Website turns tables on government officials

Boston Globe ^ | 7/4/2003 | Hiawatha Bray

[DannyTN]

Annoyed by the prospect of a massive new federal surveillance system, two researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are celebrating the Fourth of July with a new Internet service that will let citizens create dossiers on government officials.

The system will start by offering standard background information on politicians, but then go one bold step further, by asking Internet users to submit their own intelligence reports on government officials -- reports that will be published with no effort to verify their accuracy.

[DannyTN]

Sounds like a great idea to me. I think they should have a sortable label for every post by the issues they affect (abortion, gun control, etc), whether it's a (speech, vote, or action) and whether they take a conservative or liberal stance.

Therefore if you wanted to see what a politician said, did or voted about issue #25, you can get a quick snapshot.

[ItsBacon]

Chris Csikszentmihalyi

Must have sucked to have been him in first grade.

[AdA$tra]

GReat idea. They can call it FReeRepublic.com.

[DannyTN]

Must have sucked to have been him in first grade.

LOL, you need an MIT degree just to be able to pronounce that.

[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

...reports that will be published with no effort to verify their accuracy.

I wonder if these guys think politicians can't sue for libel.

[Fiddlstix]

Very Interesting J
(Little brother takes on Big brother)
Could make for some interesting reading

[Rodsomnia]

Imagine what a pain the ass life would be for all those federal judges and officials having protestors camped outside their own homes & businesses.

[thoughtomator]

Good luck tracking down anonymous posters when the sysop refuses to cooperate!

[dljordan]

Really! I started to read his name but my mind blanked out on the third or fourth syllable.

[Robert_Paulson2]

I doubt they are worried about it...
libel lawsuits, are only a threat, when the accusations are false.

I rather doubt there are many accusations that can be made against most politicians and governmental bureaucrats, that are not true on some level... no matter how despicable.

Were libel a true threat on intenet posting boards... a LOT of freepers would have gone to jail during the cliton era...

[Robert_Paulson2]

or when codbase hackers, develop some more "complicated" multithreaded proxies that forge multipler legitimate IP headers...

and make it readily available for download...
100's of dollars to implement and make widely available...
Multiple BILLIONS of dollars to try and defeat... on an ongoing basis.

[coloradan]

Chick-sent-mih-hall-yee.

[coloradan]

I wonder if these guys think politicians can't sue for libel.

There is no effort made, and no opportunity for us to correct, incorrect information within our own TIA files. The files are "secret" and un-appealable. Consider all the non-terrorists who keep getting flagged and searched at airports.

[longtermmemmory]

how many of the closet homos will be outed?

how many will be subject to false accusations?

how many will have to say the truth to silence the false accusation?

[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

The files are "secret" and un-appealable.

Yes. Secret. As opposed to published.

[A. Pole]

Politicians should have access to those data as well. This is only fair in face of Freedom of Information Act.

[Arkinsaw]

Yes. Secret. As opposed to published.

Published for government officials, not for the public. A real turnaround would be to make these off limits to government officials so they couldn't review what others are writing about them.

[Maximum Leader]

Ever since the Sullivan v. NY Times decision, its very hard for a public figure to win a libel suit.

[eno_]

Plus I think there was a recent decision that put the due dilligence standard for blogs much lower than for commercial press.

[DannyTN]

"Politicians should have access to those data as well. This is only fair in face of Freedom of Information Act. "

hmmmm...yes, but shouldn't they be stonewalled first and then have to sue before they are given it?