Five hours after Charlie Kirk was shot this week, an Atlanta man got a phone call from an Illinois police officer asking about a photo he shared with a couple of close friends on a private Discord chat. The Atlanta man, who asked not to be identified, says the post was merely a confirmation that he had purchased the same T-shirt that the accused killer wore (from an Illinois-based online shop).

Social media companies are generally forbidden by law from divulging users’ private communications to the government without a traditional legal process (e.g., court order). But there’s an exception: in perceived emergencies, social media platforms can proactively and “voluntarily” hand over private messages in response to what’s called an “emergency disclosure request” (EDR).

Discord, I am told, did not respond to any EDR here; but when I asked them directly if they’d provided law enforcement with information to traditional legal process, they declined to respond on-record.

The FBI, or the intelligence community, evidently is monitoring Discord private messaging, even from people who have broken no law.

Full blown Orwellian world. Run for local government and stop this shit.

The largest populated areas are left leaning. If they ae controlled by democratic socialist, we can restrict this shit. Just by pure numbers.

  • ExtremeDullard@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    I saw this coming in 1999 when Scott McNealy inadvertantly spilled the beans on what his hateful industry was up to, and I have been extremely cautious about what I’ve been posting ever since. People have called me a paranoid crackpot for decades. I guess I hate to tell you I told you so…

    • DamnianWayne@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      If I ever get oppressed for my speech, I’m going to go do some deeds.

      I’m not going to hide away for 30 years like you have.

      • ExtremeDullard@piefed.social
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        10 hours ago

        If I ever get oppressed for my speech

        You already are.

        Ask yourself: can you say or post absolutely everything that falls under free speech - i.e. not calls to violence of civil disturbance? Do you feel like you can safely talk about all subjects without being cancelled or sued?

        As soon as you start thinking twice about whether you can say something safely, that’s censorship. Censorship isn’t someone breathing over your neck saying “Be careful what you say”, it’s you self-censoring so you don’t get into trouble.

    • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.deOP
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      2 days ago

      De-google and open source has been my push this year. I’m not the most knowledgeable but I don’t trust these companies.

      I stopped using social media for almost 20 years. Only anonymous chats like this are used. Everything goes through a VPN and I always think that someone else is reading my stuff.

      9-11 put us on this track with no restrictions.