I don’t know what kind of people thought Siri wasn’t spying on them.

It’s not clear how Siri would even function without spying on people.

Isn’t Alexa doing the same thing?

AP:

Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the privacy-minded company of deploying its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on people using its iPhone and other trendy devices.

The proposed settlement filed Tuesday in an Oakland, California, federal court would resolve a 5-year-old lawsuit revolving around allegations that Apple surreptitiously activated Siri to record conversations through iPhones and other devices equipped with the virtual assistant for more than a decade.

The alleged recordings occurred even when people didn’t seek to activate the virtual assistant with the trigger words, “Hey, Siri.” Some of the recorded conversations were then shared with advertisers in an attempt to sell their products to consumers more likely to be interested in the goods and services, the lawsuit asserted.

The allegations about a snoopy Siri contradicted Apple’s long-running commitment to protect the privacy of its customers — a crusade that CEO Tim Cook has often framed as a fight to preserve “a fundamental human right.”

Apple isn’t acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White. Lawyers in the case have proposed scheduling a Feb. 14 court hearing in Oakland to review the terms.

Anyone who uses Siri is necessarily retarded. Obviously, that is going to be recording you.

The question is, do iPhones turn on and listen to you randomly?

It seems like they might, but that has never been to court.

The best evidence that iPhones are secure is that all government employees use them. Google phones (Android) are definitely not being used by government people.

Most of us already know this but we are all being spied on by our own government via our phones.

Listen to this about Apple’s new upgrade and AI. Things are about to get much worse. Very disturbing. 👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/xNMYw9GLC2

— Glockford Files (@GlockfordFiles) September 30, 2024

BREAKING: AP sources: Chinese hackers targeted cellphones used by Trump, Vance https://t.co/2gI7BYskmm

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 25, 2024

The hacking service that the Israelis sell publicly allows you to hack someone’s phone by simply getting them to click a link. It’s not hard for any state to do this.

But I thought Iran was the one hacking Trump?

The Guardian:

Chinese government-linked hackers are believed to have targeted phones used by Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, as part of a larger breach of US telecommunications networks, according to a New York Times report.

The Trump campaign was informed this week that the phone numbers of the Republican presidential and vice-presidential nominee were among those targeted during a breach of the Verizon network, the paper said, citing sources.

Investigators are working to determine what data, if any, was accessed by the “sophisticated” hack, the sources said. Other current and former government officials were also targeted, according to the report.

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed an investigation was under way into the “unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China”. It did not name the Trump campaign in the statement.

…

In a statement, a Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, criticized the White House and Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, and sought to blame them for allowing a foreign adversary to target the campaign, the Times reported.

Hacking attribution is always retarded, even if you can prove something was hacked.

The Times is not proving anyone was hacked, but they’re going ahead and doing attribution. I get that they are just publishing a press release from the government as they always do (the AP is reporting the same thing), but the same is true of the government. No one can accurately attribute a hack.

This was all in CIA WikiLeaks documents many years ago: when you use a hack on the internet, other people can steal the hack itself and use it themselves against other targets. So anyone involved in this has all of the CIA’s hacks and the Israeli ones. The documents also admitted that there was no way to know who was using what software.

That said, presumably every big country is hacking every other country all the time.

Sofia Koval, 14, was arrested after her father came home to find his mother unconscious and covered in bruises. According to police, the teen told him the elderly woman scratched her, so she had to defend herself. Yevheniia Koval, 79, was pronounced dead at the hospital. pic.twitter.com/UHUXXLoXyN

— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) June 6, 2024

I remember in the old days, faggot right-wingers were saying “we should have more WHITE immigrants.”

I was like: “actually, we don’t need any immigrants, and you are a gay retard.”

I think we all know who won that argument.

New York Post:

A baby-faced 14-year-old girl accused of beating her grandmother to death after her phone was confiscated was filmed frantically praying in a Florida courtroom just moments before she faced a judge for the first time.

Sofia Koval, who is facing second-degree murder charges in the brutal slaying of Yevheniia Koval, 79, clutched her hands together and gazed up toward the sky in a Broward County courtroom last Wednesday, video captured by Local10 shows.

The fatal beatdown unfolded the night of May 23 when the schoolgirl was left home alone with her grandmother at her condo in Lauderdale Lakes, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said.

The elderly victim’s bruised and battered body was discovered when her son Vladimir Koval, the teen’s father, returned home just after midnight, according to authorities.

Yevheniia Koval

Vladimir told authorities his daughter had only just moved to the US from Ukraine and had allegedly been acting out, according to a heavily redacted affidavit obtained by Law & Crime.

Of course she was “acting out.” She was on the Ultimate Cock Quest.

That’s like Dragon Quest for Ukrainians.

When a Slime draws near to a Ukrainian slut, her command is “suck.”

We definitely don’t need any Ukraine immigrants.

I can tell you that much.

The whole birthrate issue is sort of a canard, but what we need is PREGNANT WHITE AMERICAN GIRLS.

We do not need granny-killers from the Ukraine.

This bitch is not even foxy.

Look at the facial features.

It’s basic granny-killer physiognomy.

America needs to end all immigration, of all races. Obviously, brown people are worse than white granny-killer sluts, but I mean – come on.

What we need is FORCED CHILD MARRIAGE.

We need to abolish the US Constitution, and base a new government system on the system of the Taliban.

Simple as.

Huawei Pura 70 Ultra shutter is so fast it can grab pics of things falling in the air and the shot appears sharp. pic.twitter.com/OAvINAA7eI

— ben sin (@bencsin) May 9, 2024

The speed at which China is matching the West in technological development is incredible.

In certain sectors, such as electric cars, they’ve totally surpassed the West, to the point where it is ridiculous.

They are now making their own chips which in 5 or so years will be better than Western chips (with the exception of Nvidia, which they could just annex by annexing Taiwan).

Reuters:

Huawei’s latest high-end phone features more Chinese suppliers, including a new flash memory storage chip and an improved chip processor, a teardown analysis showed, pointing to the progress China is making towards technology self-sufficiency.

Online tech repair company iFixit and consultancy TechSearch International examined the inside of Huawei Technologies’ Pura 70 Pro for Reuters, finding a NAND memory chip they said was likely packaged by the Chinese telecoms equipment maker’s in-house chip unit HiSilicon and several other components made by Chinese suppliers.

These findings have not been previously reported.

Huawei’s resurgence in the high-end smartphone market after four years of U.S. sanctions is being widely watched by both rivals and U.S. politicians as it has become a symbol of growing U.S.-China trade frictions and China’s bid for technology self-sufficiency.

The firms also found that the Pura 70 phones run on an advanced processing chipset made by Huawei called the Kirin 9010 that is likely only a slightly improved version of the Chinese-made advanced chip used by Huawei’s Mate 60 series.

“While we cannot provide an exact percentage, we’d say the domestic component usage is high, and definitely higher than in the Mate 60,” said Shahram Mokhtari, iFixit’s lead teardown technician.

“This is about self-sufficiency, all of this, everything you see when you open up a smartphone and see whatever are made by Chinese manufacturers, this is all about self-sufficiency,” Mokhtari said.

Huawei declined to comment.

Huawei launched the Pura 70’s four smartphone models in late April and the series quickly sold out. Analysts say it will likely take more market share from iPhone manufacturer Apple, while policymakers in Washington are questioning the efficacy of U.S. curbs on the telecoms equipment giant.

It’s very funny that the sanctions forced them to develop like this.

It’s very similar to the way the US sanctions on Russia strengthened the Russian economy.

The people running Washington are diabolical and evil. But it’s almost more offensive that they are so stupid.

.@SpeakerJohnson was incredibly wrong to vote w/ Dems against the 4th amend. when he killed the FISA warrant requirement and wrong to give in to the Dems spending demands. As I see it now, I’m not so sure there’s a difference between him being in charge and Dems being in charge. pic.twitter.com/NoyRhUrvRM

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 14, 2024

This stuff is all happening because of 911, supposedly.

lol.

Reuters:

Reformers had hoped that the debate over the reauthorization of a key U.S. domestic surveillance law would lead to new safeguards protecting Americans’ data.

But the bill now headed to the Senate instead expands the scope of the country’s domestic surveillance program, allowing police organizations including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to access to a far broader swathe of sensitive data on their fellow citizens than before.

Missing from the proposed legislation is any need for a warrant. A vote to require officials to seek judicial authorization before exploiting the data failed on a vote of 212 to 212 in the House of Representatives on Friday.

“It’s obviously pretty disappointing to have lost on a tie vote,” said Kia Hamadanchy, a senior policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU is one of scores of non-governmental organizations that have been lobbying to reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which allows law enforcement to mine the massive trove of data collected by American spies.

…

The White House did not immediately return a message seeking comment on its lobbying. In a call with reporters on Tuesday, a White House official defended Section 702 as aimed squarely at foreigners. And a Department of Justice official defended the broader scope of the surveillance bill, saying it was an effort to adapt surveillance legislation “to the current communication technology landscape.”

That adaptation would allow U.S. spies to draw data not just from any U.S. “electronic communications service provider” – generally understood to be internet service providers and phone companies – but “any service provider” with “access to equipment that is being or may be used to transmit or store wire or electronic communications.”

The distributed nature of the internet means that could be virtually anyone, as the Information Technology Industry Council, a lobbying group, argued in a blog post.

“The language in the amendment vastly expands the U.S. government’s warrantless surveillance capabilities, damaging the competitiveness of U.S. technology companies large and small,” the group said, urging senators to reverse the change.

People don’t care.

They don’t care about anything.

People’s private lives are such a disaster, the only thing they can get energized about are these horrific scenes of children being annihilated in Gaza.

The Department of Justice unveiled a landmark antitrust lawsuit against Apple Inc., alleging the tech giant of maintaining a smartphone monopoly and boxing out its smaller competitors. Apple called the lawsuit “wrong on the facts and the law.” https://t.co/sX61Jc6psb pic.twitter.com/XOtOlGLn8G

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) March 21, 2024

Given that this is coming from the Justice Department, it’s very obvious that it’s just about pushing for more control over the company, demanding more censorship and spying and so on.

The issue of whether or not Apple is a “monopoly” is complicated by the fact that Google exists, meaning the phone market is a duopoly. A real lawsuit would have to make the argument that the two have collaborated to suppress competitors.

When Epic sued both Google and Apple over the app store charges, they did it as separate lawsuits and they won against Google while losing against Apple. So there is no basic logic here. The issue is complicated by the fact that these companies are international, and UK and EU authorities also end up having an impact on regulations.

But it would be ridiculous to suggest that the Biden government cares about consumer protection.

Reuters:

The U.S. Department of Justice and 15 states on Thursday sued Apple as the government cracks down on Big Tech, alleging the iPhone maker monopolized the smartphone market, hurt smaller rivals and drove up prices.

Apple joins competitors sued by regulators, including Alphabet’s Google, Meta Platforms and Amazon.com across the administrations of both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.

“Consumers should not have to pay higher prices because companies violate the antitrust laws,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “If left unchallenged, Apple will only continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly.”

The Justice Department said that Apple charges as much as $1,599 for an iPhone and makes larger profit than any others in the industry. Officials also said Apple charges various business partners – from software developers to credit card companies and even its rivals such as Google – behind the scenes in ways that ultimately raise prices for consumers and drive up Apple’s profit.

Dating back to its time as a marginal player in the personal computer market, Apple’s business model has long been based on charging users a premium for technology products where the company dictates nearly all of the details of how the device works and can be used. The Justice Department seeks to unwind that business model by forcing Apple, which has a market value of $2.7 trillion, to offer users more choices around how apps can tap in to the hardware that Apple designs.

…

Apple denied the allegations made by the government.

“This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets. If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple — where hardware, software, and services intersect.”

White House assistant press secretary Michael Kikukawa said: “President Biden strongly supports fair and robust enforcement of the antitrust laws.”

The Justice Department, which was also joined by the District of Columbia in the lawsuit, is seeking changes at Apple. An official suggested some form of breakup or reduction of the size of Apple was a possibility when they noted “structural relief is also a form of equitable relief.”

Apple has a lot of problems. Their phone sales are dropping (even though the 15 sold better than the 14, because people wanted the USB-C port), and maybe more importantly, they’ve made no significant investment in AI, while every other tech company is at least trying to do something.

Apple has long avoided innovation, canceling their planned car, which presumably would have sold very well. It was a really good company when Steve Jobs was alive, but after Rim Cook took over, the company has been on a clear downward trend, despite the bloating market cap.

This lawsuit will impact the stock more, presumably. Warren Buffett and various politicians with insider trade knowledge were already dumping the stock.

🚨This is crazy

Sen. Tommy Tuberville sold his entire $500K stake of Apple 2 months ago

Today, the DOJ opened a lawsuit against $AAPL to break up its “Smart Phone Monopoly”

The stock is -10% since he sold

Lucky or? pic.twitter.com/1APPDs0tkI

— Insider Tracker (@TrackInsiders_) March 21, 2024

Elvis Dunderhoff contributed to this report. 

Apple forecast revenue $6 billion short of Wall Street estimates as its sales in China slowed. The downbeat outlook overshadowed first-quarter numbers that beat forecasts, sending the iPhone maker’s shares down in US after-hours trading https://t.co/iS8OpAlpqK pic.twitter.com/pPHNonSOYx

— Reuters (@Reuters) February 2, 2024

Previously: Apple Offering Rare Discount on iPhones in China as People Choose Huawei

It’s not just “economic slowdown” that leads to “longer upgrade cycles.” It’s the fact that nothing has fundamentally changed about the iPhone since the iPhone 6, except that they removed the button.

Instead of preparing for a situation where people didn’t need a new phone every year because we’ve reached “peak smartphone,” Apple is flailing around, changing minor aspects of the look of the phone so people can tell it’s “this year’s model,” and trying to get people to buy it as a status symbol.

The problem is, if you actually do go buy a new iPhone every year as a status symbol, you’re simply proving you are a seeker of status symbols, and a cheap seeker. An iPhone might be too expensive at $1100 or whatever they are now, but spending that much per year doesn’t prove you’re rich. Someone who wants to prove they’re rich is going to wear a $50,000 watch, and then use a three-year old iPhone: this shows that they are doing very well, in fact they are doing so well, they can’t be bothered with peasant status symbols like dealing with the annoyance of upgrading a phone every year.

Apple’s business practices that lack any innovation are, ironically, one of the main reasons the company cannot maintain the ridiculous sales they aim for. If they were a super-exciting company, people would probably be interested in upgrading every year. But they’re a company who is obsessed with you upgrading every year, which is not exciting at all, so no one is upgrading every year.

In China, there are worse problems, as the iPhone has become a symbol of American imperialism. That’s really an image they could have done a lot to prevent, but they didn’t. Apple’s adds are all just black women and homos, which is what the Chinese accurately view as the precise face of American imperialism.

Reuters:

Apple’s weak China sales performance may have shocked investors, but customers and analysts have been noting the rising challenges the company faces in its third-largest market.

Intensifying competition from domestic rivals, coupled with longer upgrade cycles as consumers spend more cautiously amid an economic slowdown, have stunted Apple’s China growth, with sales there nosediving by 13% in the quarter ending in December to $20.8 billion and missing estimates of $23.5 billion.

Shares of the company dipped about 3% in premarket trading on Friday, following the disappointing China sales.

“Apple’s sales decline in China is not surprising given the strong competition it faced from local brands like Huawei and Xiaomi,” said Toby Zhu, an analyst with research group Canalys.

…

As the world’s largest smartphone market, China is crucial to Apple’s sales growth. For years, Apple has been the premium phone brand of choice in the country but the tide is now turning.

The tide has already turned everywhere other than Shanghai, where it is hip to be square.

The rest of China has taken on the view that using an iPhone is no different than flying a rainbow flag.

I actually think this is extreme. I don’t use a phone anymore, but from what I’ve seen, I do understand why people like the Apple ecosystem.

The pressure on Apple intensified in the second half of the year after Huawei’s comeback in the high-end smartphone market with its Mate 60 series phones powered by a domestically-made chip.

Other leading Android brands like Xiaomi also edged into the high-end turf that Apple has traditionally dominated. Xiaomi launched its premium Mi 14 model in October, touting its long battery life and camera capabilities. It sold 1 million units within a week of launch.

Canalys’ Zhu said Chinese manufacturers are gradually breaking into Apple’s core price segment by introducing higher-priced foldable products.

Chinese consumers have also complained about a lack of innovation in Apple’s iPhones, particularly in the design aesthetic, compared to earlier iterations.

I’ve said it for years: there are no improvements on the iPhone 6, unless you think removing a button is an improvement.

The complaints about this don’t really make sense, however, given that its current form is clearly the best form. I don’t know what else can really be done. You can keep making more sophisticated cameras, but what does this actually do? People just post the photos online, and I doubt anyone can tell the difference between an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 15 photograph when scrolling instagram.

Huawei Mate 60 Pro reviews exceed 40,000 on the official store within 20 days of sale #Huawei #HuaweiMate60Pro https://t.co/NpJFyuPCVe

— HC Newsroom (@HCNewsroom) September 22, 2023

Apple is a dead company.

Unless this VR thing takes off, of course.

Maybe it will.

We’re finally going to see it here next week, apparently. I know someone who ordered one, so hopefully I’ll get a look and be able to report in on that.

WATCH: Apple is offering rare discounts on its iPhones in China, cutting retail prices by as much as $70 amid growing competitive pressure in the world’s biggest smartphone market https://t.co/to3uuaQoSg pic.twitter.com/WYvafCIOyk

— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) January 15, 2024

Apple is in dire straits.

There are 1.5 billion people in China. China is a very rich country, where, unlike in the United States or Europe, everyone can afford a new iPhone every year or two.

They used to buy them, but they don’t anymore, because the US is a hostile country and using an iPhone is increasingly being viewed as very unpatriotic.

Reuters:

Apple is offering rare discounts on its iPhones in China, cutting retail prices by as much as 500 yuan ($70) amid growing competitive pressure in the world’s biggest smartphone market.

The U.S. tech giant cut prices of some iPhones by 5%, its Chinese website showed on Monday. The time-limited promotion, branded as a Lunar New Year event, will last from Jan. 18 through Jan. 21 in a lead-up to the holiday in mid-February.

Sales of Apple’s latest iPhone 15 series of handsets have been far worse than previous models in China.

Home-grown rivals such as Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi offer competitive models, while sources have said some companies and government departments have been limiting staffers’ use of Apple devices – mirroring U.S. government restrictions of Chinese apps on security grounds.

Chinese iPhone sales dropped 30% in the first week of 2024 versus the same period a year earlier, Jefferies analysts said in a client note, having fallen 3% for all of 2023. Analysts expect the competitive landscape to get tougher this year.

Apple has not cut prices for its latest iPhones in years. The cuts come after it surprised the market by not raising prices for the iPhone 15 series at its September launch.

Along with increasing problems selling their overpriced phones, Apple has totally failed to innovate during the 15 years since the death of Steve Jobs.

I don’t think very many people are going to buy their $3,500 VR headset. Frankly, I don’t even believe it is going to work very well. I haven’t seen any reason to believe that it doesn’t cause the same problems with nausea as every other VR headset.

A botched launch of the headset could signal a downward spiral for one of the last great American companies.

Frankly, I am a bit excited to try it. They are doing free trials in Apple stores starting February 2.

But even if it does work, Huawei will just introduce a better version of it at a third of the price in a year from now.

Huawei Beijing Flagship Store opens today

1,200m2 pic.twitter.com/UxKcGWaYr0

— CCL (@CCL2K30) January 13, 2024

Elvis Dunderhoff contributed to this article. 

I thought porn made people less sexual in real life?

Remember when they were telling college guys to jack off before they go to parties so they wouldn’t be driven to rape? They admitted masturbation lowers testosterone, and said it was better for young men to masturbate before being around women.

Now masturbation makes men sexually violent?

It’s almost like the society will do everything to attack boys and men – they’ll just float any excuse at all.

The Guardian:

Boys are watching violent porn on their smartphones then going on to attack girls, police have said, as new data showed children are now the biggest perpetrators of sexual abuse against other children.

Police data shows there has been a quadrupling of sexual offences against children, in what officers say is the most authoritative analysis of offending against youngsters.

The report from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said the offending by adults against children was usually more serious, but said they were alarmed by the growth of sexual offending by those aged 17 or under.

In one case a child of four was referred to police after allegedly using a smartphone to upload an indecent image of a sibling. Police declined to give any more details.

Okay, well.

I don’t even believe that happened.

In 2022 a total of 107,000 reports were made to police in England and Wales alleging sexual offences against children, ranging from rapes and, in a quarter of cases, to the making and sharing of indecent images.

The NPCC said 52% of alleged offenders were children, compared with around one third a decade ago.

Police received reports of 14,800 rapes and sexual assaults against children aged 10 to 17 where the suspect was classed as a child, the overwhelming majority being boys.

Ian Critchley, the NPCC lead for child protection, said: “This is predominantly a gender-based crime of boys committing offences against girls.

wait a minute 😳 pic.twitter.com/dvswW8OEJb

— non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) January 1, 2024

Critchley said the clear-up rate – where someone is charged or cautioned – was 12% where a child is physically attacked and 11% for indecent images offences. The clear-up rate for child-on-child attacks is 15% for sexual assault and 12% for rape.

He said offences involving AI were already being reported to police. These include “nudification” where the photo of a person – usually female – is digitally stripped of clothing to make it appear as if they are naked.

Oh, so men are collaborating with AI to abuse the innocent princesses, huh?

Imagine my shock.

It’s not clear why pornography is legal at all. But this is just a total attack on men, and an attack on AI.

Great from the Earl of Leicester speaking about the proliferation of violent pornography, danger of smartphones and inappropriate sexual explicit RSE in schools pic.twitter.com/saFsw2A3Nn

— Family Education Trust (@FamEdTrust) December 7, 2023

The cellphones are spying devices.

They haven’t used them for many purposes that we’ve seen yet, but presumably they are planning to.

January 6 was a big deal on this front, as we learned that it was possible and apparently legal for the government to demand location data and identify people as being in a place based on that location data.

Honestly… there’s not really even a reason to have a phone.

Reuters:

Unidentified governments are surveilling smartphone users via their apps’ push notifications, a U.S. senator warned on Wednesday.

In a letter to the Department of Justice, Senator Ron Wyden said foreign officials were demanding the data from Alphabet’s Google and Apple. Although details were sparse, the letter lays out yet another path by which governments can track smartphones.

Senator Ron Wyden

In a statement, Apple said that Wyden’s letter gave them the opening they needed to share more details with the public about how governments monitored push notifications.

“In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information,” the company said in a statement. “Now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests.”

…

Wyden’s letter cited a “tip” as the source of the information about the surveillance. His staff did not elaborate on the tip, but a source familiar with the matter confirmed that both foreign and U.S. government agencies have been asking Apple and Google for metadata related to push notifications to, for example, help tie anonymous users of messaging apps to specific Apple or Google accounts.

The source declined to identify the foreign governments involved in making the requests but described them as democracies allied to the United States.

Yeah, that would be Germany. And whoever else. But definitely Germany.

Germany isn’t really an “ally” of the United States, so much as a US colony. It’s under US military occupation and the German government can only operate with the blessing of the United States. They are prevented from making independent decisions about foreign policy, and largely prevented from formulating their own domestic policy.

People should learn about parallel construction, probably. Intelligence agencies can use the cellphone data to identify you and something you did, and then find a different explanation for how they identified you.

This has happened a lot with doxings of anon right-wingers. The explanations given for the doxing were obviously statistically impossible, or at least so improbable that they were not believable. So in reality, they were identified using ostensibly illegal spying methods, and then a different explanation was given.

CNN has done this multiple times, where it was just obvious that they were collaborating with US intelligence to dox a right-wing activist or shitposter.