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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 frojack on Friday May 22 2015, @03:51AM

    by frojack (1554) on Friday May 22 2015, @03:51AM (#186315) Journal

    I don't know of any country anywhere (at least not in Europe, Asia, or North America, doubt the rest are any better) that allows demonstrations unless they've been approved in advance.

    Wow! Where do you live?

    I can tell you for certain that a demonstration can break out anywhere in the US on a moment's notice, with signs and slogans and everything. As long as you are not unruly, don't block traffic, don't make threats, you demonstrate all day long.

    Only time you need a permit is if you are want to hold a march in the streets. And if you live in a very liberal jurisdiction, you can get a parade permit in 15 minutes.

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  • (Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Friday May 22 2015, @07:36PM

    by Yog-Yogguth (1862) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 22 2015, @07:36PM (#186619) Journal

    Sure I agree (and what you describe can happen anywhere at all, it could and did even happen in the Soviet Union and China) but that's not actually “legal” or allowed as such, the powers that be (anywhere) could stop it at a whim and it would be completely “legal” of them to do so, and it doesn't take much to prod them into doing it either although sometimes they'll resist.

    They can stop previously approved demonstrations as well if they feel like it/want to and they often do. Its ever so easy to make reasonable arguments in each case as well, both fake and genuine ones.

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