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by kube-system 1455 days ago
I think you’re jumping to some conclusions that aren’t necessarily merited. We don’t know what DHS did or didn’t do beyond this letter, so I’m not going to speculate on that.

It is completely legal and common for LE to ask someone to stop doing something that approaches the limits of the law or could potentially lead to trouble. We have had recent attacks on federal buildings, in that context, asking someone not to incite further violence is hardly an abuse of power. I’m all for law enforcement reform, but this is a stretch.
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pokeymcsnatch 1455 days ago
I think the only conclusion that I'm jumping to is that it was malicious. At best, it's a bad and very likely unconstitutional policy.

Framing it as "asking" is dishonest- a cease and desist is a demand that you stop with an implied legal action if you don't. It didn't say "hey if this progresses, you might be criminally liable"- it calls out this specific tweet as potentially criminal and threatens federal charges.

As a side note, I tried to read the tweet again and it's been deleted, so who knows. Maybe all this was made up and maybe there was more to it or maybe DHS disappeared her. Either way, without more context I'm 100% unwilling to budge on this being an abuse of power.

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kube-system 1455 days ago
If it was a malicious attempt to chill speech, why is it one letter sent to some rando on Twitter? Unless we see more people coming forward with the same experience, I’m more inclined to presume that this is more simply just a isolated instance of a whacky person posting whacky shit.
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greyface- 1455 days ago
In the replies, other people are expressing that this happened to them, too. Here's one example: https://twitter.com/_the__snowflake/status/15427023930617774...
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kube-system 1455 days ago
That link is dead for me.
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greyface- 1455 days ago
Looks like the chilling effects are working. Here's an archived copy: https://archive.ph/aPlL5
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kube-system 1455 days ago
It’s a photo of two business cards. I don’t see a letter or any claim of what it was about, let alone an accusation of misconduct.

The most obvious explanation here is that the guy made an illegal threat and the feds showed up to check out whether it was legitimate. That’s completely normal and legal, and not even refuted by anything at that link.

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