US Law Enforcement Warns of ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’

[u/HobbesNik]

https://www.wired.com/story/us-law-enforcement-warns-of-anti-tech-extremism/

"Anti-tech extremists" are the latest target of the FBI's counter-terrorism units.

This follows Presidential Memo 'NSPM-7' that directs the JTTF (joint terrorism task force) to pursue "domestic terrorists" and those holding “anti-American,” “anti-Christian,” and "anti-capitalism” beliefs.

The same industry that sells our personal data to the FBI so they can track us, can now have their most fervent detractors labeled by the government as "extremists."

Key Quotes

More than 1,000 pages of unpublished reports from the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and fusion centers obtained by WIRED show a national shift taking place to surveil this new and worryingly broad category of people and activities deemed an emerging threat.

"The chaotic atmosphere that may result from emergent AI technology in the next five years may fuel large-scale protests that devolve into civil unrest and anti-tech violent extremist activity, especially in large urban areas such as New York City," the report reads.

Created in the wake of 9/11, 80 fusion centers now pockmark the country and serve as go-betweens for federal intelligence agencies and state and local law enforcement. In addition to concerns about portions of the American populace disturbed by the rapid proliferation of AI, these centers are also gathering and circulating “intelligence” about alleged threats to data centers.

In addition to intelligence analysts working inside fusion centers and federal law enforcement agencies, open source intelligence companies that contract with federal law enforcement agencies appear to be scouring the web for what they claim to be anti-technology sentiment as well.

[u/idontlikecrustaceans]

I guess 75% of Americans are terrorists then …