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posted by janrinok on Wednesday May 20 2015, @11:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the kiss-your-freedom-goodbye dept.

Issac Asimov's Harry Seldon used "psycho-history" to predict the future. Tom Cruise used "precogs" in Minority Report. And now a pro-Putin think tank is trying to divine dissident activity by mining social media.

The Center for Research in Legitimacy and Political Protest claims to have developed software that will search Russian social media posts for signs of plans by political opposition to the government to stage unapproved protests or meetings. Described by an Izvestia report [in Russian] as "a system to prevent mass disorder," the software searches through social media posts once every five minutes to catch hints of "unauthorized actions" and potentially alert law enforcement to prevent them.

Public protests, rallies, marches, and meetings staged without government approval are outlawed in Russia—individuals can be fined up to about $600 (30,000 rubles) for participating in such events or sentenced to 50 hours of community service.

The software, which went live on May 18, is named "Laplace's demon" after the theoretical all-seeing intellect that could calculate the future of the universe based on the position and state of all matter. According to the Center's director, Yevgeny Venediktov, the software specifically monitors "politically oriented groups of social protest" at a national level, as well as local discussion platforms for specific geographic areas. "Particular attention will be paid to the number of likes and reposts in extremist groups." Groups and user pages associated with "extremists" are tagged by volunteers, aggregated into a central database, and analyzed and filtered by sociologists and political scientists.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/05/pre-thoughtcrime-russian-think-tank-app-catches-protestors-before-they-protest/

 
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  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday May 20 2015, @11:38PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @11:38PM (#185793)

    Russian Think-Tank App Catches Protesters - some brainy guys had a good idea
    Russian Think "Tank App" Catches Protesters - an app for the tank driver to use to know where to drive

    Well, at least the latter is a bit clumsy without being pluralized.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @11:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @11:51PM (#185800)

    Soon America too can be domestically oppressive as China and Russia! Because it's a race to the bottom, not the top!

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday May 21 2015, @02:48AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 21 2015, @02:48AM (#185864) Journal

      Because it's a race to the bottom, not the top!

      Mmm... I like Havana Club (better than Baccardi) and Cuban music; might be an idea for retirement.

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      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:28AM

        by captain normal (2205) on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:28AM (#185886)

        Maybe...if the US relaxes embargo enough so that one can have Social Security funds transferred to Cuba (or maybe Viet Nam).

        --
        When life isn't going right, go left.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @08:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @08:08AM (#185941)

    No, it clearly states that a Russian think tank with name "App" is catching protesters.

  • (Score: 2) by everdred on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:58PM

    by everdred (110) on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:58PM (#186085) Journal

    Writer here. Yep, "title case" headlines like these are over-formal and often awkward and confusing. Save the caps for proper nouns.