The new program, called “masked engagement,” allows homeland security officers to assume false identities and interact with users—friending them, joining closed groups, and gaining access to otherwise private postings, photographs, friend lists and more.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official tells me that over 6,500 field agents and intelligence operatives can use the new tool, a significant increase explicitly linked to more intense monitoring of American citizens.
I honestly just assumed that was happening anyway. Good to get it in public eyes, though.
Seriously, I do my best to live by Stasi rules when it comes to my political opinions: Never say it in public, never say it over technology, never say it to a group of people, and never write it down.
I am certain most 2020’s state/fed level law enforcement globally do this whenever they have the funding, means, and manpower.
I already assume everyone in my group chat is a fed.
That’s just what a Fed would say!
The bastards have been at it a long while
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPROSurveillance self defense
https://ssd.eff.org/How to spot a fed
https://crimethinc.com/2013/07/06/is-she-an-informant-a-ten-point-checklistAnybody wants a copy of any of the zines below, DM me
Ha! Good luck with that. I would need to have friends first to even be in a group chat for them to infiltrate.
I assumed this was a given. Of course there are going to be people on Lemmy and Reddit and Discord whose sole reason for being there is information. Possibly even encouraging violence to see who takes the bait.
There’s a podcast series called The Michigan Plot. Wherein undercover FBI pick the dumbest man in the group and lead him where they want him to go. It’s a bit of a horror show whatever your political lean. That dumb man is now in prison.
Doing such on social media would be much cheaper and easier.
To the Fed lurking here about to read my comment history: I know what it looks like, but I swear I didn’t write any of it.
Here’s a blatant 1
Soooooo catfishing?
I imagine law enforcement would be in most forums. Stay private, folks.
Feds gonna fed
compartmentalize. if your group chat can’t meet IRL at a physical table, it’s too large, divide it into smaller operative units.
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They do.
