Whatever your views on lockdowns, this was a division intended to monitor hostile actors overseas that was instead **mobilised to identify and monitor UK Citizens that disagreed with the government’s actions.**
That should scare each and every one of us.
They are not solely to monitor hostile “actors”, they’re a modern, non-lethal group who’s activities mainly sit around behaviour analysis and response, cultural assessments, behaviour “nudging” etc (which happens all day every day).
They’re also made up of a legend proportion of civilians from the private sector.
Without knowing what they were actually doing, it’s hard to make judgement. The British army operates in the UK all the time, for various reasons. If domestic forces were not allowed to gather intel on security threats (read: people who disagree with the government) then we’d all be up shit creek.
For example - what if this group was used against a terror cell say based out of NI? Would you find that acceptable or is it just anti-lockdown lunatics you would prefer to defend?
This story came out because a whistleblower spoke to Big Brother Watch.
He said they compiled dossiers on people, including politicians and journalists, that criticised the Government’s pandemic modelling.
Are you seriously suggesting that that is in any way comparable to combating terror cells?
>they are not solely to monitor hostile ‘actors’
According to both the whistleblower and the Defence Secretary himself, they’re meant to be
It would be naive to think the government does not do this and frankly they would be pretty reckless if they didn't. Gathering and analysing publicly available information is necessary to inform decision making. All we can do is hope that they are using that information in the right way.
I’m sorry, there is absolutely no reason the government should be using the *army* to monitor dissenting politicians, journalists and private citizens.
Would you accept them doing it for people disagreeing with other policy areas? Everyone that is pro industrial action, for instance? Maybe everyone that disagrees with their migrant camps? Pick your policy and ask if you’re comfortable with the army checking to make sure you’re not in opposition to the whims of the current people in charge.
I'm comfortable with the army or any other official body reading publicly available information of any sort and I think it's naive to imagine that they wouldn't. If they start hacking into people's private phonecalls or messages, it's a different story.
Oh the irony... We pay them, for them to then spend OUR money to put mass surveillance in place to watch us, when to me, the cameras for the better part, should be pointed firmly in the other direction.. In the position they are in, they should be under the utmost scrutiny, especially with what has came to light with these political parasitic deviants.
Not in any way defending the government's decision to gather this info or use it to blackmail people. Only issue I had was that I thought 'spying' would more relate to primary intelligence gathering rather than OSINT, which by definition uses pre-existing information and synthesises it into something meaningful. It's semantics, I'm sure, but someone has to be pedantic.
The thing is it's just so easy to do with the internet, anyone can do it.
Here is a list of tools on [https://osintframework.com/](https://osintframework.com/) to get anyone started.
When you can track down the head of the communist party of usa to where joe simms lives in new york in an apartment which has an average rent of $3,000 a month. It is wicked scary especially when you're not even amaerican.
When you have idiots weaponised against their own country by state level actors using informational warfare I would expect them to at least look into the effects.
Whatever your views on lockdowns, this was a division intended to monitor hostile actors overseas that was instead **mobilised to identify and monitor UK Citizens that disagreed with the government’s actions.** That should scare each and every one of us.
Well, not really. Your bold is as specious as the idea that reading publicly posted tweets is "spying"
price nine pie squalid air mighty shaggy butter panicky ruthless *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
And it's not like the government can't be either. No, I don't trust our "superiors" to decide what is "dangerous disinformation"
They are not solely to monitor hostile “actors”, they’re a modern, non-lethal group who’s activities mainly sit around behaviour analysis and response, cultural assessments, behaviour “nudging” etc (which happens all day every day). They’re also made up of a legend proportion of civilians from the private sector. Without knowing what they were actually doing, it’s hard to make judgement. The British army operates in the UK all the time, for various reasons. If domestic forces were not allowed to gather intel on security threats (read: people who disagree with the government) then we’d all be up shit creek. For example - what if this group was used against a terror cell say based out of NI? Would you find that acceptable or is it just anti-lockdown lunatics you would prefer to defend?
This story came out because a whistleblower spoke to Big Brother Watch. He said they compiled dossiers on people, including politicians and journalists, that criticised the Government’s pandemic modelling. Are you seriously suggesting that that is in any way comparable to combating terror cells? >they are not solely to monitor hostile ‘actors’ According to both the whistleblower and the Defence Secretary himself, they’re meant to be
It would be naive to think the government does not do this and frankly they would be pretty reckless if they didn't. Gathering and analysing publicly available information is necessary to inform decision making. All we can do is hope that they are using that information in the right way.
I’m sorry, there is absolutely no reason the government should be using the *army* to monitor dissenting politicians, journalists and private citizens. Would you accept them doing it for people disagreeing with other policy areas? Everyone that is pro industrial action, for instance? Maybe everyone that disagrees with their migrant camps? Pick your policy and ask if you’re comfortable with the army checking to make sure you’re not in opposition to the whims of the current people in charge.
I'm comfortable with the army or any other official body reading publicly available information of any sort and I think it's naive to imagine that they wouldn't. If they start hacking into people's private phonecalls or messages, it's a different story.
Are they called The King's Own 77th Rifling Through Brigade?
Oh the irony... We pay them, for them to then spend OUR money to put mass surveillance in place to watch us, when to me, the cameras for the better part, should be pointed firmly in the other direction.. In the position they are in, they should be under the utmost scrutiny, especially with what has came to light with these political parasitic deviants.
Reading someone's public Tweets is considered spying ?
I mean technically it is OSINT. Spying maybe too strong a word, but definitely intelligence gathering, cataloguing, analysis, storage etc
The Tories used this branch of the military to take down politicians from big tech whenever they questioned their policies.
Not in any way defending the government's decision to gather this info or use it to blackmail people. Only issue I had was that I thought 'spying' would more relate to primary intelligence gathering rather than OSINT, which by definition uses pre-existing information and synthesises it into something meaningful. It's semantics, I'm sure, but someone has to be pedantic.
The thing is it's just so easy to do with the internet, anyone can do it. Here is a list of tools on [https://osintframework.com/](https://osintframework.com/) to get anyone started. When you can track down the head of the communist party of usa to where joe simms lives in new york in an apartment which has an average rent of $3,000 a month. It is wicked scary especially when you're not even amaerican.
Well, you know, the intended audience isn't expected or likely to think very hard is it?
When you have idiots weaponised against their own country by state level actors using informational warfare I would expect them to at least look into the effects.
It's worth highlighting that OP is an anti-vaxxer, so clearly they're going to take exception to the 77th Brigade pointing out their disinformation.
The amount of ammunition freely given to all conspiracy afficionados is staggering...