How a Video Game About Sheep Exposes the FBI's Broken FOIA System (dailydot.com)

blottsie writes from a report via Daily Dot: Earlier this year, the FBI released a free, online video game featuring sheep in its attempts to fight terrorism recruitment efforts. The game is called The Slippery Slope of Violent Extremism, and it is a real thing that exists. You can play it here. After journalists filed a FOIA request to find out more about the game, the FBI said it would take two years to respond -- a staggeringly long wait that helps expose how the Bureau actively avoids responding to open-records requests. The information requested asked for "all documents -- specifically memos, email correspondence, and budgets -- around the development, release, and public reception of the FBI's Slippery Slope game. It's the one with the sheep." There are several reasons why it would take two years to respond. One reason is because of the lack of requests. "If 500 people want to have the FBI file on a famous dead person, that's going to be available, and it's going to be available quickly," J. Pat Brown, an employee at MuckRock, a nonprofit that helps journalists, researchers, good government groups, and interested members of the public make FOIA requests of government agencies, said. "But basic requests about agency activities are pushed into their own pile," adds Daily Dot. Another part of the problem has to do with the outdated technology used by government agencies. "Many of the computers the FBI is using to search for this material are from the 1980s and lack graphical interfaces. Outdated technology being a hurdle to government transparency is common across many federal agencies. The CIA only accepts FOIA request by fax machine, for example," reports Daily Dot. "In 2013, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which oversees the NSA among other agencies, was unable to accept FOIA requests for months because its fax machine broke and it had to wait until the next fiscal year to get it replaced." What's more is that government agencies are often not required to disclose information after long wait times for processing FOIAs. "As Ginger McCall of the Electronic Privacy Information Center told the Daily Dot in 2014, she once waited four years with near total silence on a FOIA request about the TSA's airport body-scanner technology only to get a note out of the blue from TSA saying she had to respond with 30 days if she wanted them to continue processing her request," reports Daily Dot. "When McCall reached out to others who had made FOIA requests to agencies under the Department of Homeland Security umbrella, they reported similar experiences."

Comments

The FOIA is not broken

[fustakrakich]

It is working exactly as designed, to stonewall.

Re: The FOIA is not broken

[dave3548]

From the excellent new book, What Government Gets Wrong: The Unelected Officials Who Actually Run Government: "Simply comparing the total volume of congressional output with the gross bureaucratic product provides a rough indication of where lawmaking now occurs in the federal government. The 106th Congress (1999â"2000) was among the most active in recent years. It passed 580 pieces of legislation, 200 more than the 105th Congress and nearly twice as many as the 104th. Some, like campaign finance reform, seemed quite significant, but many pieces of legislation were minor. During the same two years, executive agencies produced 157,173 pages of new rules and regulations in the official Federal Register, roughly the average number for recent years." We still elect politicians, but they no longer run the country.

Re:The FOIA is not broken

[just another AC]

... they may lead to great ham in the wrong hands.

Someone is going to steal my prosciutto?

Most Transparent Administration In History!

[random coward]

Lets hear it for the most transparent administration in history!

Re:Most Transparent Administration In History!

[npslider]

This is where you are wrong. The current administration IS being transparent.

Do you see any information? Nope. That's because it is perfectly transparent, thus invisible to all known forms of visual detection.

We have gotten what we were promised. We just need the 'courage' to accept it.

Re:Most Transparent Administration In History!

[Darinbob]

However, were previous administrations *more* transparent? No, not really. Administrations have been secretive forever. The only thing new with the Obama administration was the campaign promise to be more open, which then draws peoples attention to the fact that there is no transparency. And given the public's inability to remember the past they assume that only the Obama administration is being opaque. Of course there's some partisanship playing a part - the president you like is forgiven, the president you hate is blamed ("it's ok for my guys, we were fighting terrorism, Hitler, the cold war, the kaiser, Santa Ana, the confederates, and Canadians spies, so being secretive is necessary for security").

Shall we talk about FOIA or this game?

[Pollux]

Because I'm playing the game right now, and it's the funniest thing I've seen in a while. Play a game trying to steer a greased sheep through a Dire Straits music video, all the while being told that the enemy is trying to brainwash me. It feels eerily similar to old-school public service announcements that have a message completely unrelated to the content delivered with it.

"Don't be a puppet!" Hilarious. Who in their right mind would think this would stop terrorists?

Trouble

[PPH]

The sheep are starting to ask questions.

Re:Trouble

[npslider]

That's always a very baaaaad sign.

I made legendary jihadist in 12 rounds!

[downright]

I made legendary jihadist in 12 rounds! I dare you to beat my high score!

 

Stop

[U8MyData]

When is our illustrious government going to stop using the "outdated" technology argument? We all know that when they want something, they usually get it. This is just, "there is nothing to see here" in action.

Re:Land of the free?

[fahrbot-bot]

Disclaimer: I have no plans to vote at this point. Aside from writing in a joke candidate, I can't think of a single option that wouldn't leave me feeling filthy afterwards.

You could follow this example and try: "Robert'); DROP TABLE Candidates;--"

But, I don't know how filthy you'd feel afterwards ... :-)

Three questions from a PC gamer

[PopeRatzo]

1: Is there multiplayer?

2: Can I get 60fps on a GeForce 960?

3: Is the sheep a 6 or a 10?

Re:Land of the free?

[plopez]

Now that Glen Beck endorsed Hillary Trump looks to be the sane and sensible solution. In an insane situation, total madness is the best solution.

Re:Archaic terms

[Maritz]

fax machines were an archaic communications technology.

lol. That's what they are now. They weren't archaic when they came out, bud.