Georgia State University has rescinded a job offer given to a high profile activist who is currently fighting a case in which he allegedly wiped a security-focused Android phone before Customs and Border Protection (CBP) could search it. The case, which 404 Media first covered and has now received widespread and national attention, has important ramifications for privacy and when someone can still be charged with an offense even if authorities don’t have suspicion of any specific crime.

Earlier this month, activist Samuel Tunick and a group of supporters delivered a “demand letter” to the university. That letter, which Tunick shared with 404 Media, says he explained to the university he was facing a pending charge, which he describes as “an instance of textbook political repression, and a high profile civil liberties case.”

While delivering the letter, supporters held signs saying, “GSU sides with Trump,” and “Digital Privacy Under Attack!”


  • sudoer777@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    As someone who recently finished college, the thing I learned the most is how much of a fucking disaster US universities are

  • bobbyfiend@retrolemmy.com
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    1 day ago

    For those who aren’t involved in university politics, it looks from the article like this happened:

    1. The department and its chair/head, the people who would work with him, were fine with him as a colleague.

    2. The university president did a heavy-handed top-down move to ban him

    Almost any time you see “University Does X” in a headline, replace “university” with the name of the president. College presidents and their provosts, various VPs, Deans, etc. are incredibly Trumpy in behavior. They think of themselves as liberals because they were often faculty working in liberal departments. However, once they put on the suit and start throwing around business jargon they almost all begin doing exactly the things to their universities that MAGA does to the nation, often in the same ways.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice
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      23 hours ago

      Apparently the president is the 8th president since 2021 there. Not sure what that’s about but I’m going to assume something has to be afoot. 7 people don’t walk away from ~$900,000/year in less than a year.

    • sudoer777@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      While my university was arresting pro-Palestine protesters the president was gone fucking around at Harlan Crow’s house

    • Mrkawfee
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      They are still liberals. Liberals are completely fine getting into bed with fascists when it suits them.

  • DarkFuture
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    2 days ago

    Coward university siding with fascists.

    Because fascists are known to be good for centers of education.

    • Seleni
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      Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. -Winston Churchill

      • FlyingCircus
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        22 hours ago

        I wonder if he was thinking of Chamberlain when he said that. Prior to Churchill taking power, both Britain and France refused to ally with the USSR, hoping that Nazi anti-communist aggression would lead Germany to attack the Soviets first. Instead, Stalin outmaneuvered all of them and formed a non-aggression pact with Germany, leading Hitler to his conquest of Western Europe. And in the meantime, the USSR built up their war industry so that when the inevitable happened, they were able to weather the Nazi onslaught and win the war.

        If Britain and France had allied with the USSR in the first place, I wonder how much more quickly the Nazis would have been defeated.

    • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      Universities will always side with whoever has more money. They will act like students matter, but students and faculty are just annoying inconveniences. Their administration must grow to justify itself.

      • criscodisco
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        23 hours ago

        It’s weird how different systems all over the US sound suspiciously familiar, right? Almost as if corruption is just the means of doing business now. The world wonders how Trump can be allowed to continue and it is because the powerful in government, in finance, in business, in the media, and now in education do nothing if not for the almighty dollar and the goal of profit and personal enrichment. The empire is collapsing under their dancing feet.

      • Bakkoda
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        2 days ago

        Tortious interference?

        I guess there’s no real case for that

    • athatet@lemmy.zip
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      23 hours ago

      So they get to go to their conference and say out loud into a microphone that they need to start shooting democrats and we have to censor ourselves while hiding in the corner of the internet.

  • DeepRoots
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    2 days ago

    Remember folks, have your wipe pin be close enough to audibly sound like your unlock pin, refuse to write it down. And freak out when it gets wiped.

    • bitwolf@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      I was thinking.

      You could put the wipe pin on the back of your phone “because you often forget your pin”.

      If it’s entered without your consent… Well it was without your consent 🤷‍♂️

      • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net
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        You do realize that you will be explaining this to a judge/jury after spending tons of money on lawyers or, more likely, they will Aaron Swartz you and you will take a plea deal to only serve some time in jail? Or do you think the TSA will just let you go?

    • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net
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      2 days ago

      That’s just another fantasy scenario which will in no way protect you from being charged. It may or may not save you from jail but you will still lose time, money and job offers.

      The only way to do in a situation like this is to fully comply. So:

      • if you only have to protect your data store it in the cloud and simply uninstall cloud client before going through security

      • if you have to protect chats, contacts, browsing history etc. split your communications between two phones. Make sure the dummy phone is actually used (has apps, calls history, chat history, browsing history, pictures). Keep all sensitive communication on one phone and never take it through security

      Unlock and show your phone. Let them scan it. Make sure it looks legit but has no sensitive info. All other games will get you in trouble.

      • Tiral
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        2 days ago

        I’m good, they can put me in jail and take over my $750,000/yr dialysis bill.

        • Ernest@lemmy.zip
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          2 days ago

          if what ICE does is any indication, they’ll just put you in jail, not deal with any medical issues, and you die

      • GalacticRobot
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        2 days ago

        That’s exactly it. Wiping ‘evidence’ in front of law enforcement means instant jail. In certain areas of the world it’s far worse punishment. I have a feeling a lot of people here have never visited Russia, even in the most ‘friendly’ of times.

        • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net
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          2 days ago

          ICE shot a guy in the middle of the street while being filmed from 5 different angles and no one was even charged. If they are targeting you specifically you’re fucked and no amount of fake PINs and acting will save you. If they are not targeting you the best thing you can do is not to draw attention.

    • jumperalex
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      2 days ago

      What of instead you finger print erased it? Your pin is the real unlock. And it always asks for the fingprint first but you have to press elsewhere to switch to pin mode.

      Also it takes three fingerprint attempts, which look like they fail, to read, and on the third one the wipe happens.

      • Sanguine@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        The current correct way to set up those profiles is to have a default one that looks lived in but contains nothing you wouldn’t mind explaining.

        Then you create a burner profile that you simply delete if the water is too hot. This is the profile you use 90% of the time.

        This way your phone looks normal when seized because the default profile still has your stuff in it (banking apps, dating apps, a few games, whatever).

    • NOT_RICK
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      2 days ago

      I’m trying to decide which numbers sound alike. I guess you can get around that with alphabetical passcodes and just “mix up” an M and N

    • dan1101
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      22 hours ago

      Somehow through many administrations CBP has been allowed to consider airports and up to 200 miles from a border as Constitution free zones. This includes most people in the USA. This needs to change like 20 years ago.

      • CharlesDarwin
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        22 hours ago

        Yes, I seem to remember a company I was at warning those that were traveling, especially if it was out of country, and as that related to company laptops.

    • khannie
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      2 days ago

      Is that the unreasonable search one? Foreigner asking

      • CharlesDarwin
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        1 day ago

        Yes. Full text:

        The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.[2]