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posted by Fnord666 on Monday April 20 2020, @03:16PM   Printer-friendly
from the who-watches-the-watchers? dept.

National security concerns just won out over Twitter's attempt to be transparent about surveillance:

Six years ago, Twitter sued the US government in an attempt to detail surveillance requests the company had received, but a federal judge on Friday ruled in favor of the government's case that detailing the requests would jeopardize the country's safety.

If Twitter revealed the number of surveillance requests it received each calendar quarter, it "would be likely to lead to grave or imminent harm to the national security," US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers concluded after reviewing classified information from the government. See below for the full ruling.

"While we are disappointed with the court's decision, we will continue to fight for transparency," Twitter said in a statement Saturday.


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  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 22 2020, @01:06AM (24 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday April 22 2020, @01:06AM (#985627)

    Oh, right. A poor point poorly made.

    No guesses for who is the lesser of the two offenders then.

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 22 2020, @03:41AM (23 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 22 2020, @03:41AM (#985662) Journal

    No guesses for who is the lesser of the two offenders then.

    There shouldn't be! After all, only about two dozen present day countries can point to the end of the USSR for their freedom!

    • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 22 2020, @04:35AM (22 children)

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday April 22 2020, @04:35AM (#985676)

      How many Latin American countries can point to the end of the USA for their freedom?

      Cuba has managed it, can't think of any others though. That's probably whataboutism though.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 22 2020, @05:20AM (21 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 22 2020, @05:20AM (#985681) Journal

        How many Latin American countries can point to the end of the USA for their freedom?

        Zero. Should tell you something.

        • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 22 2020, @06:54AM (20 children)

          by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday April 22 2020, @06:54AM (#985691)

          What would it tell me? They keep losing. except Cuba.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 22 2020, @02:02PM (19 children)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 22 2020, @02:02PM (#985722) Journal
            Among other things, how spurious your comparison of the USSR and US was in the first place.
            • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 22 2020, @10:20PM (18 children)

              by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday April 22 2020, @10:20PM (#985880)

              My point is that every bad thing America accused the USSR of doing, the US also did.

              The rest of the world knows that as hypocrisy.

              If you choose to keep on thinking that your side are the good guys, then feel free. You're not though.

              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 23 2020, @02:49AM (17 children)

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 23 2020, @02:49AM (#985943) Journal

                My point is that every bad thing America accused the USSR of doing, the US also did.

                Like killing tens of millions of their own people? Your point is wrong.

                The rest of the world knows that as hypocrisy.

                Except, of course, when it's not. I think rather that equating a greater evil with a lesser one is a bit more hypocritical.

                • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday April 23 2020, @03:16AM (16 children)

                  by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday April 23 2020, @03:16AM (#985951)

                  Like killing tens of millions of their own people?

                  You've heard of Native Americans haven't you? You probably think of them as Indians.

                  If there had been tens of millions of them, that is how many your government would have murdered to get their land.

                  Do you know why the plains bison were hunted to almost extinction? Because the Plains tribes depended on them as a food supply. Just for example. But yeah, you're the good guys.

                  Did they teach the Trail of Tears when you went to school?
                  Seriously dude, every example you have for some terrible thing the USSR did, I have one the US did.

                  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 23 2020, @02:39PM (15 children)

                    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 23 2020, @02:39PM (#986015) Journal

                    If there had been tens of millions of them, that is how many your government would have murdered to get their land.

                    "IF". Once again, equating the murder of tens of thousands with the murder of tens of millions.

                    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 23 2020, @04:32PM

                      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 23 2020, @04:32PM (#986090) Journal
                      Tens of thousands over five centuries with a good portion of the deaths before the US became a country.
                    • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday April 23 2020, @08:21PM (13 children)

                      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday April 23 2020, @08:21PM (#986192)

                      Right. Which is my point.

                      You are happy for the US to overthrow democratically elected governments, and murder native peoples, because the raw numbers of deaths are lower.

                      That is a very low bar you're setting.

                      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 23 2020, @08:57PM (12 children)

                        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 23 2020, @08:57PM (#986205) Journal

                        You are happy for the US to overthrow democratically elected governments, and murder native peoples, because the raw numbers of deaths are lower.

                        You're the only "happy" one here conflating evils that differ by three orders of magnitude.

                        That is a very low bar you're setting.

                        Says the person who doesn't care if tens of thousands of people or tens of millions of people die.

                        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 23 2020, @09:49PM (11 children)

                          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 23 2020, @09:49PM (#986220) Journal

                          You're the only "happy" one here conflating evils that differ by three orders of magnitude.

                          And an order of magnitude in the time scale.

                          • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday April 23 2020, @10:04PM (10 children)

                            by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday April 23 2020, @10:04PM (#986227)

                            Wow.

                            So genocide has to happen. There's just no other way. Luckily we only have to murder a few tens of thousands of people to get what we want.

                            Not like those other murders, who had to murder millions. They're the real bad guys.

                            Your number are bullshit by the way. [wikipedia.org]

                            Don't forget all those times those fruit companies needed their slave revolts put down, so you sent the marines in. [wikipedia.org]

                            Or that time your CIA sold cocaine to Americans to fund the attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government. [wikipedia.org]
                            But sure. Communism is bad and we're the good guys.

                            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 23 2020, @11:06PM (9 children)

                              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 23 2020, @11:06PM (#986255) Journal

                              So genocide has to happen. There's just no other way.

                              Your words, remember that.

                              Your number are bullshit by the way.

                              Your link doesn't support that claim. I do seem to be in error according to this link [hawaii.edu] which sports an estimate of 600k deaths from 1607 to 1890 for American Natives (line 208). I don't know whether the estimate includes the region of Canada (which also has a high number of deaths, mostly under UK governance). But at least for the US itself, we're in the tens of thousands of range (from massacres during the Revolutionary War through to 1890 and the massacre of ghost dancers, including the Great Plains wars and the Trail of Tears).

                              Or the time we starved 3.5+ million Ukrainians because they were causing problems for Moscow? Funny how the Holodomor, which is only part of the vast harm of the USSR by itself dwarfs every evil that you mentioned about the US. Communism really is bad, and the people who can't come within even two orders of magnitude of the death count really are the good guys.

                              • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday April 23 2020, @11:20PM (8 children)

                                by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday April 23 2020, @11:20PM (#986263)

                                Wow. The one thing the USSR never really got right was their propaganda. You've completely drowned in the kool-aid.

                                • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 23 2020, @11:26PM (7 children)

                                  by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 23 2020, @11:26PM (#986265) Journal

                                  Wow. The one thing the USSR never really got right was their propaganda. You've completely drowned in the kool-aid.

                                  Sounds to me like that propaganda worked great on you. The real problem here is that USSR propaganda can only go so far to hide 60 million bodies.

                                  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday April 24 2020, @12:04AM (6 children)

                                    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Friday April 24 2020, @12:04AM (#986284)

                                    You're still arguing that it's just a numbers game, as if that makes a difference. You're the one who can't see past the propaganda you've lived with your entire life.

                                    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 24 2020, @12:13AM (5 children)

                                      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 24 2020, @12:13AM (#986289) Journal

                                      You're still arguing that it's just a numbers game, as if that makes a difference.

                                      So will you really claim that 60 million more deaths in the territory of the US doesn't make a difference? Else, I've called your bluff.

                                      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday April 24 2020, @01:34AM (4 children)

                                        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Friday April 24 2020, @01:34AM (#986335)

                                        In a thread about secret laws and secret courts in your country you're still just arguing semantics.

                                        You've decided it's just a numbers game.

                                        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 24 2020, @01:50AM (3 children)

                                          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 24 2020, @01:50AM (#986340) Journal

                                          In a thread about secret laws and secret courts in your country you're still just arguing semantics.

                                          I'm arguing harm. It beats arguing profound innumeracy, like saying that up to 600k of mass murdering over 400 years is like 60 million of mass murdering over the past century and any opinion of the relative harm of killing that many people is just drinking the kool aid.

                                          Doubling down with the claim [soylentnews.org] that the US would murder 60 million native Americans over any relevant time scale, if somehow it were given the opportunity. In other words, damning the US for things it didn't do! Yet another owned goal.

                                          There is an enormous moral blindness here. To you, it doesn't matter how many people are hurt. It doesn't even matter, if the evil doesn't actually happen. And for some strange reason you think this is about "semantics"? Sorry, there's no reason to take your opinion on "secret laws and secret courts" seriously when you are so morally blind.

                                          • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday April 24 2020, @02:11AM (2 children)

                                            by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Friday April 24 2020, @02:11AM (#986354)

                                            Wow. That is so weird that you're even trying to argue morality just because numbers of dead.

                                            And you call me morally blind.

                                            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 24 2020, @12:21PM

                                              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 24 2020, @12:21PM (#986441) Journal

                                              That is so weird that you're even trying to argue morality just because numbers of dead.

                                              It can't be moral otherwise.

                                              And you call me morally blind.

                                              You just proved it again.

                                            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 24 2020, @12:32PM

                                              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 24 2020, @12:32PM (#986447) Journal
                                              I find it interesting how you can't get numbers, like 1000 being a lot bigger than 1.