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from the I-was-too-busy-browsing-Facebook dept.
The FBI 'Can Neither Confirm nor Deny' That It Monitors Your Social Media Posts
In recent years, the federal government has significantly ramped up its efforts to monitor people on social media. The FBI, for one, has repeatedly acknowledged that it engages in surveillance of social media posts. So it was surprising when the bureau responded to our Freedom of Information Act request on this kind of surveillance by saying that it "can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records."
The six other federal agencies we submitted the FOIA request to haven't produced a single document. The request, filed last May, seeks information on how the agencies collect and analyze posts from Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.
Today we sued the agencies to get some answers, because the public has a right to know about the exact nature of social media surveillance — especially whether agencies are monitoring and retaining social media posts, or using surveillance products that label activists and people of color as threats to public safety based on their First Amendment-protected activities.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 19 2019, @03:45AM (1 child)
It's slightly more nuanced than that.
"Yeah, of course we can, if we feel like it, if you've painted a target over your heart, and if we've noticed, but we aren't going to admit anything so move along citizen."
If the FBI were doing large scale monitoring, they would have taken in that shooter in Florida before he killed - was it 17? classmates. With him, someone expressed concern about him, the FBI took a cursory glance, concluded that he was not a security threat, and moved on to bigger fish.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 19 2019, @04:31AM
If the FBI were doing large scale monitoring, they would have taken in that shooter in Florida before he killed - was it 17? classmates. With him, someone expressed concern about him, the FBI took a cursory glance, concluded that he was not a security threat, and moved on to grooming their in-house terrorist patsies.
FTFY.