Occupy Underground

One of the things that has been both a great organizing tool for activists recently but is vulnerable, is the use of Facebook and Twitter. That just goes straight to the Government, as far as I know, and it's voluntary, so no laws are broken.

Just like wireless has always been free to be intercepted, there's no privacy, the idea of a warrant is pointless when anyone who can gather it in can do so, not just the government. Think 'Enemy of the State' I guess.

So the government has known virtually everything all along, it's just a matter of getting able bodies in place to enforce.... whatever. A little more protected is uploading to youtube, but that has been taken over by google and everything there is being stored and shared without any explicit permission, except the one that anyone who has an account has already agreed to.

Since these are all corporate/shared with government entities, and we own none of them, either the corporation's profit motivation, or liabliity such as copyright, rules our communications. It was really no big deal for DHS to get all of this information, they had contracted doing so with the corporations providing FB, Twitter and youtube already.

The landscape has changed so much from say, the days of the Pentagon Papers and all the intrigue that went around the release of that to the public, that there is no comparison, save Bradley Manning.

I'm not sure how much this will or won't help Occupy, or if they are stalling. Or if their 'giving' this information changes much. It seemed like Anonymous gave a lot more information for a while there.

With Assauge running for public office in Australia, elements of Occupy may get into government and force some long term changes. John Kerry just spoke on the issue of the corporations taking in this data, but really, he's a day late and a dollar short on this issue.

This may or may not indicate future transparency, I just don't know. It may be a stalling tactic. But TruthOut is a pretty gutsy bunch and I'm sure if anything is of use they'll find it. I've been amazed at the information coming out on a daily basis now and how it's effecting the national consciousness. So I still think this may be a good thing.