DoJ Uses Search Warrant Against Visitors to Anti-Trump Site

popehat.com

27 points·freedomben··7 comments

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15099092

Nothing new here.

I don't think the original got enough attention for this one to merit a flag. Also, the guidelines here say that "when you flag something, please don't also comment that you did."

This is the tip of the iceberg. When the NSA surveillance scandal was in the public eye, anyone in the executive branch could use the power of the NSA to spy on anyone - even political opposition from without and within the government.

This is the definition of a chilling effect. You would be implicated merely by visiting the site - even if your visit is simply do research for educational purposes.

Maybe don't riot and destroy property next time? How's that for a solution?

A pretty poor one, given that there are undoubtedly many people who visited the website and weren't involved in the riots but are still being targeted by the warrant:

> The Department of Justice isn't just seeking communications by the defendants in its case. It's seeking the records of every single contact with the site — the IP address and other details of every American opposed enough to Trump to visit the site and explore political activism.

What about the other 1.2995 million website visitors (give or take a few, I'm estimating) who had no involvement in any of that?

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