Posted on 07/27/2021 7:42:44 PM PDT by blam
Washington D.C.—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service and its inspection agency seeking records about a covert program to secretly comb through online posts of social media users before street protests, raising concerns about chilling the privacy and expressive activity of internet users.
Under an initiative called Internet Covert Operations Program, analysts at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the Postal Service’s law enforcement arm, sorted through massive amounts of data created by social media users to surveil what they were saying and sharing, according to media reports. Internet users’ posts on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, and Telegram were likely swept up in the surveillance program.
. USPIS has not disclosed details about the program or any records responding to EFF’s FOIA request asking for information about the creation and operation of the surveillance initiative. In addition to those records, EFF is also seeking records on the program’s policies and analysis of the information collected, and communications with other federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), about the use of social media content gathered under the program.
“We’re filing this FOIA lawsuit to shine a light on why and how the Postal Service is monitoring online speech. This lawsuit aims to protect the right to protest,” said Houston Davidson, EFF public interest legal fellow. “The government has never explained the legal justifications for this surveillance. We’re asking a court to order the USPIS to disclose details about this speech-monitoring program, which threatens constitutional guarantees of free expression and privacy.”
Media reports revealed that a government bulletin dated March 16 was distributed across DHS’s state-run security threat centers, alerting law enforcement agencies that USPIS analysts monitored “significant activity regarding planned protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021.” Protests around the country were planned for that day, and locations and times were being shared on Parler, Telegram, Twitter, and Facebook, the bulletin said.
“Monitoring and gathering people’s social media activity chills and suppresses free expression,” said Aaron Mackey, EFF senior staff attorney. “People self-censor when they think their speech is being monitored and could be used to target them. A government effort to scour people’s social media accounts is a threat to our civil liberties.”
I have a rural mail box and I had a BLUE LIVES MATTER sticker on the post. My mail started going missing. I called the post office and they denied all. I took the sticker off and things returned to normal.
I have to keep a low profile or I won’t get my Anarchist Monthly magazine. You know how I love that one.
Linux. Open source.
Meanwhile, mail is going at a snail’s pace. I’ve had first class mail take 3 weeks to get there.
These clowns should concentrate on getting the mail delivered.
I for one am eternally grateful to the USPS for all the hard work they have done and continue to do to the benefit of myself, my friends, and my family. And I’m sure, even as this war with Eastasia continues, it will be due to our brothers and sisters in the postal service who do so much to help us earn our increase in chocolate rations to 20 grams a week.
I seem to remember an interview where Linus admitted that they were forced to add back doors into Linux. Saying “No, absolutely not”, while shaking his head up and down in the affirmative.
Not sure where it could be hidden, official drivers, steganography, “security” updates, etc. Around the time of the Snowden revelations.
You mean like the CDC telling private doctors to start asking their patients about the 'disease' of guns in the home, eh?
Exactly.
Well, seems like FreeBSD is the only system for you then. I’d be happy to help you get that working.
I used to subscribe to FreeBSD builds on cd, the little deamon boxes littered my apartment. Married life gave me better “perspective” and high speed internet erased the problem. Ran my home server farm.
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