UPDATE: The Reddit Techdirt post (3,000+ up votes, the parent to the comment thread I linked to) has just been removed from the #3 spot on Reddit's front page (it was there 30 minutes ago), so make that the 13th removal of related content.
I was floored last night when Greenwald's piece on JTRIG could only be found in niche subreddits such as /r/conspiracy. When I attempted to post to /r/worldnews, it gave me the URL "already submitted" error.
Turns out Glennwald's piece had been submitted and removed twelve times -- each time it had received substantial interest (dozens of upvotes) in short amounts of time. (Check out the link)
It's hard not to don the tin-foil hat here (given the nature of the article itself). This also goes back to the "moving target" of the definition of "hacktivism." JTRIG's "pushing the envelope" of targeting beyond what we'd normally view as terrorists. The question is not "why would the NSA employ moderators with an agenda?" -- the question is "why wouldn't they?" To steal from Jerry Pournelle's "iron law of bureaucracy" -- the institution will act to protect itself, and in this case it sees the People's voice as a threat. If the NSA has a presence on Second Life, they have also penetrated HN and Reddit.
I was floored last night when Greenwald's piece on JTRIG could only be found in niche subreddits such as /r/conspiracy. When I attempted to post to /r/worldnews, it gave me the URL "already submitted" error.
Turns out Glennwald's piece had been submitted and removed twelve times -- each time it had received substantial interest (dozens of upvotes) in short amounts of time. (Check out the link)
It's hard not to don the tin-foil hat here (given the nature of the article itself). This also goes back to the "moving target" of the definition of "hacktivism." JTRIG's "pushing the envelope" of targeting beyond what we'd normally view as terrorists. The question is not "why would the NSA employ moderators with an agenda?" -- the question is "why wouldn't they?" To steal from Jerry Pournelle's "iron law of bureaucracy" -- the institution will act to protect itself, and in this case it sees the People's voice as a threat. If the NSA has a presence on Second Life, they have also penetrated HN and Reddit.