosm of a larger issue. Sections of your government worked directly with Twitter to control what information you saw. Much bigger organizations - Facebook comes to mind - must be doing the same thing every.single.day. And no one finds this even a little bit alarming?

It is true that governments have always had an influence on how we live our lives, whether through traditional media like newspapers and television, or more modern platforms like social media. This is not a new phenomenon, but rather something that has always existed in society. However, with the proliferation of the internet and social media, it has become easier for governments to monitor and regulate online content, and this has led to increased scrutiny and debate about the role of government in moderating online speech.

The United States has a distorted view of free speech, as some people believe that it should be absolute and without any limitations. However, it is important to recognize that the collective good and well-being of society should always be a priority, and that includes protecting against harmful or extremist ideas that could cause harm to others. While it is important to protect individuals' right to express themselves freely, it is also important to ensure that this freedom is not used to spread hateful or harmful messages. In short, the collective well-being of humanity should always be a top priority, and this includes moderating harmful or extremist content on the internet.

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

#95

Post by icare_1er »

mef wrote: post #9

I’ve been trying to read these Twitter files threads thoughtfully, and maybe it’s just a sign of the current average level of comfort with government involvement with social media platforms, but I’m generally not seeing much issue with the stuff being revealed. the worst thing about this particular thread seems like the govt agencies talking to Twitter about foreign influence are overreaching a bit (eg asking them to…

[flagged]

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

#96

Post by retinaros »

ceejayoz wrote: post #80
slenocchio wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. The FBI doesn't change much from administration to administration, no?

Trump dismissed the FBI Director and picked the new one in 2017. That's a fairly significant change.

so? the history of mankind is built on people picking other people thinking they will do X while they will use all their force to do Y.

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

#97

Post by epivosism »

mef wrote: post #9

I’ve been trying to read these Twitter files threads thoughtfully, and maybe it’s just a sign of the current average level of comfort with government involvement with social media platforms, but I’m generally not seeing much issue with the stuff being revealed. the worst thing about this particular thread seems like the govt agencies talking to Twitter about foreign influence are overreaching a bit (eg asking them to…

>I don’t see a problem with the FBI/CIA/etc having regular discussions with Twitter about potential threats, influence campaign

Agree with this; there really are threats out there, and the manipulation techniques they use are sophisticated.

The problem I have was that the system was developed in secret, didn't really seem to be guarded very carefully from misuse, and was administered by highly politicized leadership at Twitter.

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

#98

Post by petesergeant »

poszlem wrote: post #55
petesergeant wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> radio silence about and of that in the mainstream media Do any of these help? site:washingtonpost.com "twitter files" site:cnn.com "twitter files" site:foxnews.com "twitter files"

No, they don't. https://twitter.com/KonstantinKisin/status/16051281807503196...

Ah, so the "mainstream media" "radio silence" here for an American politics story is in-fact complaining that on a specific date, it wasn't front-page news in ... the UK?

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

#99

Post by cyberphobe »

asynchronous wrote: post #90
cyberphobe wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[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.

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

#100

Post by draw_down »

monsecchris wrote: post #13

The people trying to minimise every intelligence agency working with every tech company on behalf of the Democratic Party are the same people calling this a dangerous far right conspiracy theory not long ago.

[dead]
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