Social media snitching bill introduced into US Congress by intel bosses A new bill introduced by Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein and Republican senator Richard Burr would oblige social media companies to report "terrorist activity" to the authorities. The short, three-page bill is called the "Requiring Reporting of Online Terrorist Activity Act" and effectively clones a similar law requiring …
"It would create a perverse incentive for companies to avoid looking for terrorist content on their own networks, because if they saw something and failed to report it they would be breaking the law, but if they stuck their heads in the sand and avoided looking for terrorist content they would be absolved of responsibility."
OMG, someone with an actual clue about how this stuff plays out in the Real World.
Alternatively, they'll write an algorithm that will look for any reference to explosives, guns, radical terrorists, Daesh, Isis (the goddess or the organisation, doesn't matter) etc etc etc and forward EVERY SINGLE ONE to the authorities and say "Here you go, guys, knock yourselves out..."
(Well, that's what *I'd* do in response to this sort of BS!)
It's even more nuanced than that...
"Yesterday, terrorists blew up a government building in France" == Ungood.
"Yesterday, freedom fighters blew up a government building in North Korea" == Doubleplusgood.
Context changes language.
What was that "Good Omens" quote? Ah, yes:
"Maybe some terrorist--?" Aziraphale began.
"Not one of ours," said Crowley.
"Or ours," said Aziraphale, "Although ours are freedom fighters, of course."
[...]
"But I don't think any of ours have any big plans afoot," said Aziraphale. "Just minor acts of ter-- political protest," he corrected.
"Ah," said Crowley bitterly. "You mean none of this cheap, mass-produced murder? Just personal service, every bullet individually fired by skilled craftsmen?"
Aziraphale didn't rise to it.
Icon because, well, Crowley.
For kiddie porn, they need to compare photos against known a known collection. It's doable, nobody else wants to look at or post those photos.
For terrorism, if they compare words against a known list. Only it doesn't work, it'd pick out the Oxford English Dictionary as a prime suspect because it's got all the words they're looking for. Next it'd pick out academic essays, anything against terrorism because it's still got the words in, anything sarcastic, and so on.
For terrorism, if they compare words against a known list. Only it doesn't work, it'd pick out the Oxford English Dictionary as a prime suspect because it's got all the words they're looking for. Next it'd pick out academic essays, anything against terrorism because it's still got the words in, anything sarcastic, and so on.
Are you trying to be SARCASTIC now?! People got into trouble for less than that, you know (airport bombs jokes, etc).
...
OMG, I used a banned word!!!!
In other words, it sounds like a poorly thought-out, knee-jerk reaction that would almost certainly fail a First Amendment challenge.
Typical Feinstein. When in doubt, pass a law as that will stop everything bad dead in it's tracks. No one will ever do anything against the law, she thinks. The chandelier that is Congress is filled with dim-bulbs but I think hers is burned out.
"The chandelier that is Congress is filled with dim-bulbs but I think hers is burned out."
Worse than that.
Congress now consists of people who know how to game the system, and get re-elected. No further expertise than that.
I'd say it's mostly dim bulbs, several dead ones, and a few like this that actually suck the light out of their surroundings.
@Doug S, so Trump is racist for proposing something that Jimmy Carter already did, and something that is perfectly legal? Guess in that case Twitter needs to shut down Carter's account first, if he's even got one... (P.S. Islam is not a race ;) )
@Christoph, right because western militaries are TRYING to kill civilians, they have nothing better to do, just watching and waiting for when the jihadis decide to use some kids as human shields...oh look civilians, time to get busy! Paris Hilton because you seem to be on the same mental level....
@ Kumar2012
I suggest you try reading what the drone pilots have to say about it.
Try this one too. Those kids are "fun-sized terrorists".
So a couple very, very, very dim congress critters think that there is a magic wand for monitoring terrorists. First off, one of the simplest ways to avoid detection is to have a code prearranged. Two people talking about flowers, if done properly, will keep the spooks confused and an automated system will fail. Dumber than a flea should read some US history. Prior to Pearl Harbor one of the Japanese consular officials in Hawaii had weekly phone call to Japan and the subject was always about flowers. Even the very dim US military intelligence did surmise the conversation was encoded and was not about flowers.
This would probably overburden the various inept 3-letter agencies with more garbage.
It's not just Twitter and Facebook.
You could include a whole host of other sites and services not least those little known things like Office 365, YouTube and Google+
Depending on what they choose to class as Social Media you could include most of the internet...
Okay, so now the social media companies will have to be hiring scads of people knowing myriads of languages to scan for naughty phrases. Even dumping phrases into automatic scanning requires lots of upfront work and continual (socially aware) maintenance.
Now what other potential employers have gone begging for people with expertise in weird combinations of languages? You know, like say Javanese or Indonesian used by the Bali bombers? Oh yes, the intelligence services.
So this law is actually sabotage. Fine work all around from our political classes!
The same measure was reportedly included in a secret, classified bill that approved the intelligence agencies' various programs
Maybe this is displaying crashing ignorance on my part, but how can there be "classified" bills leading to secret laws in a democracy? How can the public comply with laws that they don't know exist?
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