Thread by @theintercept

From sophisticated electronic surveillance against American protesters, to Zoom’s “fuzzy” encryption claims, 2020 was a big year for technology reporting at The Intercept. Here are some of our highlights.

An internal presentation at Facebook discussed the “benefits” of “content control,” and offered one example of a topic employers might find useful to blacklist: the word “unionize.” interc.pt/3mXl5K0

Internal TikTok moderation documents made public by The Intercept revealed that the China-based social media company censored various forms of political speech, and instructed moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor to attract new users. interc.pt/384xWWu

With millions of people working from home, business is booming for Zoom, bringing more attention on the company's privacy practices — including a policy that seemed to give the company permission to mine messages and files shared during meetings. interc.pt/3aZipJs

Andrew Cuomo called in the billionaires to build a high-tech dystopia, where our homes are never again exclusively personal spaces, writes @NaomiAKlein, but are also our schools, our doctor’s offices, our gyms, and, if determined by the state, our jails. interc.pt/384jQV7

After a 19-year-old livestreamed his suicide, TikTok acted rapidly – not to alert the authorities or the young man’s family, but to avoid tarnishing the company’s image. interc.pt/350ELq5

According to a leaked FBI bulletin, law enforcement discovered an ironic downside to ubiquitous privatized surveillance: The cameras are alerting residents when police show up to conduct searches. interc.pt/351znmD

Federal agents used “a sophisticated cell phone cloning attack — the details of which remain classified — to intercept protesters’ phone communications” in Portland this summer. interc.pt/3mY8TbS

An “intelligence note” found among the BlueLeaks trove of law enforcement documents revealed growing angst within the Department of Homeland Security that masks are breaking police facial recognition. interc.pt/3n5ZCyx

In March, The Intercept reported that moderators and others employed through vendors, already often treated like second-class employees at Facebook, complained that they were barred from working from home. interc.pt/3hvgmhD

Leveraging close ties to Twitter, Dataminr helped law enforcement agencies digitally monitor the protests following the killing of George Floyd, tipping off police to social media posts with the latest whereabouts and actions of demonstrators. interc.pt/3834AaX

What exactly does it mean to oppose the discriminatory policing of black Americans while simultaneously selling discriminatory tools to the police?

Amazon’s vocal support for protests is contradicted by its surveillance products like Ring and Rekognition. interc.pt/3hvwi3g