The lesson we learn over and over from tech is that it won't always be the good guys doing it to the bad guys, so it's worth looking at these processes structurally and thinking about what it implies for people whose goals we share and motives we admire
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The tension is between the ephemeral and mass nature of a large protest event, and the ability for governments to analyze such protests forensically without a time constraint, identifying every participant individually. There is no more safety in numbers or in spontaneity
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This seriously tips the balance of power in the favor of the state. The implication for protest movements (again, think Hong Kong or Belarus, not just Jan 6) is "up or out", because either you achieve your aims or you wait for the forensics teams to map out exactly what you did
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The two ways you could avoid state retribution were to mask your identity (which always looks shifty) or to act in concert with enough people that retribution was infeasible. But a permanent mechanized record of protest makes that second approach a gamble. The state now has time.
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Okay, today I learned people are unwilling to set aside their feelings about a specific situation, the greatest political crime in modern history, to think structurally. May all these insurrectionists receive the long prison terms they deserve! God bless America! Use Pinboard.
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In a good way! In a good way! Please don't cancel me I have a family
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Dude, seriously. Where have you been? They've been doing this for most of a decade. Did you miss the whole 2010s when everyone was hacked by the NSA?
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I had a lot going on
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Is this different than all the other ways in which governments investigate and prosecute crimes?
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The existence of an algorithmically searchable permanent record (much of it publicly shared) is what's new.
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