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Does Anonymity In Virtual Worlds Breed Terrorism?

Posted by samzenpus on from the threat-of-the-week dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes "The Washington Post has an article about the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity's take on the numerous virtual worlds (e.g. Second Life) that have cropped up in recent years. IARPA's thesis is that because the Government can't currently monitor all the communication and interaction, terrorists will plot and scheme in such environments."

11 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Terror Gnomes by mrxak · · Score: 5, Funny

    I always knew those gnomes in the tram were up to something!

    --
    -mrxak
    Onions Will Kill You
  2. whats wrong by Kinobi · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't see a problem with creating a virtual tower and airplane... Maybe we should have a virtual reality world where you can blow yourself up and be reborn in heaven. If it is addictive enough it may curb real life terrorism.

  3. they dress up like bears by User+956 · · Score: 5, Funny

    because the Government can't currently monitor all the communication and interaction, terrorists will plot and scheme in such environments.

    If by "terrorists", you mean "furries" and "furry sympathizers", then I would have to agree with you.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  4. No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    and I will blow up anyone who says otherwise.

  5. Re:no more than anonymity in the real world... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm sure once They realize how comic their attempts to justify their jobs are, they will return all the tax money and do something productive.

  6. Re:Monitor this! by Ultra64 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm sure terrorists do meet in person to plot

    How could you know that? Unless...

    I FOUND ONE! Call DHS!
  7. we should be afraid of anynymous by rucs_hack · · Score: 3, Funny

    No really, you want /b/ to take over the world?

    Think of it, Memes filling every newspaper, kittehs running wild in the streets, and lets not even go into the bucket..

  8. It's a plot! by dbIII · · Score: 3, Funny
    It's a plot for people in government agencies to sit around all day playing WoW and get paid for it!

    Even sysadmins can't get away with that. The best we can do is sit around all day playing slashdot and get paid for it.

  9. False positives by mlush · · Score: 3, Funny

    The number of false positives is going to be astronomical. A bunch of terrorists planning a attack is going to sound very much like a bunch of spotty teens planing to raid the Dungeon of Crushing Inevitability.

  10. Re:In fact less by CmdrGravy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, my operatives and I communicate in the following fashion. We type our pre-arranged phrase into google at the agreed time and select a link at a particular ranking determined by a complicated formula involving the day of the week, the number of days from Easter and various other classified terrorist statistics. The nearest link in the page which links to some sort of open forum is then used to post the coded message which my operative will then read. This explains a lot of, what people think are, the trolls here on /..

  11. Re:no more than anonymity in the real world... by slawo · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm sure once They realize how comic their attempts to justify their jobs are, they will return all the tax money and do something productive. And they will apologize to 2nd life users whose avatars have been kidnaped and shipped to the new secret CIA servers... Just like they did in the real life... Right?
    --
    The road to hell is paved with good intentions...