Homeland Security Spying on Reddit Users
www.kenklippenstein.com
Leak show feds tracking anti-ICE Reddit users like "Budget-Chicken-2425"
  • EvilBit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    94·
    9 days ago

    Is Homeland Security chasing bots? Because that’s the bottiest name I’ve ever seen. If so, please continue. 🍿

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      78·
      9 days ago

      I find it odd, but a lot of newer users on Reddit go with the default suggested username and those follow the word-word-0000 template.

      At the same time, it might be better for privacy to do that since it’s less likely that someone can track you across platforms if you use the generator built into each platform.

      • dan@upvote.auEnglish
        18·
        9 days ago

        I see it a lot, too. Reddit’s been around for 20 years, so all the good usernames are already taken.

      • UnspecificGravity@piefed.socialEnglish
        13·
        9 days ago

        Its been a long time since you could build relationships with other users in places like Reddit. The usernames don’t matter anymore so you may as well just use randoms. Your just going to get banned and make a new one anyways.

      • DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        8 days ago

        I did that with my new user. It’s easier to use an account for a year or two and burn it. I don’t care about the fake points. And I am not doing anything wrong. But if tou give a lot of oppinions it’s a lot of data for social engineering, so for privacy reason it’s a good practice to not be attached to any account.

    • Railcar8095@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      9 days ago

      I had a similar names. I didn’t care about “expressing myself” and didn’t want you link it to myself in any way, so every time I would just accept the random gibberish reddit suggests when creating a new account.

      Like my current RailcarXxxx username. It was just suggested I think when creating my first Lemmy, and just reused it through instances

      • JayGray91🐉🍕@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        9 days ago

        Yeah now I’m kind of worried about my pseudonym. This isn’t my first pseudonym mind you, and it won’t be the last, but this is the most “well known” around my internet friends.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
      5·
      9 days ago

      Fascists are the weakest and most brittle snowflakes.

      So, it should be easy to break them, right.

      All Americans would have to do is organize themselves and end this increasing dystopia.

  • Bruncvik@lemmy.worldEnglish
    484·
    9 days ago

    Learned from growing up in a communist dictatorship: don’t discuss politics and religion with strangers. And even with friends or acquaintances, don’t discuss it in writing. It doesn’t mean you can’t have strong opinions, but don’t make them public. Talking (not writing) one-to-one or in small groups eventually toppled almost all communist dictatotships, so there’s absolutely no need to broadcast your opinions, unless your goal is to be martyred.

      • themurphy@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1711·
        9 days ago

        Well, there is no such thing as communism with a dictator. It’s simply two opposites.

        Communism is without a state. Meaning no true communist country have ever existed in modern time.

        • pazuzuzu@leminal.spaceEnglish
          512·
          9 days ago

          Please don’t argue theory definitions with someone who lived through the reality, its just straight insensitive

          • Djehngo@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            9 days ago

            They are arguing the definitions with someone who was “arguing” with someone who lived through the reality

  • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
    39·
    9 days ago

    I used reddit for over a decade, but I was never willing to buy reddit gold or support it because I didn’t trust any site where I shared my political opinions to have those opinions tied with by real name or any other billing info. Same with discord. At least with lemmy, you can support it without tying it to your account.

    • FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      9 days ago

      I tend to think that – for myself for sure but probably most other people – after a decade plus on Reddit, you’ve likely said and posted enough stuff that somebody could follow the breadcrumbs back to you. Theyd have to really want to and it would take a lot of reading your posts, but it could probably be done. Anonymity doesn’t exist without a vpn, and even then you’re probably still identifiable. Don’t say, post or do anything on the internet that youre not willing to defend/pay for in real life.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        9 days ago

        I’ve always isolated my username from irl stuff and I don’t make any social media posts from my irl stuff. You’d have to be very interested in me specifically and I’ve always tried to be slightly less noisy then the background noise.

  • FauxLiving@lemmy.worldEnglish
    37·
    9 days ago

    Budget-Chicken-2425, waking up one day to find out the entire world is reading your FBI domestic terrorist dossier:

    That’s enough to radicalize a chicken.

      • hector@lemmy.todayEnglish
        101·
        9 days ago

        Ha, homeland security is back to it’s old tricks. Probably not just them now, but they were submitting lists of users and social media was finding other pretexts to violate/ban them. I’m pretty sure some of my previous accounts were on those lists.

        As always, they got the support to do it by stressing these rw accounts denying vaccinations and elections and the like, and then the fascists in homeland security predictably went after the left with it primarily. Often going after things like parody accounts, allowed under the rules, for making fun of political leaders. It’s all dishonest. As per reporting in The Intercept at the time. The leak of information covered like twitter and FB and I forget, but I’ve no doubt it extends to other platforms, and other units than the one we learned about in homeland security, that is just the tip of the iceberg we can see above the reflection of that ocean of social media.

        I am saying an agency gave lists of users to violate that included his, and that reddit found excuses to violate them, likely for unrelated reasons that are not even against the rules, they don’t have to try, so they don’t try, to enforce rules fairly. Which is why we need the fediverse to be constructed better to reach critical mass. We need clear rules and enforcements with appeals that end in jury trials of users for actions.

  • ProdigiousInsanity@lemmus.orgEnglish
    30·
    9 days ago

    Got permabanned for up voting a post about ice having their secret identities found out as it was ‘inciting violence’. Because law enforcement should be protected from public backlash as the piss on the Constitution and practice illegal acts on people, it seems to reddit mods.

  • Seth Taylor@lemmy.worldEnglish
    26·
    9 days ago

    I’m defo never gonna be allowed into the US. Ever.

    Good.

    Means I’m less likely to get shot. Ever.

    • BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      8·
      9 days ago

      I’d argue it was pretty shit for a long while. The fact that r/conservative with the vile spew they have is still allowed is all you need to understand.

    • Null User Object@lemmy.worldEnglish
      71·
      9 days ago

      You don’t honestly think that DHS doesn’t know Lemmy exists, do you? If they’re monitoring Reddit, you’d have to be a fool to not realize that they’re probably here, too.

      • Seth Taylor@lemmy.worldEnglish
        91·
        9 days ago

        DHS! DHS, over here! Oh! Oh! DHS! Look here! DHS! Down here, DHS! Look here! No, not there! Here, look at me! Are you looking?

        Fuck you.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        8 days ago

        Let’s face it. If you want to be invisible to DHS right now, just find an old article from the daily stormer or something and start posting far left stuff in the comments. This admin is going to go faaaaaaaar out of their way to avoid pissing off the nationalist hate groups that give their stochastic terrorism some real teeth.