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668 points wildmusings | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.234s | source
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JorgeGT ◴[] No.13027099[source]
And without an "edited" mark, which means that any comment of any user can be covertly modified by an admin. Very concerning since Reddit comments have provoked even Congress hearings: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/296680-house-pan...
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dvt ◴[] No.13027125[source]
It's more concerning that Congress is that stupid (one can only hope the Courts haven't been making rulings based on untraced emails and anonymous tweets). Social media is a canonical exemplar of hearsay.

There's a reason Wikipedia isn't an acceptable source in college-level courses.

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wildmusings ◴[] No.13027187[source]
When a website receives a court order or congressional subpoena to preserve data, they are under penalty of perjury and contempt of court/congress to not alter it. Physical evidence can be just as subject to tampering as digital data. For both, the integrity of the court system is enforced with strong penalties for those who are dishonest.
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1. SomeStupidPoint ◴[] No.13028832[source]
The problem isn't tampering after a request -- it's before.

If the reddit admin edits of comments aren't appropriately stored in comment history, the logs turned over won't tell the whole story, but reddit will (mistakenly) testify that it's the complete history.

You can even add a dash of malice: an exec edits a rival's post, but the subpoena is filled by a line tech (possibly unaware of the admin tools, even).

Unless the defense knows to press reddit on the actual veracity of their logs and ways they could be compromised, the erroneous data seems a fact to the court.