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I'm just being realistic: no need to be cynical. Of the 500m FB users, only a subset are of interest to the authorities. The rest post pictures of their new puppies or where they went on their holidays. And this subset of troublemakers -- dissidents, contrarians, etc., -- are tightly networked. Show me a man's friends and I can say a fair bit about the man himself. For a dissident or contrarian a safe working assumption is that his internet activity -- forum postings, emails -- is being at least sporadically monitored. Remember you've got all these intel people with absolutely nothing to do except this sort of make-work.

[QUOTE="bigbadwolf, post: 45541, member: 722"] I'm just being realistic: no need to be cynical. Of the 500m FB users, only a subset are of interest to the authorities. The rest post pictures of their new puppies or where they went on their holidays. And this subset of troublemakers -- dissidents, contrarians, etc., -- are tightly networked. Show me a man's friends and I can say a fair bit about the man himself. For a dissident or contrarian a safe working assumption is that his internet activity -- forum postings, emails -- is being at least sporadically monitored. Remember you've got all these intel people with absolutely nothing to do except this sort of make-work. [/QUOTE]

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