Justice Department Walks Back Demand For Information On Anti-Trump Website (theverge.com) 130
After issuing a warrant to DreamHost for "all files" related to an anti-trump website, the Justice Department says it's scaling back a demand for information from hosting service DreamHost. The Verge reports: In a legal filing today, the Justice Department argues that the warrant was proper, but also says DreamHost has since brought up information that was previously "unknown." In light of that, it has offered to carve out information demanded in the warrant, specifically pledging to not request information like HTTP logs tied to IP addresses. The department says it is only looking for information related to criminal activity on the site, and says that "the government is focused on the use of the Website to organize, to plan, and to effect a criminal act -- that is, a riot." Peaceful protestors, the government argues, are not the targets of the warrant. The filing asks the court to proceed with the new, less burdensome request, which, apart from the carved-out sections, still requests "all records or other information, pertaining to the Account, including all files, databases, and database records stored by DreamHost in relation to that Account." It's unclear if DreamHost will continue to fight the new demand.
This is fine (Score:1, Troll)
Privacy and free speech only apply to people who support the president.
Re: This is fine (Score:1)
People who support the President would share everything with him anyway, their hearts, their minds, their wallets.
Truly they care the best of us.
Re: This is fine (Score:1, Insightful)
Clearly not. Many who supported Trump are shut down from speaking out in public, disinvented to speak in public places paid for with tax dollars, violently attacked when gathering in a public place, had their private information released to the general public... in what way are Trump supporters getting special protection here?
I don't agree with them or their choice for president, but I'd have to say if this was happening to Clinton supporters there would be major outrage. I know I'd be rather pissed off
Re: This is fine (Score:4, Insightful)
You have the right to free speech and privacy. But if you make your views known publicly, you can't assume you'll somehow magically be immune from the consequences. Want to be a Nazi in your basement, go right ahead. Want to be a Nazi out in the town square, then you have voluntarily surrendered your rights to privacy, and if your friends, family and employer no longer want to be associated with you because you believe the white race is superior and all the Jews and brown skinned people should be chased off, well, that's tough on you.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
You have the right to free speech and privacy. But if you make your views known publicly, you can't assume you'll somehow magically be immune from the consequences. Want to be a Nazi in your basement, go right ahead. Want to be a Nazi out in the town square, then you have voluntarily surrendered your rights to privacy, and if your friends, family and employer no longer want to be associated with you because you believe the white race is superior and all the Jews and brown skinned people should be chased off, well, that's tough on you.
This meme of "Freedom of speech != freedom from consequences" is one of the stupidest fucking things I've ever encountered on this site. It is absolutely rampant, too. Do you really have freedom of speech if you lose your job, your friends, you family over your political beliefs? I trust you would support swathes of people ostracizing somebody who happens to publicly be an atheist, or a commie, or gay, right? No! Of course you wouldn't. And you'd be right to oppose maltreatment of others with unpopular opin
Re: (Score:1)
This meme of "Freedom of speech != freedom from consequences" is one of the stupidest fucking things I've ever encountered on this site. It is absolutely rampant, too.
It's everywhere now. It did not start here nor is the worst here.
For some reason many liberals are turning to be no longer liberal. They are playing social shaming games, ostracism, and mob rule to get their way. It's all so very abusive. They think they are in the right to do it too, especially with this eye-for-an-eye self-styled oppression olympics where they are not fighting against anyone or they are being the aggressors.
It's getting bad and I do not know how to prevent more people from following this
Re: This is fine (Score:2)
Bull shit.
Re: (Score:1)
And this will be the reason why we will no longer allow groups like the ones you support to proliferate with their hateful rhetoric any longer. You have become what you hate so much.
BTW, thank you for your assistance in your single-handed destruction of the liberal progressive movement in the US.
Re: (Score:2)
This meme of "Freedom of speech != freedom from consequences" is one of the stupidest fucking things I've ever encountered on this site. It is absolutely rampant, too. Do you really have freedom of speech if you lose your job, your friends, you family over your political beliefs?
"Boss, I think you're an idiot" in the middle of a staff meeting. Freedom of speech? Sure. Freedom from consequences? Maybe in some other world.
Re: (Score:2)
Let's be clear, that web site is a scammy public relations exercise to drive identity politics in order to exclude policy politics. Who paid for it and why is more important than who accessed it. Obviously part of a larger scheme to drive conflict and break up workers, to keep identity politics to the fore and drive policy back out of public purview, to keep the establishment powerful and the rest of us divided and weak. Fuck, your living conditions, the state of your genitals count for more whether natural
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh bullshit
You have the right to free speech and privacy. But if you make your views known publicly, you can't assume you'll somehow magically be immune from the consequences. Want to be a terrorist AntiFa in your basement, go right ahead. Want to be a terrorist AntiFa out in the town square, then you have voluntarily surrendered your rights to privacy, and if your friends, family and employer no longer want to be associated with you because you believe socialism is superior and all the Jews and white skinned people or whomever is the alinksy-ite determined people to hate du jour should be chased off, well, that's tough on you.
You're not going to like it when the tables are turned.
Except that being a Nazi in most parts of the Western world are viewed as far worse than being an antifa thug. Sorry, that's just the way it is. I'm sorry your white supremacist beliefs make you into among the most deplorable human beings around. Maybe you should reconsider your hatred of minorities and your misplaced, and frankly idiotic. View.of your superiity, because what you really are is a pathetic whining snowflake whose misfortune is your own goddamned fault and not some Jewish conspiracy to keep yo
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Except that being a Nazi in most parts of the Western world are viewed as far worse than being an antifa thug. Sorry, that's just the way it is.
You can't justify bad behavior by saying the other side is worse. Neither are acceptable. Sorry, that's just the way it is.
Re: (Score:1)
go away, correct the record.
Re: This is fine (Score:1)
Tearing down statues isn't rewriting history. History's still in history books. The statues glorify traitors who tried to tear the country in two to preserve slavery. It was a few decades after the war when the South began rewriting history, claiming that the war was over economics and state's rights.
Re: (Score:2)
History books are already being required to carry the view of the "official" party. <sarcasm>Thanks Texas </sarcasm>
Re: (Score:2)
Tearing down all those statues of Lenin and Stalin doesn't make Soviet history go away. It's still there, in the history books.
The fact is that most of these monuments are not meant as memories to the tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers that died. They were put up explicitly to celebrate rebel leaders who championed slavery. Yes, there are some complicated cases. General Lee was ambivalent towards slavery, and believed it was doomed, but fought on the side of the South because he viewed it as his home
Re: (Score:2)
I'm just going to post this link again to remind everyone that "far left extremists" are a sharp minority in the committing of extremist murders in the US:
https://www.adl.org/sites/defa... [adl.org]
The long and the short, in 2016, the majority of extremist crimes were committed by Islamic Extremists, in 2015 the majority were committed by White Supremacists.
Re: (Score:2)
Attempted what? What genocide? Oh I get it, because anti-miscegenation laws were thrown in the trash, all of a sudden your precious bodily fluids are at risk.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Grow up.
Someone who can't tell the difference between Nazis (want to kill all the jews, blacks, etc.) and Antifa (don't want to be killed any more) is not worth talking to.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't see how protesting a pack of Nazis is "destroying the government". Even many government representatives have pointedly condemned White Nationalists, White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis.
Re: (Score:2)
Except that being a Nazi in most parts of the Western world are viewed as far worse than being an antifa thug.
I already doubt this is actually the case, and with antifa acting like it is, it most certainly will not be the case for very long. You might only hear pro-antifa opinions because of consensus hacking efforts by the social engineers in silicon valley and because people who don't want to get involved don't speak up.
I'm sorry your white supremacist beliefs make you into among the most deplorable human beings around.
"Deplorable" huh, do you remember how using that word turned out last time? Good luck winning over hearts and minds with that attitude.
Re: (Score:2)
Poser.
If you were a concealed carry holder, you would have had a class where they taught you to aim body center.
Chicago 8 (Score:1)
This reminds me of the Chicago 8 who were tried for inciting a riot, even though not all of them had met before the trial.
In this case, however, it will be many times more than 8.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
FTFY
Congratulations on becoming everything you claim to hate..
Re:This is fine (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems to be an anti-evolutionary and stupid approach to matters of critical importance, in my opinion.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Yesterday I saw an article about a yoga guy (or girl) urging students and teachers to embrace "gender justice". So either you are a gender justice warrior or your are a white supremacist, there is no middle ground.
In this madness we miss things like this DOJ request, which can and should be fought against. It's simply too unimportant compared to white supremacy. And gender justice.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, but are layers of straw man arguments really useful toward achieving a productive dialogue?
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
You can't have a productive dialogue with people who are nazi apologists.
Re:This is fine (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree , too.
However, BlueStrat is demonstrably wrong, has a history of being demonstrably wrong, and comes from a long line of people who are demonstrably wrong. Oh, and "stupid". I have extensive data and metrics to prove it.
Realized it was in the NSA database (Score:4, Insightful)
Stored as "metadata".
Same thing.
"We drew too much attention.." (Score:4, Insightful)
We drew too much attention from the media and the general public with our outlandish search warrant, so rather than take all the heat for what amounted to an overreach, we (quote-unquote) 'scaled back the request' so we don't look like the jackbooted thugs we actually are.
Pro-tip for you, guys: You still look like jackbooted thugs.
Re: (Score:1)
That's fine, "looking like jackbooted thugs" is not something they're currently trying to avoid. So long as there's some degree of plausible deniability (which "walking back" the request creates), "intimidating the public" is exactly what they wanted to achieve.
This episode has had its impact - there's been a chilling effect, everyone in America is now ever so slightly more thoughtful about what websites they visit because of it.
Hope you enjoyed freedom of association while it lasted, because it's on its la
Re: (Score:3)
While that may be true (Score:4, Informative)
Re:While that may be true (Score:4, Informative)
When you get people like that at the very top, it normalizes their behaviour and views. That's why Trump's opponents keep saying "this is not normal".
On the plus side (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I agree. Legitimate concerns that must be addressed. The problem is that the honest answer is "it's complicated and the solutions take time to work, and you are going to have to change your lifestyle and outlook to get there". It's very easy for someone to come in and promise to fix everything with some simplistic ideas like "build a wall".
Re: (Score:3)
Unless you violate the SJW code (Score:2, Interesting)
Then you'll be doxxed out of your livelihood or outed by IPs and internet companies like Google and Dreamhost for your wrong think.
Gotta love the hypocrisy of the leftists here - "these Trump people are jackbooted thugs"
No. That would be the leftists and Antifa.
As you see here - if you deplatform Leftists you're evil - if you deplatform anybody with a conservative viewpoint you're a hero.
Be careful of what you're building - you're not going to like the result.
Re: (Score:2)
Based on what we know about past protests, the Antiffa activists pushing for the most violent tactics are likely working undercover for the government.
Re: (Score:2)
But I was thinking more about the '60s and '70s anti-war protesters, like the weather underground offshoot of the SDS, which I'm more familiar with, since I was a teenager becoming politically aware then.
Is this Trump evil, or just Standard Issue evil? (Score:2)
I have plenty of reasons to hold the Trump administration in low regard, but it isn't clear this is one of them.
Is this a politically directed Justice department dealing unto the opponents of the administration, or is this just overpowered law enforcement agents acting in the way they are accustomed?