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submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by mistermodal@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

Even State Department-funded Human Rights Watch admits that authorities combine legal and illegal methods to obtain convictions: https://text.hrw.org/report/2018/01/09/dark-side/secret-origins-evidence-us-criminal-cases

Combining dragnet surveillance with device hacking is intended in the design of both tools. Hence, State Department-funded Signal dupes you into handing over your identity as part of the population-centric mapping. In custody, your phone will be hacked when it is taken away if it's important.

https://xcancel.com/hannahcrileyy/status/2034273723667161480#m

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[-] Kirk@startrek.website 153 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

This is total alarmist misinformation. The "evidence of terrorism" was not "using Signal" or "carrying a first aid kit", it was taking part in an armed assault on an immigration facility where a dozen people set off fireworks and shot a police officer with an AR-15.

The prosecution used the presence of the first aid kit they carried during their armed assault, along with actual messages (not metadata) from a Signal chat to make the case that the attackers planned on using violence.

There are a lot of problems with this case, IMO the most dangerous part here is that adds legitimacy the (false) idea that "antifa" is an organization that exists. Something the Trump administration has been struggling to prove. This X post takes small details out of context.

  1. Don't trust anything ever posted to X. Especially something that discourages the use of private messaging apps.

  2. I highly recommend everyone report this this post to your admins and strongly recommend all instance admins ban/warn accounts like OP. If we want the fediverse to catch on it needs to be more factual, not knee jer.

[-] 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 days ago

along with actual messages (not metadata) from a Signal chat to make the case that the attackers planned on using violence

How did they get the actual messages? Signal chats and groups are supposed to be encrypted. I'm curious.

[-] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Most likely had someone in the group chat (opsec issue) or captured a phone and made the owner open it.

https://xkcd.com/538/

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this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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