Hacker News Reader

Comment by SQL2219 | Hacker News Reader

I watched the summer riots on youtube live streams, I don't recall the FBI using this technique for the tens of thousands of man-hours spent looting, burning and rioting in Portland, LA, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, NYC or Atlanta.

View on HN

I don't think its the FBI's job to figure out who smashed up a Target or looted a Footlocker.

Its definitely the FBI's job to figure out who breached a federal building, let alone the seat of our legislative branch during an active session.

That being said... the FBI, DOJ, DHS, and state agencies definitely do shady stuff and track people via their devices at protests. I'm remembering surveillance planes over Baltimore that were traced back to feds.

They pursued legislators and the vice president after gaining access to the building. The FBI should be aggressive.

Then you weren't paying attention enough, and just because you don't recall doesn't mean it didn't happen, which it did:

https://theintercept.com/2020/07/09/twitter-dataminr-police-...

Know where I recalled I read this? Here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23783503

Your linked article is about a company data-mining Twitter. TFA we are discussing is about the FBI getting location data from phones. These are two very different things...

Your point was clearly the broader law-enforcement tracking, you sought to draw a comparison between the two events to ask why one had been an infosec focus of law enforcement.

Yes, that's because they weren't trying to stage a coup.

In Minneapolis for the George Floyd riots they tracked down the right-wing agitator "umbrella man":

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/28/us/umbrella-man-associated-wh...

Maybe they used the same techniques there. Does that make you feel better?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com