this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Stuff like this always makes me wonder how good the surveillance state actually is. I mean, a bunch of hillbillies planned an insurrection on Facebook for fucks sake.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Well like always the “hillbillies” are probably hand in hand with the insurrectionists.

“Some of those that work forces. Are the same that burn crosses” - RATM

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Also,

Zack de la Rocha sometimes changes the lyrics in the second verse from "Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses" to "Some of those that burn crosses are the same that hold office" when playing live.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, Rage Against the Machine. No Doubt did "Don't Speak".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

How Sublime.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think that's a bit misleading, TBH. The attack was fairly well planned, and far from just a bunch of hillbillies. Yeah, they were a part of it, and part of the plan, but summarizing them as the brains behind the coup attempt is undercutting the risk of it being tried again.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Which just furthers op's main point, really. I mean it was fairly well planned in a fairly overt fashion, why weren't they prepared?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Definitely wasn't saying they were the brains. But the message was communicated to them via Facebook. They actively participated in the conspiracy, which took place on Facebook. My point is, the data was there, and it wasn't acted upon for some reason.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Well that was good for propoganda purposes. Gives them an excuse to get more intrusive.

Youll notice that on Jan 6, none of the people in the Capitol Building had guns, and also note the video of them being waved in, and also note that they weren't immediately forced out.

Jan 6 glows like the sun.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Every time a program like this is pushed through and people say that there are safeguards to prevent abuse, remember this. They claimed there were safeguards here too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Always frustrates me when I hear about why we're so much different to Russia/China because we have laws and safeguards. They mean shit

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hope nobody is truly shocked by this. Outraged? Yes, but shocked no. The US 3 letter agencies have a long history of overreach. Our elected officials are complicit in this all in the false name of "public safety" and "anti-terrorism" when their is little empirical evidence to suggest either mission is being accomplished. Instead, we have agencies profiling Americans on a massive scale that would make Brezhnev of the USSR jealous if he were alive today.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Can't imagine how frustrating it must be to be Edward Snowden, give up a lucrative future in government work to do the right thing and put the word out, be hunted for the rest of your life by Uncle Sam. The collective response to your sacrifice was a big fat "meh"

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sadly, you would be correct. Edward Snowden sacrificed his life to help us only to be met with nothing in return.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's even a movie... Noting changed so far irl, it's surreal

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is an increasingly unpopular opinion on reddit from what I've seen. Glad the sane people switched sites.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It almost seems like it's a propaganda to discredit him and people who act like him or believe in what he said. To move the conversation away from what illegal shit the 3 letter agencies do and what they want to do.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All he wanted was to let people know. What people decide to do with the information is up to the people. He achieved his goals, it isn't his problem if people just ignore his message.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, people are aware now so can make decisions on their own and decide their own risk tolerance.

One thing I find funny though is how people think I don't care if X country has my info it's my home country Y I'm more worried about. But, their country Y is probably hacking country X and retrieving all their info from there with possibly less red flags to get through. So it really comes down to what people choose to share and use than a certain countries publicized spying policies.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

If his objective was to inform people, he at least succeeded with me

I do my best to avoid things that were exposed, and it confirms not to trust our "safeguards"

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

If it can be done, people will do it. If you think the FBI are unique in this, you're very naive. We need to fundamentally rethink how our technology is designed if we ever hope to have any privacy again.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Have we learned nothing from Edward Snowden?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

In other news; water is wet.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I like how it's suddenly a problem only when they do this to Americans for a change.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I like how when American laws are broken in America it becomes an issue for Americans

Ftfy. Everyone is spying on other countries all of the time; the US is just one of the most capable in that capacity but not different in its aims.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

FISA stands for "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act." By definition, it's only supposed to be used in the surveillance of people foreign to the U.S.A. The FBI's job is domestic law enforcement. It's the FBI's job to investigate crime involving U.S. citizens.

Officially, the NSA does not spy on U.S. citizens. You can believe whatever you want about whether it actually "unofficially" does, but unless you do a lot of business overseas, chances are high that Google and Amazon and Facebook all have collected way more personal information about you than the NSA has.

Even if the NSA does surveil U.S. citizens, it can't use any information it obtains in any legal or political way, or in any otherwise public manner.

If a U.S. citizen has communications with a foreigner, however, it is possible that those communications will be surveilled. The NSA does spy on foreign citizens, just like foreign intelligence agencies spy on U.S. citizens. If you're a U.S. citizen communicating with a foreigner who's being surveilled, then your communications with that person are going to be surveilled as well.

But again, it's not the FBI's job to police international crime -- that's the job of the CIA. As the article describes, this is why it is a bad idea for the FBI to be using FISA intelligence. This is why "it's a problem when they do it to Americans."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Interesting, thanks for this context! Then if I understand correctly FBI spied on a USA citizen but in an international matter. So it's not really relevant that one party was a USA citizen: what is relevant is that since the other party wasn't, so it wasn't FBI's job. Did it get it right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Think of it another way:

The CIA and NSA will do their things collecting foreign intelligence on largely non-US persons. They store that information in a database somewhere with a big old "foreign" sticker.

The FBI will do their things collecting domestic intelligence on largely US-persons, storing their information in a database with a "domestic" sticker.

Intelligence agencies will share information between each other at times when their jurisdictions cross and for certain interesting mission sets, but it needs to be a deliberate and measured act. The FBI shouldn't be able to just sift through the "foreign" database without any supervision for things that look interesting to them - they need to be granted access to a certain tailored box within the "foreign" database with extraneous information (to them) redacted or removed.

Additionally, there's a whole 'other can of worms on how much information they were able to access. It's one thing to catch an American committing tax fraud from their emails between a foreign bank lets say. What if an FBI agent knows their (ex) spouse has some overseas dealings and they want to snoop or find some dirt? They can't legally use their organic tools to find this information on someone they are connected to without probable cause, but who's to say their "foreign" database accesses account for the US person who isn't the focus of surveillance? They aren't looking for "Spouse, bank fraud," which would probably raise suspicion with supervisors, but rather "foreign banker, any conversations with [email protected]," which the other 3 letter agencies probably don't care about.

Our issue here is that the FBI is using information that they shouldn't have access to. You can argue legitimacy one way or another, but the way these agencies are funded and authorized to operate necessitates this separation. The FBI may have had a valid case for querying and using this information, but only under through the proper channels, which it seems were not used.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Whats with all the goatse inspired article images lately?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Now I can't unsee it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I expected more out of the people who do this sort of shit all the time and never face consequences, much less meaningful reforms.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

In 2021, for example, the FBI ran more than 3.3 million queries through the Section 702 database, according to a government transparency report.

3.3 million spies of the Patriot Act. It's set to expire this year, but they'll reauthorize it. No one is strong enough to throw the ring into the fire.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I wish they could catch all the traitors of the country who raided our capitol. Fucking idiots, all of them deserve jail. I hope they use FISA to find them and the foreign money as well. Most of crooks in the republican party have connections to foreign governments.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Section 702 should either not be renewed at all, or renewed with restrictions to require a warrant for US person searches. The FBI has shown they cannot handle this power as is.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am a foreigner in the US so I don't have any protection from spying anyways. Serves the US-americans right to be spied on as well.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

And we have no protections from your government, so I guess it serves you right you have no protections?

You raise a good point, but the way you raise it fosters a race to the bottom.

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