Defense Department Computer Network Among Top Sharers of Child Pornography

Plus: Florida legalizes vegetable gardens, Facebook bans anti-voting ads, and more...

Defense Department computers are among the top distributors of child pornography. An untold number of Department of Defense (DOD) employees and contractors have subscriptions to child pornography websites, and the problem is apparently so pervasive it requires new technical solutions to address it.

"Hundreds of DoD-affiliated individuals" were recently identified as suspects in child pornography cases, according to an investigation by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

So far, authorities have only looked into about 20 percent of these cases. But already, they've found "several" individuals "using their government devices to download or share said pornographic material."

Last year, an investigation by the National Criminal Justice Training Program found DOD computers were among the top networks nationwide for peer-to-peer sharing of pornographic images of minors. DOD's network ranked 19th out of 2,891 computer networks studied.

To prevent such widespread abuse going forward, the "End National Defense Network Abuse Act" would "crack down on this activity by upgrading the training and technical capacity of military criminal investigative organizations to confront the misuse of DoD computers, facilities, and equipment," according to a press release. It would also arrange for DOD authorities to work more closely with civilian law enforcement on these cases.

"The notion that the Department of Defense's network and Pentagon-issued computers may be used to view, create, or circulate such horrifying images is a shameful disgrace, and one we must fight head on," said Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D–Va.), who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Mark Meadows (R–N.C.).

A companion bill in the senate has been introduced by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R–Alaska) and Brian Schatz (D–Hawaii).

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AROUND REASON

Let freedom ring: Reason's offering a special Fourth of July subscription rate of two years (that's 22 issues) for $17.76. Sign up here.

P.S. Roundup will be taking a holiday hiatus tomorrow and Friday. See you again on Monday, July 8.

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FREE MINDS

What could go wrong? In order to protect the press, Democratic presidential candidate Eric Swalwell wants the federal government to decide who is and isn't a journalist.

Assault is already a crime, and I don't want the government deciding who is and isn't a reporter. https://t.co/qEjH8iaYjy

— CJ Ciaramella (@cjciaramella) July 2, 2019

It's already illegal to assault a journalist you grandstanding idiot https://t.co/qoKAzxkXfh

— Jen Monroe (@thatjenmonroe) July 2, 2019

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FREE MARKETS

Land of the Free? "After nearly six years of fighting…I will once again be able to legally plant vegetables in my front yard," said Hermine Ricketts after a lengthy battle in Florida. "I'm grateful to the legislature and the governor for standing up to protect my freedom to grow healthy food on my own property."

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QUICK HITS

• Almost $2.5 million is being diverted from the National Park Service's regular funds for President Trump's dick-swinging "Salute to America" tomorrow.
• Facebook will ban ads that promote abstention from voting.
• Judy Shelton, whom Trump has nominated to be one of the Federal Reserve Board's two governors, is a critic of central banking and a supporter of the gold standard.
• "Ankle bracelets are promoted as a humane alternative to jail." But what's really going on?
• More criticism of Sen. Josh Hawley's (R–Mo.) supremely silly social-media bill:

A take on Sen. Hawley's social media regulation from a former Google content moderator - @RSI's own @DaisySRivkin!! https://t.co/lJQJmpl6bS @WashTimes

— Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair ???? (@senatorshoshana) July 2, 2019

• I may be reading too much into this image, but…

Gabbard's cool abstention from this sisterly farce here: priceless pic.twitter.com/wUTEkJhgSi

— Elizabeth Nolan Brown (@ENBrown) July 3, 2019

• Democrats are asking Facebook to stop its cryptocurrency plans.
• Georgia is being sued for allegedly discriminating against Puerto Ricans by making them jump through extra hoops to get driver's licenses.

Comments

[OpenBordersLiberal-tarian]

"Almost $2.5 million is being diverted from the National Park Service's regular funds for President Trump's dick-swinging 'Salute to America' tomorrow."

More like #TinyMushroomDick-swinging.

#SoGladButtplugRememberedHisPassword

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

"Ankle bracelets are promoted as a humane alternative to jail." But what's really going on?"

And sexier.

[markm23]

This is bizarre: the government has no trouble paying about $100 per day to keep people who have not yet been convicted of a crime in jail, but to release them it wants them to pay $10 a day expenses for the ankle monitor.

[Don't look at me!]

“Grandstanding idiot”.
Excellent.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Check out the wamyn high fiving each other.

Only one is authentic.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Also spelled 'wahmen'. Apparently. Apologies to clown world.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

"Bake-that-cake, bake-that-cake, baker's person!
So I will, gay master, as fast as I can,
Pat it, prick it, mark it with a D,
Put in the oven over Kamala and me."

[Unicorn Abattoir]

I didn't realize Kirsten Gillibrand was so short!

[CharlesWT]

5' 3"

[Last of the Shitlords]

That’s nothing. If you want to see a truly diminutive number, check out her IQ.

[Don't look at me!]

Is the one blond chick really that short?

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Let's just say she's held a lot of beers in her time.

[ErictheRed]

For the win

[Dillinger]

Fauxcahontas has the wingspan of a power forward

[Fist of Etiquette]

Reason's offering a special Fourth of July subscription rate of two years (that's 22 issues) for $17.76.

Language of the oppressor.

[MP]

17.76

Racist.

[OpenBordersLiberal-tarian]

"Gabbard’s cool abstention from this sisterly farce here: priceless"

Don't be fooled by Gabbard's calm demeanor or anti-war posturing. She's actually the most dangerous Democrat running for President because Russians like her too much.

#GabbardRussia
#LibertariansForGettingToughWithRussia

[Longtobefree]

One person's cool abstention is another person's 'why do they all ignore me?'.
There is a sign is a chain restaurant that says "Just because no one wants you on their team doesn't mean no one likes you. They just don't like you on their team."

[Last of the Shitlords]

Is there a YouTube video of Gabbard dancing braless, like AOC?

[OpenBordersLiberal-tarian]

More bad economic news.

Job creation has another rough month in June as private payrolls rise by just 102,000

#DrumpfRecession

[Longtobefree]

I have noticed that when there is a difference between "expectations" and reality, it is never the "expectations" that are questioned, only the reality. I would have thought the headline would be "experts miss jobs figure by 28%; 10,000 analysts fired".

[Sevo]

And then, when there is pretty much full employment, it's hard to hire folks.

[Aloysious]

I hope nobody on this board works at the DoD.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

I wonder what the DHS stats are.

[Aloysious]

Those paragons of virtue? I'm quite sure there behavior is spotless.

[JesseAz]

Palin and Jeff likely do

[Yellow Tony]

Gross. I like my surfer boys technically illegal.

[sharmota4zeb]

Yeah Tony, but you live in Portland, NH.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Assault is already a crime, and I don't want the government deciding who is and isn't a reporter.

Ciaramella just outed himself as NOT a journalist if he doesn't want the special protections.

[Anomalous]

Maybe he doesn't want to join any club that would have him as a member.

[Last of the Shitlords]

I only join clubs that will have my member.

[MatthewSlyfield]

I can think of a few clubs that would willingly half your member.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Almost $2.5 million is being diverted from the National Park Service's regular funds for President Trump's dick-swinging "Salute to America" tomorrow.

Lateral move.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Nothing left to cut

[What's that smell?]

"DOD's network ranked 19th" in child porn collecting and dissemination.

"If we all work together we can raise this number to be the TOP!"

--some civil servant artard

[Don't look at me!]

They aren’t that ambitious.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Facebook will ban ads that promote abstention from voting.

Always wear protection when voting, kids. You never know what you'll end up with.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

I always go to the voting booth wearing a full body condom.

[Yellow Tony]

That'll go well with the women dressing up as female reproductive organs.

[Mike Laursen]

Fine. As long as I can start voting from the comfort of my recliner just by saying, "Hey, Siri..."

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Vote or die mutherfucker vote or die.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

In order to protect the press, Democratic presidential candidate Eric Swalwell wants the federal government to decide who is and isn't a journalist.

This coming on the heels of the rhinestone cowpie, Frederica Wilson, saying that people who make fun of Congressional reps on social media need to be prosecuted.

[Nardz]

But both sides!

[Don't look at me!]

Facebook will ban ads that promote abstention from voting.
Ads that promote voting against Trump will be free.

[Mickey Rat]

Will Reason's evergreen article on the futility of voting be removed from Facebook when it pops up again?

[TripK]

Probably, and meanwhile the Reason staff will praise them for it (just kidding, they believe they should have special rules that exempt them from the censorship).

[Nardz]

Remember when that white cop shot a black guy in the city a presidential candidate is mayor of, then that mayor blamed systemic racism and somehow excused himself from that system? I think it was only a couple weeks ago...

Oh, my bad. Forgot we're trying to bury that news around here.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Dude is gay. They are super special people. If systemic racism momentarily escaped his attention it's because of homophobes like you.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

This site is becoming damn near unusable in mobile. The page keeps jumping back to the top, and now I am getting autoplay videos? What the hell, Reason. I can't take this anymore.

[Longtobefree]

Bye.
Some here will miss you.
(the rest of us know it is a bluff)

[JesseAz]

We can still visit media.matters or slate if we want his talking points.

[Yellow Tony]

If you're on Android, Firefox allows addons like uBlock Origin so you won't have to deal with those annoyances. I also recommend uMatrix to accompany uBlock Origin.

[Last of the Shitlords]

Reason probably spent a ton of money just to fuck up their website like this. They should just revert the whole thing to the previous version.

[sharmota4zeb]

Reason is best read on a desktop screen.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

Well, the scumbags at the New York Times are no longer holding back: they’re finally telling America and Americans what they really think of us. Spoiler alert: they think we pretty much suck.

https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1146089900439064581?s=12

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

From the photo I get the impression that Warren knows no more about high-fiving than she does about drinking beer.

[JesseAz]

She's doing the old Indian double open hand greeting to show she is unarmed. You literally see her mouthing "how" in the picture. Dont be racist.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Judy Shelton, whom Trump has nominated to be one of the Federal Reserve Board's two governors, is a critic of central banking and a supporter of the gold standard.

It's going to figuratively destroy half the Reason staff that Trump is the most libertarian president to date.

[TripK]

It's already destroyed the entire Reason staff, along with any notion that this website was libertarian in the first place.

[Yellow Tony]

I guess we'll forget about Calvin Coolidge.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

So tired of winning. KAG! But seriously can anybody imagine Reason's favored candidate, HRC would make this nomination?

[sharmota4zeb]

Yeah, Trump is the most libertarian president in my lifetime.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Georgia is being sued for allegedly discriminating against Puerto Ricans by making them jump through extra hoops to get driver's licenses.

THEY SHOULDN'T BE GIVING DRIVERS LICENSES TO FOREIGNERS IN THE FIRST PLACE. USA!

[Don't look at me!]

Should be easy. I heard they were good at circus stuff.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Defense Department computers are among the top distributors of child pornography.

FBI: Hold my beer.

[Ken Shultz]

"Facebook will ban ads that promote abstention from voting."

Punching Zuckermuffin in the face is difficult, wrong, and illegal; you don't like Slack because it won't let you blab at random strangers . . . maybe there just doesn't seem like a better alternative to you than siccing the politicians on Facebook.

Baloney! There are still other options, and here's one: Have you met MeWe?

https://mewe.com/

They're supposedly picking up 30,000 users daily. Plenty of their millions of users would love to hear what you think about what they wrote about someone else's Mom and her cat pics. Or if you want to tell all the MeWe users who will listen about how much you hated the last Avengers movie, you can do that!

On the other hand, you can make your own posts as private as you want them to be--and that doesn't just mean private from other users. At the link, they claim that with them, "Your private life is #Not4Sale" and further that there are, "No Ads. No Spyware. No BS." with their service. Keep all your posts to invited friends and family if you like. They promise to keep your private shit away from advertisers!

Regardless, there's nothing Zucksucks says or does that's so obnoxious and awful that it should make you so stupid that you'd trust Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and the bureaucrats at the Federal Trade Commission to solve your problems for you--better than you can solve them for yourself.

God, Facebook sucks! Don't let it make you stupid.

[Yellow Tony]

It'll be interesting if they survive past their VC funding rounds.

[TripK]

That's when they sell to Facebook or Google.

[Ken Shultz]

MeWe presumably wants to go public.

Regardless, in the current political environment, I doubt anybody in the government would approve of Facebook or Google buying MeWe at this point. Facebook will be lucky if they can get out of this without the government forcing them to spin off Instagram.

There's no way the government would let Facebook buy Instagram today. Letting them do that acquisition in first place is openly seen as a terrible mistake--and making them sell it is openly advocated as a remedy for the problems at Facebook. I'm not saying that's the way it should be, but I think that's the way it is.

[TripK]

I wish them the best of luck. I hope I am wrong on all of this.

[Ken Shultz]

I think they're well positioned for the demographic that Facebook has lost. I certainly hope they're successful. They don't need to have profit margins that are as fat as Facebook's in order to be profitable, and when I look at the size of their first funding round, it's kind of amazing how little money they apparently needed.

http://labusinessjournal.com/news/2018/jul/07/facebook-alternative-mewe-raises-52m/

They could have a burn rate a hell of a lot higher than that and stay alive for a long time to come, and only needing a few million to maintain that kind of increase in users is a big deal. It's not like they need to reinvent the wheel like Facebook did when the latter was taking on MySpace either. People use to pay through the nose for Excel and Word. It became a commodity product. The same thing happened to mp3 players. The same thing is happening to smart phones. All the heavy lifting in social media may already be done. And with all those disaffected, young ex-Facebook users out there, I wouldn't bet against MeWe. They're in a good spot at a good time.

I did my libertarian duty and got my friends and family on Slack as a Facebook replacement. I (and they) love the way Slack integrates with other programs friends and family are already using. Slack probably won't ever have the kinds of margins that Facebook enjoyed, but they don't need to. That's the eternal bane of high margin companies like Facebook. Their new competitors don't need to be as profitable as Facebook, but Facebook need to convince marginal shareholders that their most profitable days are ahead of them.

Facebook's outlook is worth hundreds of billions. That's what they lost when their prospects dimmed after last summer--despite their revenue increasing.

[sharmota4zeb]

Earlier this week, Facebook sent me a vague note about community standards. I considered typing back to them to get some clarification. Then I realized, they have an office 2 blocks from that library computer...

As soon as I get my FBI background check done, a regular immigration visa, and steady work, I'm going to start spraying my hair blue on a regular basis.

[Ken Shultz]

"Let freedom ring: Reason's offering a special Fourth of July subscription rate of two years (that's 22 issues) for $17.76. Sign up here."

Funny you should mention that.

The Brave Rewards program pays out on July 5th. They give me a share of the revenue for the advertising I agree to see while I'm browsing, and right now, they're saying that this month, I'm getting paid 20.90 BAT or $6.45 USD on July 5th.

I'd like to see journalism go to more of a subscription model again and depend less on advertising. I find that content creators, like other businesses, generally cater their services to please paying customers, and when the paying customers are advertisers and big donors, rather than subscribers, you're more likely to get content that caters to the tastes of Hollywood, Nike, and wealthy donors like George Soros rather than subscribers like Ken Shultz.

You want to sell me a two year subscription for $17.76. I want to give Reason $6.45 this month. That would translate to $154.80 over two years if rates stay the same. I think Brave wants some small percent of that for the service. I'm sure their rates are competitive with Patreon.

Unfortunately, Reason hasn't signed up for the Brave Rewards program. All they need to do is confirm that the people who say they own this site are the actual owners--so that when I send you the money, we all know it's actually going to you and not somebody else. It's not that hard.

https://publishers.basicattentiontoken.org/

Slide down for the details. The New York Times is verified. The Washington Post is verified. If Reason doesn't verify by July 5th, I'll go find someone whose innocent gun review videos have been demonetized on YouTube and give the money to them.

That's some libertarian, market based justice right there. Google demonetizes innocent gun review videos. I install the Brave browser, deny Google revenue they'd get for advertising to me, and I take the money I earn from watching fewer ads than I normally would and give the money to a YouTube creator that Google has demonetized. Free minds and free markets!

I'd rather give the money to Reason, but you gotta let me.

[TripK]

"Hundreds of DoD-affiliated individuals" were recently identified as suspects in child pornography cases, according to an investigation by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service."

What a weird main story.. based on the one-pager about the END Network Abuse act, the operation that uncovered these DoD-affiliated individuals was conducted back in 2006. Not exactly what I would call "recently identified", unless I'm missing something.

If Operation Flicker was conducted in 2006, why was the DoD allowed to continue sharing the illegal pornography for 13 years?? They've only followed up with investigations of 20 percent of these individuals in the past 13 years. Astonishing.

[Last of the Shitlords]

Are they talking about real kiddie porn, like the kind Chemjeff and Buttplug are into, or just tasteless shit, like pornographic Simpson’s cartoons and that kind of shit?

[TripK]

They don't specify, but they seem to be talking about the real child porn. I don't see any indication that it's cartoons.

[AHB]

You now realize there's a non-zero chance that a DoD worker has saved the "Bart, get out! I'm piss!" comic, not because of its meme status, but because they actually think it's hot.

[Dillinger]

dude. wtf, DoD? gross.

[Juice]

An untold number of Department of Defense (DOD) employees and contractors have subscriptions to child pornography websites, and the problem is apparently so pervasive it requires new technical solutions to address it.

1. Tha fuck?
2. How do they know?
3. Do they know who the subscribers are?
4. Why isn't this major news?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I think the biggest surprise was learning PB was a DoD employee.

[Juice]

Land of the Free?

Whoever told you that is your enemy.

[Brandybuck]

From the article:

> Ads telling people to “boycott the election” disproportionately targeted African American Facebook users

Well maybe Facebook could stop selling ads that target African Americans. Period. I mean duh. You let advertisers target certain populations then you're going to get ads that target certain populations. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out.

[Uncle Jay]

"Defense Department Computer Network Among Top Sharers of Child Pornography, Plus: Florida legalizes vegetable gardens, Facebook bans anti-voting ads..."

Doesn't all this you make you proud that you're an American?

[New Report Declares That Defense Department Computers Are A Main Source Of Child Sexual Abuse Material - Walid Shoebat]

[…] the senate has been introduced by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R–Alaska) and Brian Schatz (D–Hawaii (source, […]

[neoteny]

An untold number of Department of Defense (DOD) employees and contractors have subscriptions to child pornography websites

Yeah, but all those websites are run by the FBI.

[July 4, 2019 – Progressive News Service]

[…] The Pentagon has a child pornography problem. “Last year, an investigation by the National Criminal Justice Training Program found (Department of Defense) computers were among the top networks nationwide for peer-to-peer sharing of pornographic images of minors.”   https://reason.com/2019/07/03/defense-department-computers-among-top-sharers-of-child-pornography/ […]

[sharmota4zeb]

Yeah, we should stop that child porn sharing on DOD computers. While we're at it, let's raise the minimum enlistment age from 17 to 21 and sell discounted Penthouse magazines on the military bases. What type of pics do you expect 17 year old soldiers to search for when they are stuck on a base in a foreign country where the locals don't know English? Not every 17 year old lad has a thing for slutty professors.

[Počítačová sieť Pentagonu patrí k najväčším šíriteľom detskej pornografie v USA - Hlavné správy]

[…] Počítače ministerstva obrany patria medzi top distribútorov detskej pornografie. Nespočetný počet zamestnancov a dodávateľov ministerstva obrany má dokonca predplatené webové stránky detskej pornografie a tento problém je zjavne všadeprítomný. Informuje portál Reason […]

[Počítačová sieť Pentagonu patrí k najväčším šíriteľom detskej pornografie v USA | | Správy, Novinky, Aktuality]

[…] Počítače ministerstva obrany patria medzi top distribútorov detskej pornografie. Nespočetný počet zamestnancov a dodávateľov ministerstva obrany má dokonca predplatené webové stránky detskej pornografie a tento problém je zjavne všadeprítomný. Informuje portál Reason […]

[Vrazi a úchylové! Pentagon patří k největším šiřitelům dětské pornografie ve Spojených státech | Vlastenecké noviny]

[…] pornografie. Takové závěry přineslo vyšetřování Obranné vyšetřovací služby,“ píše […]

[In the News (#953) | The Honest Courtesan]

[…] The FBI should’ve just run their child porn sites on DoD computers: […]