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Comment by account73466 | Hacker News Reader

Is it even legal for Twitter to disclose activities of US-based intelligence agencies? (I assume that most worldwide agencies play on Twitter in one way or another)

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I'm not a lawyer, but I think broadly speaking US law would not prohibit that disclosure. The major exception would be investigations covered under some sort of a gag order. Overall though, the constitutional protections for freedom of the press and speech are strong and well tested in the courts.

Considering some of the confidential things that have accidentally leaked into the public sphere in the last few years, I think it's fairly safe to assume at this point that US/Western government(s) and tech firms have a fairly collaborative relationship.

Some people even suggest [0] this relationship extends into strategic, multi-domain operations, but since such ideas are obviously conspiracy theories (and therefore conclusively false, as per the epistemically infallible Occam's Razor technique), they should be considered only for their entertainment value.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Operations_(United...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOTYgcdNrXE

Occams Razor doesnt have to be right.

I dont mean to talk about your speculations, but its not bulletproof method of reasoning

Wait, surely you're not suggesting Occam's Razor is merely an abductive heuristic or something like that, are you?

Sometimes I wonder how much more effective/impactful HN could be in making the world a better place if the hyper-competent people here could maintain a sense of humour while expressing their beliefs, or even consider the possibility that there might be some utility in that.

Twitter information operation disclosures are for US audiences to appease US congress.

>Earlier this year, we committed to the United States Congress and the public to provide regular updates and information regarding our investigation into foreign interference in political conversations on Twitter.

https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2018/enabling-...

Go through the list of countries / actors Twitter has previously disclosures on, Russia, China, Venezuela, Iran, Spain (Catalan separatist), I think Bangladesh at some point, and these disclosures are functionally US propaganda.

I don't think Twitter is an intentional state actor, but who they report on is constrained by limited resources which means they're incentivized to report on (and censor) US geopolitical rivals even though every serious intelligence agency will run information campaigns.

>Information operations on Twitter: principles, process, and disclosure https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/informati...

Lawful or not, I don't think Twitter has the balls to expose information campaigns contrary to US interest, which is going to be a recipe for more internet balkanization.

Today's data concerns Saudi Arabia, somewhat contradicting your theory.

Somewhat, though I think Saudi and probably Israel is the perennial controversial ally valley kids have no problem shitting on. Which leads me to question who decides which targets to focus on or which experts help them verify attribution. Part of the disclosure process also includes:

>We also proactively notify law enforcement, our peers, and other relevant state agencies.

Does that include foreign countries? Is twitter coordinating with Iran right now to help fight Saudi info campaign? The entire process chain looks US based or at least distorted by US interests. We know US has Psy-Ops, past foreign influence campaigns (Ernest Voice), and Smith–Mundt Modernization Act 2012 legalized domestic dissemination of propaganda. Either US/Allies does not perform influence operations, or Twitter is not looking hard enough, doesn't want to look or can't disclose. People can judge which options is more likely for themselves.

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