7 ms·

Snowden criticises Amazon for hiring former NSA boss

133 points by ironyman 6y ago

boomboomsubban 6y ago
It seems strange that this article does not actually embed the tweets mentioned, nor do they link to his Twitter page. Other recent stories seem fine using that technique. My cynical side wonders if Snowden's other recent tweets denouncing Assange's ongoing show trial are to blame.
- ffpip 6y ago
  If anybody is interested in the tweets - https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1303841107697168384 https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1303841107697168384
  - Krasnol 6y ago
    Thank you for looking this up.
- katsume3 6y ago
  > It seems strange that this article does not actually embed the tweets mentioned That's because a tweet can be deleted by the owner of the tweet, and the embed won't show it in the article anymore. Embedding tweets in an article is usually bad practice, and it also slows down the page with unnecessary Javascript. Frankly I see nothing wrong with just copying and pasting a Tweet, so now you have a verbatim copy of what was said. Then there is the issue of edited tweets which apparently are coming soon, giving another troll tool to users of Twitter.
  - Krasnol 6y ago
    They could still link to it without embedding. I don't see a reason for not doing it because even the "deleted" message is a message. It doesn't break the experience but ads information to it. In this case: the author didn't want to have this up anymore. The utter lack of linking in internet articles is terrible. I understand that it's like free advertisement sometimes but hell...you're already reporting and the traffic from your page would ENCOURAGE potential ad clients to run ads on your page if it generates so much traffic...
    - pfranz 6y ago
      I often wish there were more direct citations in journalistic articles. I hate to say this, but often when trying to find sources it is cluttered up by news articles.
  - boomboomsubban 6y ago
    So why is embedding and linking multiple tweets from a variety of sources fine when announcing Dame Diana Rigg's death but unacceptable in this story?
    - londons_explore 6y ago
      I would guess the tech reporters have different policies than the Hollywood reporters...
      - boomboomsubban 6y ago
        Then why quote and link to Elon Musk's tweets but only quote Snowden?
fouric 6y ago
Can someone explain why this is newsworthy, or why Snowden's words in particular are valuable?
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  Snowden is seen as a hero to many for fighting back against the “big guy” (US government). He was a nobody who embarrassed the government and now they want revenge. By not treating him fairly (such as refusing to guarantee a fair and public trial) and leaving him exiled in Russia for almost a decade, he’s become a martyr or sorts. It doesn’t help that the government has also intimidated people he’s been affiliated with (eg. Laura Poitras). As such, some view his words as having more weight than some Joe Shmoe on the street. Put simply: he fought back against the schoolyard bully
  - downshun 6y ago
    Not everyone buys that narrative.
    - throwaway2048 6y ago
      Surely enough "buy that narrative" to make it newsworthy yes?
    - colejohnson66 6y ago
      I’m curious what about my “narrative” is incorrect? The only opinion part in that post was speculation on why those facts would cause people to value what he says.
- agd 6y ago
  Snowden leaked documents from the NSA revealing illegal mass surveillance. See here for more info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden
  - fouric 6y ago
mikece 6y ago
The former NSA boss was hired to close future deals between Amazon and the DOD for AWS. The DoD, and the NSA in particular, have had a close relationship with Microsoft going back to the 80s so the Pentagon selecting Microsoft for JEDI was always the default in my mind. Hiring Alexander is an attempt to make inroads with the active duty brass to spread the Good News about AWS. Even at a salary in the seven figures it’s a lot less expensive than advertising and litigation.
- ed25519FUUU 6y ago
  “Inroads”? They’ve been in bed together for awhile. https://aws.amazon.com/federal/us-intelligence-community/ https://aws.amazon.com/federal/us-intelligence-community/
  - ganoushoreilly 6y ago
    Yeah Amazon was arguably the first real cloud style platform that worked within the IC (even with it being a private cloud in a private datacenter). Amazon is in no way an underdog in any way shape or form within the IC. It's simply bringing on people as any contractor does.
- pydry 6y ago
  This is probably related to Bezos's buying of the Washington Post, too and their "NSA/CIA friendly reporting" subsequent to its puchase: https://theintercept.com/2016/11/26/washington-post-disgracefully-promotes-a-mccarthyite-blacklist-from-a-new-hidden-and-very-shady-group/ https://theintercept.com/2016/11/26/washington-post-disgrace...
  - lern_too_spel 6y ago
    What is CIA/NSA friendly about that article? Also, The Intercept made a mountain out of a molehill here by spending an entire article ranting about an organization the WaPo mentioned only in passing in it's article.
    - 6y ago
Ozzie_osman 6y ago
So Big Tech, under anti-trust pressure, getting more in bed with the government. The case seems to not only be: "if you break us up, you leave room for foreign (ie Chinese) competitors, which is bad for national security", but also, "you should spend more money on security, too, so give us more contracts."
- jrockway 6y ago
  Where is the government going to buy computing resources from if not some sort of large American company? I feel like people would complain no matter the vendor. If they bought a bunch of Intel servers it would be "wow, wasting taxpayer dollars on an antique 14nm process". If they went AMD, it would be "wow, might as well just shut down the IRS and let TSMC collect taxes directly." At the end of the day, the federal government needs servers so people can download 1040 forms or whatever. I don't think it's that bad to pick Amazon, Microsoft, or Google for that. Going deeper, no matter which cloud provider hosts their servers, it's up to the people to elect representatives that put forth the public policy programs they desire. I am sure AWS is just as happy to host some computer program that frees people that have been wrongly convicted of crimes as it is to host a computer program that uses machine learning to round up undesirables.
- dehrmann 6y ago
  The antitrust case against Amazon is weaker than some of the other tech giants because there's pretty robust competition in both ecommerce and cloud computing (and groceries). The biggest issues I can see with Amazon is some of its practices with marketplace merchants.
justanotheranon 6y ago
here's to hoping Gab hires the retires patriot Admiral Mike Rogers to its board of directors to help protect the Qanon ecosystem as Gab expands into competing against Youtube and Facebook. ;)
ponker 6y ago
I respect Snowden but his opinion on most matters these days is no more credentialed than “man on the street.” Whether I agree with him or not (here, I do) it’s not clear why he’s a trusted authority.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

133 points by ironyman 6y ago

It seems strange that this article does not actually embed the tweets mentioned, nor do they link to his Twitter page. Other recent stories seem fine using that technique. My cynical side wonders if Snowden's other recent tweets denouncing Assange's ongoing show trial are to blame.

ffpip 6y ago
If anybody is interested in the tweets - https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1303841107697168384 https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1303841107697168384
- Krasnol 6y ago
  Thank you for looking this up.
katsume3 6y ago
> It seems strange that this article does not actually embed the tweets mentioned That's because a tweet can be deleted by the owner of the tweet, and the embed won't show it in the article anymore. Embedding tweets in an article is usually bad practice, and it also slows down the page with unnecessary Javascript. Frankly I see nothing wrong with just copying and pasting a Tweet, so now you have a verbatim copy of what was said. Then there is the issue of edited tweets which apparently are coming soon, giving another troll tool to users of Twitter.
- Krasnol 6y ago
  They could still link to it without embedding. I don't see a reason for not doing it because even the "deleted" message is a message. It doesn't break the experience but ads information to it. In this case: the author didn't want to have this up anymore. The utter lack of linking in internet articles is terrible. I understand that it's like free advertisement sometimes but hell...you're already reporting and the traffic from your page would ENCOURAGE potential ad clients to run ads on your page if it generates so much traffic...
  - pfranz 6y ago
    I often wish there were more direct citations in journalistic articles. I hate to say this, but often when trying to find sources it is cluttered up by news articles.
- boomboomsubban 6y ago
  So why is embedding and linking multiple tweets from a variety of sources fine when announcing Dame Diana Rigg's death but unacceptable in this story?
  - londons_explore 6y ago
    I would guess the tech reporters have different policies than the Hollywood reporters...
    - boomboomsubban 6y ago
      Then why quote and link to Elon Musk's tweets but only quote Snowden?

fouric 6y ago

Can someone explain why this is newsworthy, or why Snowden's words in particular are valuable?

colejohnson66 6y ago
Snowden is seen as a hero to many for fighting back against the “big guy” (US government). He was a nobody who embarrassed the government and now they want revenge. By not treating him fairly (such as refusing to guarantee a fair and public trial) and leaving him exiled in Russia for almost a decade, he’s become a martyr or sorts. It doesn’t help that the government has also intimidated people he’s been affiliated with (eg. Laura Poitras). As such, some view his words as having more weight than some Joe Shmoe on the street. Put simply: he fought back against the schoolyard bully
- downshun 6y ago
  Not everyone buys that narrative.
  - throwaway2048 6y ago
    Surely enough "buy that narrative" to make it newsworthy yes?
  - colejohnson66 6y ago
    I’m curious what about my “narrative” is incorrect? The only opinion part in that post was speculation on why those facts would cause people to value what he says.
agd 6y ago
Snowden leaked documents from the NSA revealing illegal mass surveillance. See here for more info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden
- fouric 6y ago

mikece 6y ago

The former NSA boss was hired to close future deals between Amazon and the DOD for AWS. The DoD, and the NSA in particular, have had a close relationship with Microsoft going back to the 80s so the Pentagon selecting Microsoft for JEDI was always the default in my mind. Hiring Alexander is an attempt to make inroads with the active duty brass to spread the Good News about AWS. Even at a salary in the seven figures it’s a lot less expensive than advertising and litigation.

ed25519FUUU 6y ago
“Inroads”? They’ve been in bed together for awhile. https://aws.amazon.com/federal/us-intelligence-community/ https://aws.amazon.com/federal/us-intelligence-community/
- ganoushoreilly 6y ago
  Yeah Amazon was arguably the first real cloud style platform that worked within the IC (even with it being a private cloud in a private datacenter). Amazon is in no way an underdog in any way shape or form within the IC. It's simply bringing on people as any contractor does.
pydry 6y ago
This is probably related to Bezos's buying of the Washington Post, too and their "NSA/CIA friendly reporting" subsequent to its puchase: https://theintercept.com/2016/11/26/washington-post-disgracefully-promotes-a-mccarthyite-blacklist-from-a-new-hidden-and-very-shady-group/ https://theintercept.com/2016/11/26/washington-post-disgrace...
- lern_too_spel 6y ago
  What is CIA/NSA friendly about that article? Also, The Intercept made a mountain out of a molehill here by spending an entire article ranting about an organization the WaPo mentioned only in passing in it's article.
  - 6y ago

Ozzie_osman 6y ago

So Big Tech, under anti-trust pressure, getting more in bed with the government. The case seems to not only be: "if you break us up, you leave room for foreign (ie Chinese) competitors, which is bad for national security", but also, "you should spend more money on security, too, so give us more contracts."

jrockway 6y ago
Where is the government going to buy computing resources from if not some sort of large American company? I feel like people would complain no matter the vendor. If they bought a bunch of Intel servers it would be "wow, wasting taxpayer dollars on an antique 14nm process". If they went AMD, it would be "wow, might as well just shut down the IRS and let TSMC collect taxes directly." At the end of the day, the federal government needs servers so people can download 1040 forms or whatever. I don't think it's that bad to pick Amazon, Microsoft, or Google for that. Going deeper, no matter which cloud provider hosts their servers, it's up to the people to elect representatives that put forth the public policy programs they desire. I am sure AWS is just as happy to host some computer program that frees people that have been wrongly convicted of crimes as it is to host a computer program that uses machine learning to round up undesirables.
dehrmann 6y ago
The antitrust case against Amazon is weaker than some of the other tech giants because there's pretty robust competition in both ecommerce and cloud computing (and groceries). The biggest issues I can see with Amazon is some of its practices with marketplace merchants.

justanotheranon 6y ago

here's to hoping Gab hires the retires patriot Admiral Mike Rogers to its board of directors to help protect the Qanon ecosystem as Gab expands into competing against Youtube and Facebook. ;)

ponker 6y ago

I respect Snowden but his opinion on most matters these days is no more credentialed than “man on the street.” Whether I agree with him or not (here, I do) it’s not clear why he’s a trusted authority.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]