4 ms·
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 act
by potatototoo99 4y ago
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.
- themagician 4y agoRequests are different from demands. It’s not like the FBI tells Twitter to take something down under threat of violence. They say just ask and Twitter agrees, sometimes, because they are on the same page.
- ggreer 4y agoIf the FBI requests something, and you ignore or refuse them, they will find a way to make your life unpleasant. Remember, this organization has a long history of human rights abuses and illegal actions. They even tried to blackmail MLK.[1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI–King_suicide_letter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI–King_suicide_letter
- fl0wenol 4y agoWhile 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.
- joshuamorton 4y agoThere has never been need to have judicial oversight when making a request, the FBI can send a request to Twitter just the same as they can ask you to come in for an interview. You're free to refuse.
- rightbyte 4y agoYe no. I would certainly worry alot more if FBI sent me an angry letter compared to say Pizza Hut? You always have an implied threat when a government agency is involved.
- nickthegreek 4y agoYou can see the letters. They weren’t angry.
- rightbyte 4y agoI meant it as a figure of speech. Could aswell be the county water utility board or whatever as the FBI. You treat these guys differently. That was my point.
- joshuamorton 4y agoSure, but you also don't have a team of lawyers who know how to deal with the government. Twitter does (or, well, did).