Slashdot Mirror
Republicans Are Reportedly Using a Self-Destructing Message App To Avoid Leaks (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Trump administration members and other Republicans are using the encrypted, self-destructing messaging app Confide to keep conversations private in the wake of hacks and leaks, according to Jonathan Swan and David McCabe at Axios. Axios writes that "numerous senior GOP operatives and several members of the Trump administration" have downloaded Confide, which automatically wipes messages after they're read. One operative told Axios that the app "provides some cover" for people in the party. He ties it to last year's hack of the Democratic National Committee, which led to huge and damaging information dumps of DNC emails leading up to the 2016 election. But besides outright hacks, the source also said he liked the fact that Confide makes it difficult to screenshot messages, because only a few words are shown at a time. That suggests that it's useful not just for reducing paper trails, but for stopping insiders from preserving individual messages -- especially given the steady flow of leaks that have come out since Trump took office. As Axios notes, official White House business is subject to preservation rules, although we don't know much about who's allegedly using Confide and what they're doing with it, so it's not clear whether this might run afoul of those laws. It's also difficult to say how much this is a specifically Republican phenomenon, and how much is a general move toward encryption.
Exactly. Trump raked Apple over the coals for their stance on encryption after all.
I'm fairly partizan on my politics, but that doesn't stop me from chewing the arses off of my side even more than I chew tails of the other side. In fact, I'm usually much harsher on those of my side exactly because they are on my side. I expect and demand better behavior from them. I'm disappointed much of them time, but still.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Meanwhile, the DNC is on Signal.
Speaking only for myself, yes, I'll be mad at them if they're trying to evade the Presidential Records Act or similar, whichever party is doing this. I won't, however, just make blind assumptions or blame either party for trying to be secure. That said, insider threats are the big threats and for that it doesn't matter how securely the messages are delivered to the mole.
That's an interesting argument. It was resolved quite some time ago. The counter-argument is of course that because the President is empowered to fulfill his duties as he sees fit, one method he may use is to hire staff to assist him in his duties. The White House staff operates under the Constitutional authority of the President, as agents of the President. Their authority doesn't come from the Congress. Further, interfering with the White House staff *is* interfering with the President's conduct of his Constitutional duties. This is the reasoning the Supreme Court has mostly used - Congress may not generally interfere with the President's conduct of diplomacy*, and because the President conducts diplomacy by using his staff, interfering with staff *is* interfering with the President's powers.
Not only can Congress not specify a particular means of communication, they can not even *look* at internal White House memos if the President indicates that doing so would interfere with his Constitutional duties. This is called "executive privilege" and it was first invoked by George Washington. In 1796, Presiden Washington refused to comply with a request by the House of Representatives for documents related to the negotiation of the Jay Treaty. Many, many Presidents since Washington have invoked executive privilege, and most of the time they've won.
A major turning point in executive privilege was Nixon. The Nixon administration refused to turn over documents related to Watergate, saying "executive privilege". The Supreme Court ruled that while a President may keep White House communications private, in a criminal investigation of that magnitude he had to give more explanation than just saying "executive privilege". Given the gravity of the situation and the legitimate interest in the papers, he would need to say "turning over the papers would interfere with my Constitutional powers because ...", SCOTUS said. While technically the court ruled against Nixon, they stressed that generally the White House *may* choose not to reveal their communications to Congress or the courts - in criminal cases of major public interest, they just need to state a *reason* they aren't turning over the communications.
For 25 years after Nixon no President lost an executive privilege claim. The Clinton administration claimed executive privilege a record fourteen times, and lost only once.
So yeah that is an interesting argument you've made. That argument has not been the successful argument throughput history.
* Aside from ratification of treaties by the Senate only.
In my opinion, that makes him a pedophile.
And by Oxfords FACTs, that makes you a retard.
A pedophile is someone that has sexual preferences for people PRE-pubescent. KEYWORD PRE:- before, beginning, primary, first.
Majority of people these days, especially in America, start puberty around 9-11 because of increased access to fatty diets. (both good and bad quality fats)
Go make up your own god damn words to describe your baseless Age of Consent bullshit.
Age of Consent is such a hilariously broken concept in itself because there's BILLIONS of adults incapable of making informed decisions as well!
But hey, "DEY BE ADULTS N JUNK!"
Age of everything should be "Prove you are a capable adult of reasonable and informed decision making in this simple test!", so, no age at all.
Protip: you failed champ.
The only valid sexual laws that should exist are the Chronophilia laws.
They get rid of all the bullshit grey areas and needless discussion.