US prosecutors demand data to unmask every visitor to anti-Trump protest website Web hosting biz DreamHost is resisting a US government search warrant to turn over data about everyone who visited a website used to coordinate anti-Trump protests. The website, disruptj20.org, is hosted by DreamHost, and was used to organize inauguration protests on January 20, 2017, in Washington DC, according to court …
I am currently debating whether to click on that link or not. On the one hand it might make their sifting job a bit harder if suddenly there were tens of millions of IP addresses in the log, On the other hand I wouldn't put it beyond them to take the trouble to ID everyone and put them on a travel watch list.
(raises hand)
Ooh! Me! Me! Can you put me on the watchlist, just so that I can never be tempted (should I have a mental breakdown or similar) to go to the US?
I'd be interested to know - among the travel watchlist, and the immigration watchlist, and the list of people who are a certain religion etc. - how many people would voluntarily add themselves to such a list just to show the US quite how many people DON'T want to deal with their current shite.
I'm on the list (I think)
ESTA's were fine.
Was trying to check-in online and I got flagged. The rest of the family didn't. I asked and was told I was on "a list" and had to go through an extra hour of security checks...
Then, at the airport (both sides) - I get the extra checks (ballistics, everything).
Sadly - I've normalised it so turn up earlier to expect it now.
Best case they get their list of 10s of millions of IP addresses, but to what end? They then have to carve up the IP addresses to the relevant ISP, then submit request to each of the ISPs to translate the IPs into actual users - ignoring the fact that they wouldn't be necessarily the visitor to that page...
So... has Dreamhost actually filed a motion, or whatever it is they need to do, to resist the order legally? Or are they just blogging about it and aiming for martyrdom?
I would have guessed that legal channels would stand a good chance of success in this case, but only if they're correctly pursued. "The court of public opinion", while entertaining, is not really the most appropriate jurisdiction for the case.
So... has Dreamhost actually filed a motion, or whatever it is they need to do, to resist the order legally? Or are they just blogging about it and aiming for martyrdom?
Well, since you've presumably actually read that blog post, you'll know that they have made an appropriate legal response. As well as blogging to inform the general public about how their government is trying to suppress any political dissent.
That is, visit the site. Maybe we can get it to a billion IP addresses?
Not very likely if the visiting populance are just el-reg types - you want to get someone with a large twit or FB following to post the address - tell them it's a link to some outrageous new Kardashian story - or celeb porn - whatever...
Maybe we can get it to a billion IP addresses?
IP addresses with no other information mean nothing, so I'd expect there to be time stamps and activity logging. Even the dumbest of NSA analysts would be able to sort the data and ignore everything after a given time. Ringleaders will not be the latecomers.
But you might find that they pass the foreign IP addresses of shit-stirring latecomers onto US immigration, in case you one day choose to visit The Land Formerly Known As The Land of the Free. And if you're living in a Five Spies country, your domestic security services will happily identify you to the Yanks.
Actually, they didn't. That may be the worst part of the whole mess is that for the POPULAR vote, AKA how PEOPLE actually voted, Hillarious won. But because the USA is such a shining example of democracy, Trumped-Up won the election even though he LOST the vote of the people thanks to the antiquated and highly debatable institution known as the Electoral College. It isn't even the first time that this has ever happened, but definitely this time around has the most dire consequences.
You see, that's all the US needs...Jeremy Corbyn to come and sow the seeds of peace.
He can share a podium with the KKK and any bat shit crazy white supremacist group and refer to them as his friends...because as we know, all issues and groups just need to be talked to calmly and they'll soon see the error of their ways!
Can you imagine if Maybot had ever said "friends from the KKK"?
Thank fuck for boundary changes if it keeps that bearded twat out of power and his cabal of evil Stalinists.
" but definitely this time around has the most dire consequences."
Really? The last time millions of people died half way around the world from the US.
Whilst this situation has the *potential* to be much worse, it hasn't actually happened yet.
last I checked, the Corbyn machine was all set to call any result that wasn't to its liking as "rigged" (just like they do in other tin pot dictatorships or countries). That man and his idiotic advisers respect characters like Chairman Mao and Joseph Stalin...characters who are not known for their love of democracy...in fact I'd go further: they're known for heartlessly massacring vast swathes of their own populations...but hey...maybe I am just being revisionist...I am sure Seamus Milne or Diane Abbott can set me straight and "make the case" for Mao and Stalin.
The boundary changes are to improve democracy, not to destroy it...but it still pleases me that it fucks over beardy and his merry men (and one token woman).
"The boundary changes are to improve democracy, not to destroy it"
To give an example how fucked they are.
Our village (yes village, not town) was split about 70/30
The 70 percent were allowed to vote for the local parish councilors all of whom live in the village. The other 30% had to vote for the neighboring town, the winner of which lives 20 miles from that town, let alone the village.
Yes that makes sense.
Bound to be some anomalies...
http://boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/2018-review/
The changes are not partisan however...no matter what your average Che loving Corbynista says, the commission in charge of these changes is not run by baby eating, child abusing, pig molesting Tory scum. Unless you believe anybody who disagrees with anything JC says is classified thus, in which case you are lost anyway.
What do you mean "anything against the president is a crime"?
It is a crime if they are trying to harm the president. It is not a crime to hate the president, protest the president, say mean things about the president, or anything else connected with the president other than trying to harm him or his family.
I'll bet 95% of those who think the president should somehow be protected from criticism and protest did not hold that view when Obama was president.
If they investigate and find that some people were planning to destroy property or commit other crimes then that's a crime and they can be prosecuted. But being "against the president" is not and should never be a crime, even if Trump would make it a crime if he could.
To add a quote in support ...
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
Theodore Roosevelt
Indeed.
One of the defining characteristics about many of the places I don't consider fit for living is that they have laws on the books criminalising criticism of the ruling party (while often including 'democracy' somewhere in their name). (As an aside; add places where 'blasphemy' is on the rule books, for exactly the same reasons - the only difference between a king and a god is that you have a chance of getting rid of a king.)
Which sounds wonderful for the mythical 'honour' of the country - hey, we don't like people who are rude about the king, do we? - but is more practically an admission that every member of the government's opposition, or anyone who even expresses an opinion that they are not living in the best of all possible worlds because of some government decision, is fair game for trail, arrest, incarceration, or death - not necessarily in that order.
"The domain name has disrupt, as in stop, hinder, interfere with, the inauguration in its name. That's a bit more than free speech and anything against the president is a crime, be they right wing or left wing."
Ooooh, The Axe, you're SO right! AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons, has a WHOLE WEBSITE called "Disrupt Aging", where we are indoctrinated in things like healthy eating and exercise to stay fitter. We are obviously dangerous radicals, and need to be monitored carefully! In fact, I'm so fired up, my next jewelry line (I'm a jewelry craftsperson) will be called "Disrupt Pearls" and obviously will be dragged off the art fair table to incarceration. Free the Beads! Or, string us up, if you prefer....
That's my husband in the pic at right, you didn't have a crone icon.
Hopefully this is deemed unconstitutional, but it shows just how dangerous a combination of data mining and an authoritarian government can be.
If it's allowed to stand, I really would worry about the future of the USA as a functioning democracy, as this would have a massive chilling effect on freedom of speech. You would have to think about potential implications of every website you visited. That's pretty much how people have to behave in authoritarian states like China and really is contrary to reviving the USA would claim to be.
It's a shame that there are probably at least three Alphabet Soup agencies that already have the complete list, through (questionably) legal means. Ever since we started giving up our civil liberties for (alleged) protection from terrorists, the government has gotten away with some truly frightening things. Still, I applaud the attempt at taking a stance to actually uphold Constitutional rights, even if it is functionally meaningless.
Can you say "fishing trip" ?
Still at least they haven't invoked THE PATRIOT act and just taken the information.
Yet.
Ol' Donnie really hasn't gotten over the rather thin turn out for his inauguration.
Except for the protesters.
You wouldn't believe that someone who ran such a divisive blame-the-victim campaign could have such a thin skin. :-(
The fact that resources are being wasted on this matter tells me the protesters were right.
As for the D and the worlds least favorite Norman Cook tribute DJ. Two stubborn donkeys with nuclear weapons sounds like a bad day for the planet to me.
Can you say "fishing trip" ?
Not necessarily. They already may have a list of suspect IP addresses against which to compare this lot. The Trump Putin presidency is only in its first year. It could be it's only laying the foundation for the crackdown on dissenters to come.
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Isn't that rather the point... If they do have a suspect's IP list then let them present it to the ISPs for matching/data extraction, and not the way they're trying to fish it?
Why is the ISP being asked to justify its refusal - the requestor should be justifying its request - hook line and sinker.
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