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Comment by soraminazuki | Hacker News Reader

The situation is far more serious than what the title suggests. The MAGA regime is pursuing criminal prosecution against AI critics.

> the administration declared war on protestors and opponents of AI, threatening “criminal liability” if they “further the propaganda or other goals of a foreign power.”

This is literally the go-to playbook of Russia and China for silencing critics. Label every critic a foreign agent and use state violence to silence them.

- https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/12/01/russia-new-restrictions-...

- https://apnews.com/article/china-hong-kong-national-security...

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you make it more than it is.

we are not Russia nor China thankfully, any litigation at this stage against an AI critic would fall flat.

In the future, maybe? However in the current climate it's just a bunch of empty words like the rest of the admin has been

I wish there wasn't someone serving a 30 year sentence for transporting zines basically because the government convinced a jury they were "antifa" zines.

https://theintercept.com/2026/06/23/prairieland-texas-ice-pr...

The Trump administration IS instructing US Attorneys to go after such things, and juries are in some cases buying it. It's probably better if you aren't protesting a data center in Texas.

I will give you that this instance is extreme.

How does being critical of AI directly connect to a spurious association with antifa or any connection to a riot or shooting?

These two categories are different. I agree there is overreach in Sanchez's case however i don't know how one can assume the same will happen to some guy saying "AI bad"

If they were rioting; or connected to a rioting group, that might be different.

a connection to China (that the administration will insist is not spurious) is exactly what they are threatening to use to prosecute and imprison people organizing political campaigns or actions against data centers.

Do you think lying about an unrelated case furthers your argument?

do you think lying about me lying furthers yours?

do you think this is a useful way to have a discussion?

Estrada was convicted of tampering with evidence, which is what he did for his wife's little terrorist cell after they were arrested. The elements of the crime aren't in dispute. "Transporting zines" isn't an accurate summary of that and The Intercept's "reporting" on this is just completely slanted slop.

If you know the government will be interested in documents in your possession in relation to a criminal investigation, it is in fact a crime to destroy or remove them. Regardless of content. As to the sentence term -- this is up to the judge.

And it's all completely unrelated to the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which was the topic of this fine article.

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