Tag: monitoring

White supremacists are riling up thousands on social media

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

White supremacists are riling up thousands on social media

The social media posts are of a distinct type. They hint darkly that the CIA or the FBI are behind mass shootings*. They traffic in racist, sexist and homophobic tropes. They revel in the prospect of a “white boy summer.”

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These type of threats and racist ideology have become so commonplace on social media that it’s nearly impossible for law enforcement to separate internet ramblings from dangerous, potentially violent people, Michael German**, who infiltrated white supremacy groups as an FBI agent, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

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Facebook and Instagram owner Meta banned praise and support for white nationalist and separatists movements in 2019*** on company platforms, but the social media shift to subtlety makes it difficult to moderate the posts.

Related:

*FBI Infiltration of Right-Wing Groups (PATCON, ETC)

**Mike German – Brennan Center For Justice

**FBI Agent Mike German Discusses Years Undercover Investigating Skinheads, Aryans and More

***FACEBOOK ALLOWS PRAISE OF NEO-NAZI UKRAINIAN BATTALION IF IT FIGHTS RUSSIAN INVASION

Just tell them that you’re fighting, against the Russians, if they try to censor you?! 🤷🏼‍♀️

CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders

The documents reveal the expansive plan the CDC had last year to use location data from a highly controversial data broker. SafeGraph, the company the CDC paid $420,000 for access to one year of data, includes Peter Thiel and the former head of Saudi intelligence [Turki bin Faisal Al Saud] among its investors. Google banned the company from the Play Store in June.

The CDC used the data for monitoring curfews, with the documents saying that SafeGraph’s data “has been critical for ongoing response efforts, such as hourly monitoring of activity in curfew zones or detailed counts of visits to participating pharmacies for vaccine monitoring.” The documents date from 2021.

Zach Edwards, a cybersecurity researcher who closely follows the data marketplace, told Motherboard in an online chat after reviewing the documents: “The CDC seems to have purposefully created an open-ended list of use cases, which included monitoring curfews, neighbor-to-neighbor visits, visits to churches, schools and pharmacies, and also a variety of analysis with this data specifically focused on ‘violence.’” (The document doesn’t stop at churches; it mentions “places of worship.”)

Related:

Data Broker Is Selling Location Data of People Who Visit Abortion Clinics

Location data broker SafeGraph stops selling information on visits to abortion providers

SafeGraph Provides CDC and 1000+ Organizations With Data to Fight the COVID-19 Crisis

Google Bans Location Data Firm Funded by Former Saudi Intelligence Head:

On its website SafeGraph says “We believe places data should be open for all.” In April 2017, Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, the former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, invested in SafeGraph as part of a $16 million Series A funding round. SafeGraph said it had “assembled the deepest policy thinkers.” Beyond Faisal Al Saud, SafeGraph said it had enlisted the help of former U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, author Sam Harris, Meghan O’Sullivan who ran Iraq and Afghanistan policy under President George Bush, former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Obama Mona Sutphen, and former German Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, among others. Peter Thiel is also an investor in the company.

More investors: SafeGraph Raises $16 Million Series A

US to erase student debt for those with severe disabilities

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

US to erase student debt for those with severe disabilities

Advocates have pressed the Education Department to eliminate the monitoring period entirely and to provide automatic debt relief to people who the Social Security Administration already identifies as permanently disabled.

Under the new action, both demands will be met. Starting in September, the Education Department will start erasing student debt for 323,000 Americans identified in Social Security records as being permanently disabled.

The Postal Service is running a ‘covert operations program’ that monitors Americans’ social media posts

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has been quietly running a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts, including those about planned protests, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News.

The Postal Service is running a ‘covert operations program’ that monitors Americans’ social media posts

H/T: Steve Lehto on YouTube.

They can’t deliver the mail, on time, but they can watch my cat videos!? /s