“Contractor”. You don’t want that line blurred. It’s a bad idea.
It would not surprise me if the US government contracted out censorship duties to these companies but I somehow doubt they had to be paid and were all too happy to do it for free.
Contractors are not beholden to the same restrictions as an agent of the government is because they are not a government agency.
As such they are far less restricted by the Constitution and Bill of Rights which, for the most part, only (currently) cover government action.
What they lack is the near absolute authority the government has.
That is why the FBI was able to pay Geek Squad to report illegal content without it technically being an illegal search.
The FBI wasn't doing illegal searches and, presumably, the Geek Squad employees doing the search were covered under the
fixing a computer issue
and a service contract.
The idea of trying to classify contractors as agents of the government is a horrible idea because, as a private corporation, they would not become beholden to the government or voters.
They would just gain the (proxy) authority of a government agency while maintaining the ability to skirt US law.
view the rest of the comments →
3TrillionPotatoes ago
“Contractor”. You don’t want that line blurred. It’s a bad idea.
It would not surprise me if the US government contracted out censorship duties to these companies but I somehow doubt they had to be paid and were all too happy to do it for free.
pby1000 ago
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc. are all agents of the CIA, so they are government agents.
It is like the FBI using Geek Squad to search people's computers.
3TrillionPotatoes ago
Contractors are not beholden to the same restrictions as an agent of the government is because they are not a government agency.
As such they are far less restricted by the Constitution and Bill of Rights which, for the most part, only (currently) cover government action.
What they lack is the near absolute authority the government has.
That is why the FBI was able to pay Geek Squad to report illegal content without it technically being an illegal search.
The FBI wasn't doing illegal searches and, presumably, the Geek Squad employees doing the search were covered under the
and a service contract.
The idea of trying to classify contractors as agents of the government is a horrible idea because, as a private corporation, they would not become beholden to the government or voters.
They would just gain the (proxy) authority of a government agency while maintaining the ability to skirt US law.