AT&T Exec Claims EFF's Mocking NSA Logo Creates A 'Chilling Effect'
from the and-if-anyone-knows-about-chilling-effects... dept
For quite some time, the good folks at EFF have offered awesome NSA Spying Hoodies with their brilliantly re-imagined NSA logo:This is the same hoodie that Snowden himself used to wear around the NSA office in Hawaii where he worked (his coworkers thought he was being ironic). Either way, the logo is pretty well known by now.
Not surprisingly, last week during the RSA conference, plenty of folks thought it would be an appropriate venue to wear the hoodie (or similar t-shirts). And guess who took offense? According to the NY Times, an anonymous AT&T exec claimed such a logo created a "chilling effect" on discussion:
Around San Francisco this week, some were seen sporting Electronic Frontier Foundation T-shirts featuring a retooled N.S.A. logo with an eagle using its talons to plug into the American telecom network, symbolized by AT&T. Asked about the T-shirts, one AT&T executive, who asked not to be named, said they had a chilling effect.I don't think that cowardly exec knows what a "chilling effect" really means. I'd argue that secretly giving the NSA full access to the internet backbone, to collect whatever data they want is what creates a real chilling effect. Opening up pretty much just about everyone to intrusive and excessive surveillance by a secretive government agency? That's a chilling effect. Having someone wearing a t-shirt or hoodie that makes fun of your company for allowing such surveillance? No, that's not a chilling effect. It's the opposite. It's called exercising their right to expression.
“There are many of us at AT&T who are disturbed by what we’ve been hearing about the N.S.A.,” this person said. “But when you see that,” he said, pointing to the T-shirts, “a conversation becomes impossible.”
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Filed Under: chilling effect, eff, nsa, parody
Companies: at&t
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Ah, I know what this is
http://amptoons.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/christian_oppression_pie1.png
The "help help we're being oppressed" with AT&T attempting to be portrayed as the victim.
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The conversation isn't impossible because of a logo, it is impossible because the company refuses to admit for how long, how deep, and how helpful they were to these programs. They didn't give a damn when they were being paid to assist but suddenly they worry about their image.
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Because now it is starting to have a chilling effect on their salaries. ;)
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The letters are powerful, but not all powerful.
It was cheaper to go along, than to stand up for the customers, their rights, or the rule of law.
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Yes, but they were completely silent about their compliance to these sorts of requests even before NSLs gags were a thing, so that doesn't excuse them at all.
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Guess who didn't? AT&T.
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The only reason an AT&T employee or other representative should be uncomfortable at the sight of this logo is if they actually agree with, or otherwise support, the policies, principles, and attitudes which the logo is trying to call out.
If they disagree with those policies, and agree with the ideas behind the logo, then there's no reason they should feel uncomfortable, and no reason discussion should be in any way inhibited.
If they do agree with those policies, then making them uncomfortable helps put pressure on them to change their minds, and thereby to increase opposition to those policies - which is exactly what the logo is all about.
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Not Alone
.
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Re: Not Alone
if you act now, you can still get a limted edition EUBR edition...but this one has white out on it now.
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A conversation becomes impossible...
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Thank you for the reminder.
Thanks for the reminder, TechDirt, and AT&T!
Ehud
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For a second there...
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If anything, it's a conversation starter - unless, of course, you happen to be CEO of a multibillion dollar telecommunications giant who is complicit in said spying. The poor, thieving, stinking rich bastard... Break out the violins and let's hear his sob story about how he and his company are the "real" victims here.
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Suddenly it makes sense:
He was actually talking about a "shilling effect".
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If it had a chilling effect on him, then it worked...
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Just another weak-spined millionaire pussy who's only NOW upset about his compliance with what is now an unpopular program.
The conversation is impossible because of secret courts, writing secret decisions, that must remain secret.
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Cold in here
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"..anonymous AT&T exec claimed such a logo created a "chilling effect""
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chilling effects inhibit actions, right?
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Great shirt
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Re: Great shirt
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