re: #284 goddamnedfrank

Yes, gag orders require you to lie by omission at the very least. The lie that companies like Facebook and Verizon have been required to help promote and maintain is that the government was not collecting data on the communications of tens or hundreds of millions of innocent people, in part by requiring Facebook and Verizon to put their networks at the service of that conspiracy. It’s the same lie that Clapper was trying to maintain when he directly lied to the Congress that supposedly provides the “oversight”. Though typically a company like Facebook, if asked whether such data collection happens, in order to fill their requirement to maintain the lie, would either say they have no comment, lie to the effect that they don’t know the answer, or issue a carefully worded denial of some sort using ambiguous wordings that lie in such a way that leaves room for plausible deniability. All these kinds of lies, and probably a few other kinds of lies, can be acceptable under the gag order. The one thing that is not acceptable under the gag order is telling the truth.