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This page contains all of the posts and discussion on MemeStreams referencing the following web page: Lawfare › Breaking News: Government Agency Bulk Collecting Twitter Data. You can find discussions on MemeStreams as you surf the web, even if you aren't a MemeStreams member, using the Threads Bookmarklet.

Lawfare › Breaking News: Government Agency Bulk Collecting Twitter Data
by Decius at 3:25 pm EDT, Sep 19, 2014

Benjamin Wittes wrote:

If you were shocked when you read the first paragraph of this post and relieved when you read that the agency doing all this collection is not NSA but the good guys over at the Library of Congress, and that the good guys are actually planning to make that data available widely, why did you have those reactions? And do those reactions make sense?

You asked, so I'll answer. I didn't have those reactions, and there are a couple of important observations to make about why.

First, I am cognizant of the public nature of public social media. I choose what to post on twitter and what not to post on twitter. I know that what I post to twitter can be read by anyone and that is my intent. What I post on Facebook is slightly more private than what I post on Twitter, and I am cognizant of that distinction. What I type into a search engine is much more private and may be more personal.

Advocates of mass surveillance often pretend that these distinctions are irrelevant. Because I post things about my personal life on Twitter and Facebook, they argue that it is therefore irrational for me to be concerned about surveillance of my search queries or call records. This is a weak attempt to rationalize away legitimate privacy interests.

Second, the idea of the NSA monitoring twitter may raise a concern that the agency is targeting people for investigation on the basis of their speech, which can deter people from expressing disfavored opinions. However, this concerned isn't raised simply because the NSA collects the data. The NSA would be remiss if it ignored the public postings of various terrorist organizations and their compatriots. I think the real question is what kinds of statements by someone can create a reasonable basis for a deeper investigation which opens private things.

Third, I don't think that the LOC should archive deleted tweets. Doing so undermines the decision by the poster to remove that content, and content gets removed for a lot of very good reasons, particularly in a medium where it is easy to write brief things that may be misconstrued when viewed from another perspective. However, it wouldn't bother me if the NSA monitored deleted tweets. Its not a privacy issue, its a matter of respecting people's ability to withdraw misstatements.

RE: Lawfare › Breaking News: Government Agency Bulk Collecting Twitter Data
by noteworthy at 9:27 am EDT, Sep 20, 2014

Benjamin Wittes:

I was at the National Security Agency yesterday giving a Constitution Day speech and I learned details of a shocking collection program: The government is bulk collecting all traffic on Twitter.

What's shocking is that this would be considered shocking in September 2014.

Biz Stone, in April 2010:

It is our pleasure to donate access to the entire archive of public Tweets to the Library of Congress for preservation and research. It's very exciting that tweets are becoming part of history. It should be noted that there are some specifics regarding this arrangement. Only after a six-month delay can the Tweets be used for internal library use, for non-commercial research, public display by the library itself, and preservation.

Matt Raymond, in April 2010:

Private account information and deleted tweets will not be part of the archive.
I've been working in journalism and public relations for nearly 20 years, and of all the stories with which I was personally involved, this one has beaten the rest by a mile. Thousands of hits on Google News. Countless blog posts from around the world. Media interest from virtually every national newspaper and broadcast outlet (which continues even two weeks later), and numerous local outlets. And websites as diverse as The Drudge Report, The Huffington Post, and even Perez Hilton.

Gayle Osterberg, Director of Communications for the Library of Congress, in January 2013:

The Library's first objectives were to acquire and preserve the 2006-10 archive; to establish a secure, sustainable process for receiving and preserving a daily, ongoing stream of tweets through the present day; and to create a structure for organizing the entire archive by date.
This month, all those objectives will be completed. We now have an archive of approximately 170 billion tweets and growing. The volume of tweets the Library receives each day has grown from 140 million beginning in February 2011 to nearly half a billion tweets each day as of October 2012.
The Library's focus now is on addressing the significant technology challenges to making the archive accessible to researchers in a comprehensive, useful way. These efforts are ongoing and a priority for the Library.

Adrienne LaFrance, in 2013:

The library is not archiving tweets from those who opt for the strictest privacy settings, which allow Twitter users to approve or reject each potential follower. The library is also planning to scrub deleted tweets, meaning the public won't have access to posts that were published but later removed. Dizard, citing privacy concerns, calls that decision "one of the more significant policy questions we face."
In its terms of service, Twitter says that the default is "almost always to make the information you provide public for as long as you do not delete it from Twitter."
Moody says it follows that deleted tweets are off-limits.