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A comment on The Strange Story of the Teens Behind the Mirai Botnet. Parent comment

Re:The Strange Story of the Teens Behind the Mirai Botnet by spondylosaurus on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @04:15PM (#36063328)
I mean, it's not illegal to search for those keywords, so Google doesn't have much of an incentive to stop running ads on them (at least of their own free will). I'm sure "triple homicide" is a hot keyword for advertising the latest true crime podcast or whatever.

Granted, I'm also a little surprised that the FBI didn't just twist Google's arm about it, but who knows. Maybe Google did them a solid and doesn't actually charge for the ad space, or maybe the FBI is just trying to play nice since Google has plenty of federal contracts.

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Re:The Strange Story of the Teens Behind the Mirai Botnet by 2OEH8eoCRo0 on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @05:56PM (#36064368)
> I'm also a little surprised that the FBI didn't just twist Google's arm about it

Just twist their arm? What does it mean for the FBI to twist Google's arm?

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Re:The Strange Story of the Teens Behind the Mirai Botnet by spondylosaurus on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @08:05PM (#36065569)
? I'm not entirely sure what you mean.

What I was trying to convey was that the FBI could have exerted some kind of pressure to get Google to run the anti-booter ads of their own volition instead of the FBI (presumably) buying the ads like anyone else would buy ads. I have no idea what that kind of pressure would entail cuz I don't work for the feds and couldn't say what their "do this or else" strategies are like, lol.

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Re:The Strange Story of the Teens Behind the Mirai Botnet by not2b on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @08:14PM (#36065635)
It doesn't cost that much compared to their budget, so it's easier to pay for ads than get into a fight with Google lawyers.
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Re:The Strange Story of the Teens Behind the Mirai Botnet by 2OEH8eoCRo0 on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @08:47PM (#36065879)
What do you mean by pressure?

I think that you are making an assumption about how the FBI operates.

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Re:The Strange Story of the Teens Behind the Mirai Botnet by spondylosaurus on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @09:06PM (#36065981)
Right, I am assuming, because I'm not particularly familiar with the workings of the FBI lol.

Surely it's obvious that by "pressure" I'm referring to the threat of some sort of nebulous legal-y action if Google didn't comply with [xyz request]. Is that not how law enforcement functions? (I'd be shocked if they were asking very nicely and offering to take Google out to dinner.)

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Re:The Strange Story of the Teens Behind the Mirai Botnet by acheron on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @10:34PM (#36066473)
The point is that the real world is not a thriller movie. No, the FBI doesn't do that.
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Re:The Strange Story of the Teens Behind the Mirai Botnet by spondylosaurus on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @10:41PM (#36066507)
What exactly do they do, then?
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Re:The Strange Story of the Teens Behind the Mirai Botnet by matthewterhune on Thursday May 25, 2023 @02:53AM (#36067792)
Of course they do, though not to a big company like Google for something trivial like this when they could pay a bit of money. Threats aren't cost free.
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Re:The Strange Story of the Teens Behind the Mirai Botnet by thatguy0900 on Thursday May 25, 2023 @12:59PM (#36073167)
Correct, the fbi never breaks the law or does anything not strictly above board.
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