Thread by @doctorow

Yesterday was my 20th blogging anniversary. I admit that it carried more emotional freight than I expected. 20 years is a long time to do anything, let alone something that's so personal and yet so public.

pluralistic.net/2021/01/13/two…

1/

As it happens, the universe gave me a hell of a blogiversary gift: my first-ever FBI investigation! I've spoken to FBI agents before (Agent: Does your Tor exit node keep logs by any chance? Me: Nope. Agent: Dang), but I've never actually been INVESTIGATED.

2/

My phone rang with an unfamiliar local number. A calm voice on the other end introduced itself as an FBI special agent with the LA office. I pointed out that this was an unlikely claim and asked for a switchboard number I could call back on.

3/

The agent said this was an entirely reasonable thing to do. A few minutes later, I was back on the phone with him.

Me: What can I do for you?

Him: I'm calling about a blog post you published. I'm sure you know which.

Me: Uh, no.

Him: The one about toppling statues.

4/

He meant this post:

pluralistic.net/2020/07/03/mon…

tldr: it's a link to a Popular Mechanics article on the science of toppling monuments, with a brief intro and summary.

5/

There's nothing illegal in that post, but also you should never talk to cops without a lawyer, so I asked him if he minded my setting up a time to make that happen. He said that was fine with him.

6/

My @EFF colleague Mark Rumold was kind enough to volunteer to call the special agent. He reported back shortly thereafter to say that the agent was responding to a complaint, and that he agreed my post was not unlawful in any way.

7/

Mark confirmed for the agent that I was not planning any unlawful activity, and the agent asked him to remind me that people can misinterpret the things we publish on the internet.

That was it.

8/

It was an anticlimax, sure. I confess that I was a little freaked out. It was just the anniversary of @aaronsw's death, and my mind kept going back to his account of the time the FBI showed up to ask him about PACER, and the horrors that followed.

9/

But it's over. The agent, to his credit, was pleasant and reasonable. But I'm mystified by the complaint - my guess is some troll has figured out that you can sic the FBI on people you disagree with on the internet - and even more by the fact that the FBI acted on it.

10/

They must have the discretion to decide when a complaint rises to the level of using a special agent's time and when it should go in the kook folder. Seems to me that filing complaints about my post in the kook folder should have been a no-brainer.

11/

I'm looking into using FOIA and the 1974 Privacy Act to find out what kind of file this generated, and to have that record expunged.

eff.org/deeplinks/2019…

In the meantime, I'm declaring a federal criminal investigation to be the Official 20th Blogiversary gift.

eof/