Patterico's Pontifications

11/2/2017

Not All Heroes Wear Capes: Twitter Employee Deletes Trump’s Account

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:05 pm



The machinery of government briefly ground to a halt today, when a Twitter employee deleted Donald Trump’s Twitter account.

OK, only for 11 minutes.

Can we get that extended to three and a half years?

When first reported, Twitter’s story was that it was innocent and done “inadvertently” — the result of “human error”:

Now, the whole thing is starting to look . . . a little less “inadvertent”:

LOL.

So many questions come to mind.

Was it their last day because they deleted Donald Trump’s Twitter account — or did they delete Donald Trump’s Twitter account because it was their last day?

Why are all mentions of words like “inadvertent” and “error” missing from that second tweet?

And: can we find this individual and make him or her President? Or at least Chief of Staff?

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]

133 Responses to “Not All Heroes Wear Capes: Twitter Employee Deletes Trump’s Account”

  1. Just like gauletier blame wanted, to any outlet can print any garbage, gq’s is among the mire amusing, but other gunk like salon nearly got Stephen scaluse killed, Mueller can send his flying monkeys after anyone who looked at him crosswise in the last 30 years, but the president cannot respond in his own way ‘twitter:’ is a killing word’ apparently.

    narciso (d1f714)

  2. other gunk like salon nearly got Stephen scaluse killed

    I’d say a crazed (and politically motivated) lunatic with a firearm did it, but to each his own I guess.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  3. Yes but the misatribution of scalise at a duke event (partially through an incompetent staffer) had a little toward why he was picked as a target

    narciso (d1f714)

  4. And: can we find this individual and make him or her President? Or at least Chief of Staff?

    I’d settle for making him CEO of Twitter…

    Dave (445e97)

  5. Gave Sherman’s entry into the novel writing for a month contest is novel.

    narciso (d1f714)

  6. Remember the punishment is the process:
    https://www.steynonline.com/8231/muslims-fear-backlash-from-tomorrow-terror-attack

    Another example is painting Reagan as a Nazi collaborator in a alternate 1961, in castle wolfenstein (I’m not making this up)

    narciso (d1f714)

  7. Patterico,

    I would ask you to think about the 2nd or even 3rd order effects of what this incident shows.
    1. Ignoring the fact that a single employee via an insider threat capabilities was able to defeat the the security of DJT’s account. That Twitter can turn on or turn off anyone’s account at the whim of an employee should give one pause as to potential threats towards freedom of speech and the social needs that the platform of Twitter, Facebook and all the other social media systems are currently providing. You have cited numerous times that “conservative” fans of DJT have cheered when he has done things that caused them to scream when BHO did them. The same sort of caveat should apply here, we shouldn’t be cheering this and should be having an honest discussion about the right of the body politic to have information flow. Imagine if you will, that instead it is the NYC and CA based news empires that decide to not carry anything statement, comment, press release, whatever from the administration. Can the country be effectively government when the citizens don’t have any idea what the executive branch is doing?

    2. Lets take the insider threat now. Imagine instead of turning off DJTs account, the employee that you are now cheering for instead when on a twitter storm of things that were in the vein of what DJT has said before and instead instigated a crisis by impersonation? I mean can you imagine the international crisis if this Twitter employee used their access to become DJT on twitter for a while and then lashed out to say that DJT just signed the orders to begin bombing the NORKs at midnight eastern time tonight? What about the absolute storm that would have happened to the media if the same employee said, again pretending if they were DJT, that Mueller was under arrest for collusion to take down the government or some other nonsensical thing like that? I mean we have already seen how the fact Sean Spicer twitter account has taken in members of the media. Let alone other parody accounts that folks weren’t fully aware of being parody accounts of things like businesses, government institutions, members of the government, etc. The events that could be put in motion by someone playing a prank could be very, very dangerous.

    It should be worthwhile to talk about this event and talk about in a semi-serious manner as to both the dangers of social media in being influences to world events, media contact points and just the level of being something that has been elevated to a level of importance for information tools that can easily be trolled for all the wrong reasons. My personal feeling is that this event should be viewed as a successful CyberWar Attack and even a successful PsyOp operation.

    Charles (24e862)

  8. A society is high-trust if citizens’ and organizations’ behavior towards each other is predictable. In such a society, actors follow broadly understood norms of behavior, supported by the rule of law. This is fundamental to the accumulation of social capital and economic growth.

    Citizens in a low-trust society are challenged by divergent or opaque behavioral norms. This makes behavior of others unpredictable, impairing social capital and economic activity. These societies may experience high levels of corruption and inequality.

    President Trump’s on twitter for one reason: disintermediation of the media has been necessitated by the media’s corruption and unreliability.

    And now we applaud the corruption and unreliability of douchebag Jack Dorsey’s twatter.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  9. Did democratic underground just buy this site?

    not daily kos (4ff919)

  10. #10, Why not? Hillary bought the DNC. TDS runs so strong here that reason itself takes a back seat to cheap shots at the man who saved the nation from another corrupt Clinton presidency, turned Obama’s anti-American aganda around, and just revealed a tax cut package that has the potential to supercharage our economy for decades.

    But Trump gets no thanks here, only insults and complaints from ungrateful naysayers and wilfully blind #NeverTrumpers nursing grudges, our host chief among the self righteously wrongheaded.

    ropelight (e67740)

  11. Trump back on Twitter with a vengeance this morning… calling out the DOJ, the FBI and other TDS sufferers. He cites subject matter like Crooked Pantsuited Pantload, Uranium One, teh disappeared emails, rigged Dem campaign, etc… etc…

    These “public servants” need to do the jobs they are paid to do. The Administrative State – aka Deep State – needs to be deep-sixed.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  12. And Twitter is for twats.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  13. Charles (24e862) — 11/3/2017 @ 12:09 am

    Well said. I understand the mirth that our host wishes to share with us, but the obvious implications of this event, its genesis and possible denouement, suppresses any enjoyment I might, otherwise, feel.

    felipe (b5e0f4)

  14. We all, I hope, understand that no one should be above the law, but this was not justice in action; it was vandalism.

    felipe (b5e0f4)

  15. @11 Trump back on Twitter with a vengeance this morning

    Ain’t that the truth. a vengeance

    Ah, there’s nothing like a crisp Fall morning, with the leaves a’changing and a lunatic in the White House that doesn’t make you want to curl up on the sofa with a cup of coffee and contemplate what a wonder the world is. It’s so dang comfy. And so very comforting to know that soon, very soon, that deranged and manifestly unpresidential President will be (kinda) “someone else’s problem”. Off to Asia!

    Koreans, Japanese and others — now might be a propitious moment to take that vacation cruise you’ve been putting off (not to Hawai’i or Guam, though, you silly sillies!) And take out your cameras first, and record some memories of Seoul or Yokohama before you board! { Boom goes London, Boom Paree . . . (with oriental stylings) }

    Q! (86710c)

  16. Whoopsie. @12, rather.

    Q! (86710c)

  17. Is this supposed to be funny? Sad!

    AZ Bob (f60c80)

  18. 16, if Q is to be believed, a K-Pop rendition of 99 Red Balloons may be in order.

    urbanleftbehind (26c1f9)

  19. I think, if anything, this points to yet another reason the President should consider staying off Twitter. For his sake, and the sake of the country. Consider if this employee were able to impersonate the President by hopping onto his Twitter account and make threatening tweets and/or statements that put us in jeopardy with enemy states. What if he announced some sort of policy change impacting Americans, foreign policy decision (because it would not be unlike Trump to announce that, or almost anything on Twitter) that might exacerbate already tenuous and strained situations. This is nothing to take lightly.

    Dana (023079)

  20. Tweet this..

    Pass-throughs like the Trump Organization win big

    “Pass-through” companies like LLCs, partnerships, sole proprietorships, and S corporations, which are overwhelmingly owned by rich individuals like Donald Trump and currently pay normal income tax rates after their earnings are returned to the companies’ owners, would get a huge number of tax cuts too:

    Taxes on pass-through income would be capped at the 25 percent bracket rather than the top individual rate.
    Pass-through companies would still be able to deduct interest on loans in full, unlike C-corporations.
    The 25 percent bracket creates a huge loophole for rich people, who could incorporate as sole proprietorships and “contract” with their employers so their income is pass-through income rather than wages.
    To partially control that, the law would assume that 100 percent of earnings from professional services firms, like law firms and accounting firms, is wages, not pass-through income. For other businesses, people actively involved in the business as more than passive investors would see 70 percent of their income classified as wages and taxed normally, and 30 percent taxed at the pass-through rate.

    https://www.vox.com/2017/11/2/16596896/house-republican-tax-reform-cuts-trump-ryan-explained

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  21. 13

    Kernel likes it.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  22. off to Asia

    Countdown to slope tweets.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  23. Rice jokes and dog BBQ is the lede.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  24. Charles @8.
    I confess that I did giggle at first. But on reflection, and thanks to your excellent comment: Yes, it does have that keying the car of the guy who grabbed “your” parking spot feel to it.

    nk (dbc370)

  25. Woot!

    Assistant secretary of state, you’re not getting rid of that position?” Ingraham said.

    “Let me tell you, the one that matters, I’m the only one that matters. When it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be. In addition to that, we don’t need all the people — it’s called cost saving.”

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  26. So castle wolfenstein teaches millenials to hate Reagan, as biosphere the tea party.

    narciso (d1f714)

  27. Energy Secretary Rick Perry

    Woot!

    But also from the standpoint of sexual assault, when the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will, on those types of acts,” Perry said. “So from the standpoint of how you really affect people’s lives, fossil fuels is going to play a role in that. I happen to think it’s going to play a positive role.”

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  28. Drink BRAWNDO!

    It’s got electrolytes.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  29. What ropelight said. TDS as usual.

    Mike K (079e3c)

  30. Greetings:

    When I was growing up there was a TV program that started off with “We have taken control of your TV set…”. I think it it was called “The Outer Limits”.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  31. But Trump gets no thanks here

    Thanking Trump for not being as bad as Obama is like thanking him for not stealing your wallet. (And if you’re working middle class, who makes less than alternative minimum tax rate, he soon will do that, too, with his new “tax cut”.)

    nk (dbc370)

  32. TDS should be TRS

    Trump rearrangement syndrome

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  33. Making accusations of TDS is intellectually lazy and just an easy go-to default position to avoid discussing the potentially dangerous implications of the occurrence cited in the post. Particularly this comment at #8:

    Lets take the insider threat now. Imagine instead of turning off DJTs account, the employee that you are now cheering for instead when on a twitter storm of things that were in the vein of what DJT has said before and instead instigated a crisis by impersonation? I mean can you imagine the international crisis if this Twitter employee used their access to become DJT on twitter for a while and then lashed out to say that DJT just signed the orders to begin bombing the NORKs at midnight eastern time tonight? What about the absolute storm that would have happened to the media if the same employee said, again pretending if they were DJT, that Mueller was under arrest for collusion to take down the government or some other nonsensical thing like that? I mean we have already seen how the fact Sean Spicer twitter account has taken in members of the media. Let alone other parody accounts that folks weren’t fully aware of being parody accounts of things like businesses, government institutions, members of the government, etc. The events that could be put in motion by someone playing a prank could be very, very dangerous.

    It should be worthwhile to talk about this event and talk about in a semi-serious manner as to both the dangers of social media in being influences to world events, media contact points and just the level of being something that has been elevated to a level of importance for information tools that can easily be trolled for all the wrong reasons. My personal feeling is that this event should be viewed as a successful CyberWar Attack and even a successful PsyOp operation.

    I also piggybacked on Charles’s comment, suggesting that this is yet one more reason for the President to avoid using Twitter. When you combine the fact that the President is impulsive and lacks self-control, as well as being volatile and not seeing the long-term impact of his outbursts, with the now very obvious hacking vulnerability of Twitter, why would anyone think it wise or prudent for the President of the United States to be using this medium? Further, does this obvious vulnerability in accounts – even the account of the President – mean that his DM’s can be viewed and that portion of the medium also be manipulated from someone other than the President?

    If we are so concerned about hacks coming in from various parts of the world, political parties, etc., why in God’s name doesn’t a big red flag go up when we now see that the President’s Twitter account was able to be shut down by a random employee, even if for a very short time? That’s a heckuva lot of unchecked power.

    Dana (023079)

  34. I unfilter MikeK’s comments every so often to see if they are worth reading or just his usual insults unworthy of the man I used to respect. Back to filter!

    Patterico (115b1f)

  35. Do you mean we’ve finally acknowledged there’s Cyber War and we should be concerned? But that concern is limited to the outrageous stifling of his cake hole?

    Natch!

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  36. Announcing TCDS: Trump Criticism Derangement Syndrome. This describes people who can’t handle any criticism of their cult leader, such that said criticism causes them to have extreme sadz and act like boors to previous friends.

    TCDS sufferers will be filtered until their sickness passes. Sad!

    Patterico (115b1f)

  37. I find its a question of emphasis, the involvement of the dnc and the freebeacon in crafting the dossier, the whitewashing of yet another known wolf, the complicity of fireeye and crowdstrike in the grishenko narrative etc

    narciso (d1f714)

  38. Patterico:

    Very disappointed with this post. Sabotaging someone’s ability to broadcast his message does not make one a “hero,” it makes one a sneak. And if politically motivated, a quasi-fascist. (Here, I suspect the employee was just disgruntled about being fired.)

    For the record, I consider Trump’s tweets an embarassment and part of his overall buffoonery. I wish he would learn the virtue of keeping quiet. But he is still the President. You can criticize all you want. Sabotaging his means of communications? Not.

    Bored Lawyer (998177)

  39. OT – “Kevin Spacey made the set of Netflix’s “House of Cards” into a “toxic” work environment through a pattern of sexual harassment, eight people who currently work on the show or worked on it in the past tell CNN. One former employee told CNN that Spacey sexually assaulted him.”

    Ouch – the “can’t remember drunken behavior from 30 years ago” card won’t work this time.

    And the ‘Jack Vincennes finds Matt Reynolds’ scene in LA Confidential will have a whole new meaning from now on.

    harkin (10a18c)

  40. His means of communication is sabotage..

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  41. Just received ” The Chickenshit Club” yesterday.
    Really good so far.

    mg (31009b)

  42. Sabotaging someone’s ability to broadcast his message does not make one a “hero,””

    Seems like we were just talking about the mis/over use of the word……but it’s Trump so all bets are off.

    Must go overboard on anything Trump…..filters on stun!

    harkin (10a18c)

  43. Just received “The chickenpoo Club”. Using the correct title put me in moderation.
    Really enjoying it. Thanks, Patterico.

    mg (31009b)

  44. Don’t you want to go on about the cyber war thingy, harkin?

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  45. 34. That’s exactly right Dana. I bet Trump’s password isn’t the most secure in the world either.
    But would it literally take an act of Congress to stop him?

    Tillman (a95660)

  46. Very disappointed with this post. Sabotaging someone’s ability to broadcast his message does not make one a “hero,” it makes one a sneak. And if politically motivated, a quasi-fascist. (Here, I suspect the employee was just disgruntled about being fired.)

    For the record, I consider Trump’s tweets an embarassment and part of his overall buffoonery. I wish he would learn the virtue of keeping quiet. But he is still the President. You can criticize all you want. Sabotaging his means of communications? Not.

    I share much of your sentiment when I am being serious. Yes, this should not happen etc. etc.

    But of course I am (sorta) kidding.

    If Twitter allowed this to stand, did not fire the guy etc., I would criticize them. But that’s not happening so I am doing a lighthearted goof on the whole thing.

    We actually would be better off without Trump access to Twitter. But yeah, if you’re gonna make me be all serious and everything, this is not the way to do it.

    Patterico (b6df96)

  47. Is the President presumed to be too stupid to understand the potential danger of spouting gibberish from an insecure platform? Who, other than him, should bear the responsibility if and/or when a breach occurs?

    Rick Ballard (6a5693)

  48. Lets take the insider threat now. Imagine instead of turning off DJTs account, the employee that you are now cheering for instead when on a twitter storm of things that were in the vein of what DJT has said before and instead instigated a crisis by impersonation? I mean can you imagine the international crisis if this Twitter employee used their access to become DJT on twitter for a while and then lashed out to say that DJT just signed the orders to begin bombing the NORKs at midnight eastern time tonight? What about the absolute storm that would have happened to the media if the same employee said, again pretending if they were DJT, that Mueller was under arrest for collusion to take down the government or some other nonsensical thing like that? I mean we have already seen how the fact Sean Spicer twitter account has taken in members of the media. Let alone other parody accounts that folks weren’t fully aware of being parody accounts of things like businesses, government institutions, members of the government, etc. The events that could be put in motion by someone playing a prank could be very, very dangerous.

    Whoa whoa whoa Charles. Are you saying that the words that appear on Trump’s Twitter account matter? Because I have been assured by Trumpers that this is not the case. We should judge him solely by his actions and not mention his idiot Twitter account.

    Now you come along and suggest that his words alone might matter a lot and I am all of a sudden so confused.

    Anyway as I told Bored Lawyer this post is (I thought obviously) kind of a goof. If forced to articulate a serious position about the Twitter employee’s actions, I would denounce them with a very serious face such as a mature adult might use when they are very very disappointed.

    Patterico (b6df96)

  49. of all the tweets in the whole whirl my favorite ones are the President Trump ones

    happyfeet (048778)

  50. And Rick Ballard has a very good point: if Trump’s Twitter account presents such a danger, maybe he shouldn’t use the freaking thing.

    Patterico (b6df96)

  51. Every agency is as insecure as Mrs oleary’s barn, rick, I’ll leave out equifax (the hope’s little sanctuary) conflicted organizations like fireeye and crowdstrike actually make intelligence judgments,

    narciso (d1f714)

  52. Meanwhile desertion and dereliction of duty is actually encouraged

    narciso (d1f714)

  53. Bergdahl’s punishment does not fit the crime

    crazy (d99a88)

  54. @Patterico,

    To which words and statements matter even if given in a joking manner. I give you the infamous, “We begin bombing in five minutes” mic check. I guess I am old enough to remember the whole incident and how heads spun around faster than a demon possed girl for a number in the media, the DoS, and the rest of the international diplomatic corps around the world. Even more so since that little gaff, joke, whatever came only a year after the KAL-007 incident and as we would learned later the Able Archer ’83 incident. The only thing that prevented things from going out of control was that there were rational people inside the Kremlin and Soviet Military. Whereas, today I don’t think in a number of nations we have rational actors at any level for a few of the current unfriendly states that we are in crisis with at the moment.

    Charles (24e862)

  55. You know how often your site is filtered inside govt or educational facilities?

    narciso (d1f714)

  56. the military justice system is a laughingstock Mr. crazy

    happyfeet (048778)

  57. @Patterico,

    At the same time social media is replacing traditional media outlets. The history of media seems to say that the next hot thing for communications is always fraught with issues and problems and the political upheaval that it creates. The transition from telegraph and papers to radio to TV in the first 50 years of the 20th century seems to show that, it would be interesting to see what history says and shows of social media in the 50 years from the start of the 21st century. That is if there is a history left to record.

    Charles (24e862)

  58. I understand your point hf but I wouldn’t go that far. His lawyers wisely let him plead guilty to a non-capital offense avoiding a trial before a military jury who would have been less likely to have been so forgiving of his misconduct during war. He may celebrate walking free today but I suspect he’ll be haunted by more than his confused feelings about military service and PTSD for the rest of his life.

    crazy (d99a88)

  59. Mr. crazy the lens I look at this through is how it sends a very slovenly and unprofessional signal about the seriousness of desertion

    happyfeet (048778)

  60. Did you serve happyfeet?

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  61. @60 Yes! By all means, let’s compile data on desertion charges, results and rates for, say 5 years prior to today, and repeat the process on the 5 year period ending 5 yrs hence. (And of course, break it down further into battlefield desertions, battlefield desertions into the arms of the enemy, battlefield desertions by service-washouts and/or those with pre-existing psychological infirmities, etc.) If you really expect that this sentence (vs. (e.g.) 20 years in prison, or execution) will have any meaningful impact on force-readiness, etc., you’re less clear-eyed, less patriotic and indeed considerably sadder than poor, sad Bergdahl himself.

    Q! (86710c)

  62. Social media, especially Twitter, is a great way to communicate but it is insecure and can be easy to misinterpret. Use it for routine messages like congratulations, announcements, links to policy statements and videos, etc. It is not the place for vague threats, bullying opponents, and important announcements unless your last name is Kardashian.

    DRJ (15874d)

  63. In fairness, even the Kardashians have more sense than to use Twitter to bully or threaten, so that was unfair to the Kardashians.

    DRJ (15874d)

  64. VICARIOUS WARRIORS !

    chickenhawks

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  65. A timely example of TDS: Once upon a time a cowardly sour-grapes miscreant deleted the President’s Twitter account. Tweeting was the way an embattled President communicated with the American people directly, without having his words and by extension his intentions and motivations twisted beyond recognition by an openly hostile and subversive establishment media out to delegitimise or destroy our nation’s chosen leader.

    That this miscreant’s assault on the President’s ability to accurately address his supporters and to expose the lies and misrepresentations of his enemies then becomes an opportunity to criticize the victim is a proof positive of malignant TDS.

    ropelight (e67740)

  66. DRJ,

    I would say the main political purpose of social disease media is herding via the creation of an illusion of support. I actually strongly support the President’s efforts to blunt the utility of the tool through excessive flatulence disguised as incoherent gibberish. It may not be intentional but I the probable outcome is appealing.

    Rick Ballard (6a5693)

  67. If organizations like Twitter, Google etc. really don’t want increasing government regulation of their businesses, they are doing it wrong.

    SPQR (240837)

  68. Well, speaking of tweets (and of possible learning … (?), maybe? conceivably? nah.), since the Bergdahl result hit the news-tubes, DJT has tweeted twice, and not on this subject at all. That’s got to be somewhat impressive – or alternatively, perhaps the day-care minders are going over-and-above in successfully keeping this news from His Orangeness.

    Q! (86710c)

  69. Berghdal should have been shot, or at a minimum sentenced to 20 years.

    ropelight (e67740)

  70. And cops should slam arrestees’ heads into car doors. The judge didn’t give his reasons, but I certainly hope part of his rationale was giving the orange-skinned draft dodger the finger.

    nk (dbc370)

  71. Has anyone asked John Miller or John Barron what they think about people who try to mess with Trump’s ability to speak to the public?

    DRJ (15874d)

  72. nk@32, the first movers, the Mens Rights crowd, are going to feel it first, as they have no spouse nor other dependents in many cases to suppress their creep into the upper brackets.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  73. Wouldn’t you know it? I spoke a tad too soon . . .

    Courtesy DJT (all-atwitter):

    The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.

    Q! (86710c)

  74. He cannot shut up.

    DRJ (15874d)

  75. Did you serve honorably gropelight?

    Ben burn (31ee85)

  76. He says now his campaign was just a joke so he had fraudulent intent.

    Ben burn (31ee85)

  77. thefederalist.com/2017/11/02/shelby-footes-civil-war-history-defends-america-insatiable-haters-like-ta-nehisi-coates

    narciso (d1f714)

  78. Spot survey. If you keep a gun at home and/or go armed in public because of guys like Bowe Bergdahl, raise your hands.

    nk (dbc370)

  79. #76, some of us served more honorably than others, and not surprisingly those are usually the ones still holding with the blood of their ancestors and with their fallen brothers in arms.

    I served honorably, as have the men of my family from the American Revolution, to the War Against Northern Aggression, to both WW 1&2, and Lyndon Johnson’s War in Vietnam. We are soilders and when our country calls we stand up.

    You, I believe are not fit to stand on the same soil.

    ropelight (e67740)

  80. Twitter was launched in 2006 and survived the tech wars into today, for now. Fairly recent times by the calendar given the rapid pace of platform change and proliferation of our communication technologies. Which begs the question- how would a ‘President Trump’ have otherwise vented his brain farts in pre-Twitter times? Blackberry… YouTube shorts… or maybe just dial-up AOL. Oh look, ‘you’ve got mail’– from the Porcelain Throne Room of President of the United States.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  81. 8. Charles (24e862) — 11/3/2017 @ 12:09 am

    1. Ignoring the fact that a single employee via an insider threat capabilities was able to defeat the the security of DJT’s account.

    It wasn’t really secure against something like that. It’s like a policeman looking up a driver’s license or someone at the IRS a tax return.

    Now they have all sorts of rules as to who can delete an account and why, and they record who accessess it. In this case they found out who did it right away. They may have asked, or they may have assumed, this was some kind off an error.

    That Twitter can turn on or turn off anyone’s account at the whim of an employee

    That’s the way any place where you register works. Certain employees can do these things. Certain employees at the telephone company can disconnect your phone. Certain employees at your utility company can turn off your electricity. Certain employees at a cable company could can close your account. If that wasnot the case, they couldn’t do customer service.

    They’re not supposed to do this on a whim, of course, and Twitter, in the case of this very famous person and account with many followers, reversed it within 11 minutes. Maybe not all of it. He was missing most of his followers at first.

    should give one pause as to potential threats towards freedom of speech and the social needs that the platform of Twitter, Facebook and all the other social media systems are currently providing.

    People are depending on that. And it can be done to censor in other countries.

    2. Lets take the insider threat now. Imagine instead of turning off DJTs account, the employee that you are now cheering for instead when on a twitter storm of things that were in the vein of what DJT has said before and instead instigated a crisis by impersonation?

    That’s happened to people usually by outsiders.

    I mean can you imagine the international crisis if this Twitter employee used their access to become DJT on twitter for a while and then lashed out to say that DJT just signed the orders to begin bombing the NORKs at midnight eastern time tonight?

    The confusion would be straightened out within an hour. And Twitter anyway is not teh way even DJT makes formal announcements. You can imagine a foreign power doing this. This could be a plotline in a thriller but it needs a tighter timeline.

    What about the absolute storm that would have happened to the media if the same employee said, again pretending if they were DJT, that Mueller was under arrest for collusion to take down the government or some other nonsensical thing like that?

    It would take around 30 minutes or less to become absolutely certain this was not the case.

    My personal feeling is that this event should be viewed as a successful CyberWar Attack and even a successful PsyOp operation.

    Except this was done by a Twitter insider. It’s not hacking. There are not too many people who can do this. But there have to be some, unless it’s going to run on autopilot without the possibility of human intervention..

    And if anyone who did anything like this wasn’t leaving their job anyway, they’d be fired. Twitter at least is not a politically biased company, and they’d be afraid to be one.

    Unless maybe someone like Hillary Clinton was president. I have to say thst.

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  82. You, I believe are not fit to stand on the same soil.

    Did you mean ‘stand in their shoes’ or to be American you have to have been in the military?

    Most of your local pals would have to expat if the latter was your intent.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  83. I meant ninguno, you can’t stand in their shoes, nor are Americans defined by honorable service in the armed forces. Once, it was expected of able men, but that’s no longer the case.

    Additionally, you know nothing of my pals, local, distant, or dead, and I find your presumptions as irritating as I find your smarmy comments. Your existance offends me.

    ropelight (e67740)

  84. Did you serve happyfeet?

    yes yes i been serving in the private sector in various media and marketing positions, most of what I done is under the umbrella of helping companies allocate their marketing budget as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  85. > I mean can you imagine the international crisis if this Twitter employee used their access to become DJT on twitter for a while and then lashed out to say that DJT just signed the orders to begin bombing the NORKs at midnight eastern time tonight?

    Yes.

    But … there is no way to harden the Twitter database against employees doing that. *Someone* will always have the ability. If nothing else, someone will always have the DB credentials, because otherwise, it’s impossible to do maintenance on the DB.

    I would take this as a reason why Trump shouldn’t be using Twitter in the way he is — he is voluntarily assuming the risk that a nefarious Twitter employee will do something like this.

    Why is that a good risk for him to assume?

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  86. Thanks gropelight. I like to know the claims of putative patriots. What I find irritating is war mongers who champion sending others in their stead.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  87. @ ropelight,

    A timely example of TDS: Once upon a time a cowardly sour-grapes miscreant deleted the President’s Twitter account. Tweeting was the way an embattled President communicated with the American people directly, without having his words and by extension his intentions and motivations twisted beyond recognition by an openly hostile and subversive establishment media out to delegitimise or destroy our nation’s chosen leader.

    That this miscreant’s assault on the President’s ability to accurately address his supporters and to expose the lies and misrepresentations of his enemies then becomes an opportunity to criticize the victim is a proof positive of malignant TDS.

    While I appreciate a President being able to communicate directly with the people without media interference and misinterpretation, this situation has revealed a serious vulnerability in the President’s chosen form of communication that could lead to harm to the American people and the nation at large being put at risk. So, rather than throwing out the silly TDS accusations, please help me understand how you don’t see this as a red flag of warning? As I mentioned above, when you combine the fact that the President is impulsive and lacks self-control, as well as being volatile and not seeing the long-term impact of his outbursts (which almost every Trump supporter here has acknowledged to some degree or another, whether in part or whole), coupled with the now very obvious vulnerability of Twitter exposed, why would anyone think it wise or prudent for the President of the United States to be using this medium? Because if control of
    POTUS account can be wrested, then who’s to say another employee won’t take the opening to tweet in the President’s name? Are you that confident in Twitter’s administrators?

    Dana (023079)

  88. Twitter’s for the cool kids. Trump doesn’t accept the fact he lost his cool kid status when he jumped into politics as a MAGA republican.

    crazy (d99a88)

  89. Yes Instagram is a mire popular medium.

    narciso (d1f714)

  90. @80 nk

    Yes. Dumb white guys are always a threat. Especially the ones who smoke while I’m trying to fuel my car. I’d like to give them the Winnie Mandela treatment

    I had two blasted White guys pull up in a parking lot and ask if I had a light. The driver had a smoke in one hand and an empty liter of vodka in the other. I said no. Then he asked if I had a dollar so he could buy a lighter. Hell no.

    He drove away with no lights in the oncoming lane.

    Next time that happens I think I can convince them I can light their cigarette by unhooking their positive battery lead.

    Pinandpuller (a97c99)

  91. Or did you mean Muslims?

    Pinandpuller (a97c99)

  92. @70 ropelight

    You really want BB proselytizing for Islam behind bars? Better he gets into celebrity boxing matches

    Pinandpuller (a97c99)

  93. Well you have the fellow who carved lee rigby Like a Christmas turkey

    narciso (d1f714)

  94. This kid is a danger only to himself, Pinandpuller.

    nk (dbc370)

  95. nk

    When I was sorting today I found my Gerber Life Insurance. I rubbed it down with a little Rem oil.

    Pinandpuller (a97c99)

  96. I love the pre-Fiskars Gerbers. My EDC since 1987 is a Bolt Action that I put a Flicket on. Thirty years and still going strong.

    nk (dbc370)

  97. Show me yours.

    nk (dbc370)

  98. Doesn’t John Morgan look like the grown up Berber baby?

    narciso (d1f714)

  99. Dana, Trump’s use of Tweets is entirely his business. Only time will tell if he’s simply quick and bright enough to recognize and exploit a new technology or not.

    If you examine the nexus of new communication technologies and their impact on successful presidential elections, you’ll find that trains, planes, radio, and TV all provided the margin of victory to early adopters. And, the naysayers of the day condemned the newfangled technologies and warned that dire consequences would surely follow.

    Teddy Roosevelt went on ‘whistle stop’ tours, FDR had ‘fireside’ chats, Ike flew around the country, and JFK looked good on TV. So, now it’s Trump whp Tweets and it erks hell out of his opponents and delights his supporters. What’s not to like? It’s a twofer.

    ropelight (e67740)

  100. I don’t object to Presidents using new technologies. I object to Presidents who use new technologies to lie.

    DRJ (15874d)

  101. FDR, JFK, Trump. Same story.

    DRJ (15874d)

  102. This is interesting. The employee responsible for cutting off the president’s Twitter account was a contract employee:

    The discovery that it was a contractor who deleted Mr. Trump’s account is difficult for Twitter, as well as other technology companies. Nearly every major technology company including Google, Facebook and Apple relies on contract employees to fill positions. In general, the jobs tend to be nontechnical roles such as customer support or administrative and operational positions.

    Many of these workers are brought on by staffing companies like Accenture, Adecco and Cognizant and work on renewable one-year contracts. Facebook, Twitter and other companies also outsource content review to third-party services like ProUnlimited and Cognizant, which are essentially internet call centers staffed with hundreds of workers who deal with customer service issues.

    Many of these people work side by side with full-time employees, but they are often paid significantly less, are identified with different color employee badges, and are not afforded the same perks and amenities that full-time workers have. Many complain of being treated like second-class citizens.

    That they are paid significantly less than permanent employees, and one assumes have no benefits and to speak of, might contribute to a less cautious, more brazen attitude toward their work, making them a bit more willing to take risks. That in itself also seems to be problematic.

    More of the vulnerabilities:

    At Twitter, employees have long expressed concern about the widely available nature of internal tools for handling customer accounts. Disabling an account is typically an easy two- or three-step process, according to current and former Twitter employees. Certain teams at the company — including trust and safety, and operations — have access to all accounts including the highest levels.

    Twitter customer support cannot, however, access customers’ private direct messages, nor can it tweet on behalf of other users, these people said.

    In the past, Twitter has discussed adding additional layers of security that would prohibit wide internal access to V.I.T. accounts, according to these people. That included a kind of “dual layer” of security, requiring assurances from multiple employees to make significant changes to accounts.

    In the end, the company did not follow through with the plans, these people said.

    Dana (023079)

  103. Well what tech company has proved it self even moderately conpetent

    narciso (d1f714)

  104. Ok, let’s take a break from seriousness. You can laugh at this one. http://www.wxyz.com/news/man-accidentally-shoots-self-in-penis-after-robbing-chicago-hot-dog-stand

    nk (dbc370)

  105. Como? I guess you have to read the whole thing, no not on a darem

    narciso (d1f714)

  106. I don’t object to Presidents using new technologies. I object to Presidents who use new technologies to lie.

    I object to any president using technology that appears to have weaknesses that might make it risky, as well as potentially putting others at risk. Presidents can lie anytime, anywhere, through any available outlet. They don’t require technology for that.

    Dana (023079)

  107. You can laugh at this one.

    Nk, you might say he went off half-cocked.

    Chuck Bartowski (211c17)

  108. Was this contract employee an H-1B from India, by any chance? That’s why I don’t have Paypal. It wants my DOB and SSN and I don’t want read in the papers that I rented a truck from Home Depot and ran down a bunch of people before I was shot by the police.

    nk (dbc370)

  109. #103, DRJ, so, you really don’t presume to criticize Trump for Tweeting at all as long as his opinions conform to yours.

    At least that’s an improvement over the internet Neanderthal crybullies trying to shut him up.

    ropelight (e67740)

  110. Did anyone try to jam Fdr’s broadcast that is the point.

    narciso (48ecae)

  111. nk (dbc370) — 11/3/2017 @ 9:18 pm

    I didn’t even have to click the link before I started laughing!

    felipe (023cc9)

  112. While I appreciate a President being able to communicate directly with the people without media interference and misinterpretation, this situation has revealed a serious vulnerability in the President’s chosen form of communication that could lead to harm to the American people and the nation at large being put at risk. So, rather than throwing out the silly TDS accusations, please help me understand how you don’t see this as a red flag of warning? — Dana (023079) — 11/3/2017 @ 2:07 pm

    Dana, please look at the italicized portion of my quote of your comment. It is your choice of words that draw the accusation of TDS, which would may not have occurred if you had said the following instead:

    While I appreciate a President being able to communicate directly with the people without media interference and misinterpretation, this situation has revealed a serious vulnerability in twitter that could lead to harm to the American people and the nation at large being put at risk.

    felipe (023cc9)

  113. Eat TDS for breakfast and lunch. It’s a badge of honor as opposed to the smudge of Trumpism.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  114. Are you going to scream at the sky

    narciso (d1f714)

  115. Even Andrew Sullivan sees the futility of that?

    narciso (d1f714)

  116. 111, if that is the case, then the President’s one rare example of non-white ethnic pander (Indians of Indian origin) has a negative ROI.

    urbanleftbehind (7007fd)

  117. Birfers giving common sense advice..America! I love it.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  118. Not rally, there are leftist like rushdie who doesn’t tire in taunting tigers, and dezousa who know bett

    narciso (d1f714)

  119. So the title character in the golden house is an unscrupulous developer in mumbai, who has dark underpinnings in the mob back home, like a character in Robert Wilson boxer series

    narciso (d1f714)

  120. Felipe@115
    I think Dana’s word choice was perfect. First, the President prefers it, and that should be noted as a fact. Second, hijacking the President’s account has impacts beyond those associated with other accounts. No one can hijack Patterico’s Twitter account and use it to start a war with a tinpot dictator.

    As for saying it marks TDS, it’s what the king said about the lady’s garter…honi soit qui mal y pense.

    kishnevi (3ebfe9)

  121. @ ropelight,

    Dana, Trump’s use of Tweets is entirely his business.

    I disagree. If he were a private citizen, yes, of course it would be his business, and his alone. But he’s not a private citizen. Because he holds the most powerful position in the world, his Twitter use is our business as we can all be put at risk by what he tweets, and the access that others could take advantage of to impersonate him.

    Dana (023079)

  122. Nonsense! You’re grasping for a rationale to justify sticking your nose into Trump’s business. He’s President, and he doesn’t have to eat his broccoli before leaving the table.

    ropelight (e67740)

  123. he doesn’t have to eat his broccoli before leaving the table.

    Lol…

    “Look at me. I’m running with scissors”

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  124. The lead target is a majority shareholder in twitter

    narciso (d1f714)

  125. wow sleazy saudi pedophile bin Salman’s really feeling himself sounds like

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  126. He also 3% of Deutsche bank, halal does
    https://mobile.twitter.com/Dr_Ulrichsen/status/926929373399150592?p=v
    Membership drive is going to quiet next quarter

    https://mobile.twitter.com/mrkalantari/status/926948819232751616?p=v

    narciso (d1f714)

  127. A New York Times magazine story from June, 2015 about incredibly detaied fake news from Russia – that could only fool people for a few hours, so you wonder what’s the point of all of this: (Yes to scare people about ISIS, but who is not going to want to see a follow-up story?)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  128. Neither Zuckerberg or Dorsey seem to have read that piece.

    narciso (d1f714)

  129. Jack Dorsey is CEO o Twitter.

    Didn’t the Internet Research Agency buy ads in 2016?

    In that case, in 2014, they used free media. Text messages and messages on Twitter. And they put up YOUTube videos and doctored screenshots of CNN. And they even put up fake websites of Louisiana televisipn stattions and newspapers and started a Wikipedia page on the disaster!

    Two months later they did something about a ebola outbreak in Atlanta that included some fake video of “hazmat-suited medical workers transporting a victim” with Beyoncé’s then recent single “7/11” playing in the background, and a truck in the parking lot with logo of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

    I think maybe this was done to impress their bosses, or they didn’t have afeel for what would work.

    This is not like a story about Syrian refugees raping people in Germany – a rumor about a terrorist attack in Louisiana and an ebola outbreak in Atlanta just can’t stand in isolation.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)


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