[drnick1]

The point is, communications should not be surveilled at all by the state. It shouldn't matter that the Internet is sometimes used to commit crimes, the bigger issue is that the vast majority of non-criminal traffic is subject to snooping.

[squidbeak]

What proof do you have that this is the result of surveillance rather than from responses to complaints?

[drnick1]

I don't have proof, but systems are certainly designed to make this possible. And since it's possible, it is safe to assume that it is happening. (The Snowden leaks corroborate massive information sharing between "Big Tech" and the U.S. government, for example.) Hence you should categorically refuse to use anything Meta (that includes, among others, Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp), or Google, or Microsoft.

[TrackerFF]

Do we know that was the case, for in those instances?

Could be that some guy threatened to kill someone over FB, someone saw that, and reported it.

[jimnotgym]

Were they surveilled? Or simply read on someone's device after they were lawfully arrested, or sent to the police by the victim? You seem to be making a bit of a jump there