From: A Talk Radio Listener [Email him]

An incompetent Forbes article (below) says an unidentified court ordered Google to disclose identities of certain Youtube viewers to Federal investigators. They don’t say which agency was involved, which judge issued it, or any links to anything.

In typical MSM fashion, you’re just expected to take their word for it. That being said, this can be used not only to target alleged money launderers, but also viewers of “hate speech.”

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The cases alone are bonkers enough:

1. Undercover cops chatting with a dude buying Bitcoin for cash and using an Elon Musk persona, exchanging YouTube vids about AR and drone mapping.

2. Cops spied on by dude making bomb threats via YouTube livestreams.https://t.co/tcujY4ilkF

— Thomas Brewster (@iblametom) March 22, 2024

Feds Ordered Google To Unmask Certain YouTube Users. Critics Say It’s ‘Terrifying.’

By Thomas Brewster, Forbes.com, March 22, 2024

Federal investigators have ordered Google to provide information on all viewers of select YouTube videos, according to multiple court orders obtained by Forbes. Privacy experts from multiple civil rights groups told Forbes they think the orders are unconstitutional because they threaten to turn innocent YouTube viewers into criminal suspects.

In a just-unsealed case from Kentucky reviewed by Forbes, undercover cops sought to identify the individual behind the online moniker “elonmuskwhm,” who they suspect of selling bitcoin for cash, potentially running afoul of money laundering laws and rules around unlicensed money transmitting.

In conversations with the user in early January, undercover agents sent links of YouTube tutorials for mapping via drones and augmented reality software, then asked Google for information on who had viewed the videos, which collectively have been watched over 30,000 times.

The court orders show the government telling Google to provide the names, addresses, telephone numbers and user activity for all Google account users who accessed the YouTube videos between January 1 and January 8, 2023. The government also wanted the IP addresses of non-Google account owners who viewed the videos. The cops argued, “There is reason to believe that these records would be relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation, including by providing identification information about the perpetrators.” [More]