Utopia Talk / Politics / Trump goes after political enemies

hood Member	Tue Aug 15 07:52:59 http://www.dreamhost.com/blog/we-fight-for-the-users/ For the past several months, DreamHost has been working with the Department of Justice to comply with legal process, including a Search Warrant (PDF) seeking information about one of our customers’ websites. At the center of the requests is disruptj20.org, a website that organized participants of political protests against the current United States administration. While we have no insight into the affidavit for the search warrant (those records are sealed), the DOJ has recently asked DreamHost to provide all information available to us about this website, its owner, and, more importantly, its visitors. DisrputJ20 Records Requests DreamHost, like many online service providers, is approached by law enforcement regularly to provide information about customers who may be the subject of criminal investigations. These types of requests are not uncommon; our legal department reviews and scrutinizes each request and, when necessary, rejects and challenges vague or faulty orders. Denied stamp You would be shocked to see just how many of these challenges we’re obligated to mount every year! Chris Ghazarian, our General Counsel, has taken issue with this particular search warrant for being a highly untargeted demand that chills free association and the right of free speech afforded by the Constitution. Demand for Information The request from the DOJ demands that DreamHost hand over 1.3 million visitor IP addresses — in addition to contact information, email content, and photos of thousands of people — in an effort to determine who simply visited the website. (Our customer has also been notified of the pending warrant on the account.) That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind. DC Protest This is, in our opinion, a strong example of investigatory overreach and a clear abuse of government authority. As we do in all such cases where the improper collection of data is concerned, we challenged the Department of Justice on its warrant and attempted to quash its demands for this information through reason, logic, and legal process. Instead of responding to our inquiries regarding the overbreadth of the warrant, the DOJ filed a motion (PDF) in the Washington, D.C. Superior Court, asking for an order to compel DreamHost to produce the records. Our Opposition Last Friday Mr. Ghazarian, with the help of his legal team and outside counsel, filed legal arguments in opposition (PDF) of the DOJ’s request for access to this trove of personally identifiable information. This motion is our latest salvo in what has become a months-long battle to protect the identities of thousands of unwitting internet users. Mr. Ghazarian will attend a court hearing on the matter on August 18 in Washington, D.C. EFF We’ve been working closely with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and their counsel throughout this process. They’ve been nothing but supportive and helpful throughout, and we’re honored to have them in our corner. While the EFF is not representing us in this case, they understand our arguments and have been lending professional support. Why Bother? The internet was founded — and continues to survive, in the main — on its democratizing ability to facilitate a free exchange of ideas. Internet users have a reasonable expectation that they will not get swept up in criminal investigations simply by exercising their right to political speech against the government. We intend to take whatever steps are necessary to support and shield these users from what is, in our view, a very unfocused search and an unlawful request for their personal information. Post Updated 8/14/17 9:00PM PST to clarify the EFF’s involvement. ------------------------- Holy fuck. Impeach this entire administration. And before you spout nonsense about BLOGS, there's a PDF of the warrant on the site.
Conservative Member	Tue Aug 15 08:01:12 We are doing this for your safety. As well as the safety for those who partake in mary jane.
Rugian Member	Tue Aug 15 08:09:27 Yes, impeach this administration...for incompetence. Did these morons forget that the NSA already has all of this data thanks to GWB and Obama's treasonous betrayal of the Fourth Amendment? They don't need to make public subpoenas like this when they can just go to a secret FISA court instead.
murder Member	Tue Aug 15 09:12:55 Rugian: The "F" in FISA stands for foreign. For the collection of domestic intelligence unrelated to foreign contacts, different rules apply. And while the NSA probably has it all, that fountain of intelligence can't be used to prosecute the targets of the investigation. Basically they need to find (semi)legitimate ways of gathering the same information so it can be used in court.
hood Member	Tue Aug 15 09:19:43 Rugian is aware. He's just attempting to defend these bullshit stories by deflecting to something else.
Rugian Member	Tue Aug 15 09:21:31 Bill Clinton is a rapist?
Paramount Member	Tue Aug 15 12:48:33 Yeah, I was just reading this over at Forbes. Was going to create a thread. "That data appears to include IP addresses, emails and physical addresses of the website owners, as well as similar details on all users of the site, such as information about messages submitted to the page and when they accesseddisruptj20.org. "The request from the [Department of Justice] demands that DreamHost hand over 1.3 million visitor IP addresses — in addition to contact information, email content, and photos of thousands of people — in an effort to determine who simply visited the website," wrote DreamHost. To be clear, that's 1.3 million IP addresses that hit the site, they're not all unique individuals, DreamHost confirmed to Forbes. "That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution's First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind," the company added in its blog. "This is, in our opinion, a strong example of investigatory overreach and a clear abuse of government authority." [...] "This is pure, prosecutorial overreach that's allowing the Trump Administration to use the DoJ to silence critics," added Chris Ghazarian, DreamHost general counsel. "We must prevail because we're hoping that our country still values privacy. Our companies shouldn't have to worry about untargeted, mass collections of user data by the government; nor should our citizens be dissuaded from legally exercising their associational freedoms for risk of being exposed." http://www...ted-as-overreach/#23781a674d5c What does he need all that info for? Is he going to harrass and threaten people because they voice their opinion? Are critics going to disappear?
Dukhat Member	Wed Aug 16 03:44:31 Trump is too incompetent to use this information for his own ends. What's dangerous is that this information is out there for others to take advantage of ... with the band of social rejects that Trump nominated to his cabinet being particularly dangerous.
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