Here's a guy who got locked up for saying that if they try a local Jan 6th in Florida people need to be armed to resist. Dude got sentenced to 4 years of prison for posting about defending the country from Jan 6thers.

https://theintercept.com/2021/10/16/daniel-baker-anarchist-capitol-riot/#:~:text=On%20Tuesday%2C%20a%20Florida%20judge,of%20the%20January%206%20riots.

[–] iByteABit@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago

Wow that's disgusting

[–] 420blazeit69@hexbear.net 38 points 1 year ago

You don't always get jail time for criticizing the government.

[–] Sleazy_Albanese@hexbear.net 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does Manning count?

[–] iByteABit@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Not really, the one is a whistleblower leaking highly confidential information and the other is a simple person speaking out against their government's actions.

I'm not by any means saying that Manning didn't do the right thing and deserves jail, just that it isn't the same case.

[–] Clippy@hexbear.net 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

https://fortune.com/2023/04/18/russia-propaganda-elections-4-americans-charged-black-empowerment/

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-citizens-and-russian-intelligence-officers-charged-conspiring-use-us-citizens-illegal

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/04/20/black-liberation-organizers-indicted-for-opposing-war/

All the same story, different sources (or bias). not including the NAFO dog community sabatoging that eco socialist (Dimitri Lascaris) trying to make peace talks in canada

edited for more clairty & details and spell check.

[–] 420blazeit69@hexbear.net 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

one is a whistleblower leaking highly confidential information and the other is a simple person speaking out against their government's actions

This level of detail is not included in the linked article. The article says "she placed materials about Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine on the Internet that contradicted official Defense Ministry statements." From the article, we have no idea what those materials were. Maybe they included classified information, maybe they included actually false information, maybe they included incitements to violence, we don't know.

Note also that the article is from Radio Free Europe, a U.S. propaganda outlet:

Radio Free Europe was created and grew in its early years through the efforts of the National Committee for a Free Europe (NCFE), an anti-communist CIA front organization that was formed by Allen Dulles in New York City in 1949. RFE/RL received funds covertly from the CIA until 1972. During RFE's earliest years of existence, the CIA and U.S. Department of State issued broad policy directives, and a system evolved where broadcast policy was determined through negotiation between them and RFE staff.

[–] GivingEuropeASpook@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago

https://vkrizis.ru/obschestvo/olga-smirnova-prigovorena-k-shesti-godam-za-sem-postov/

If you search her name in Cyrillic you can find Russian sources (.ru domains are managed by Russia, no?)

[–] AntiOutsideAktion@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

leaking highly confidential information

It's okay to have no free speech rights as long as the government tells you in advance you don't have them

[–] midorale@lemmy.villa-straylight.social 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I tried to look through a lot of cases. It seemed like most every case was leaking information, threats of actual violence, stolen valor, or other generally agreed upon crimes. There's truth to the notion that a government is more likely to look for crimes if you're a specific person, but I don't know of anyone in the modern US who goes to jail for lying about things the army has done. I use the word "lying" because Russia courts make the claim that that's what happened here.

Also, there are more recent cases of Russia imprisoning someone for essentially this same crime.

[–] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The US prosecuted activists for "sowing discord" this year. That's basically the same thing as going after someone for lying.

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Assange wasn't leaking information, he was reporting on information that had already been leaked.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The prosecution provided evidence that WikiLeaks helped Manning crack a password which would involve them in the leak itself. So saying he was just reporting on it is debatable.

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Innocent until proven guilty

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

He was found guilty...

[–] GivingEuropeASpook@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago

Like Russia, the US prosecutes you for exposing the truth of what the US army does abroad. arguing that classified information keeps US citizens safe in their "work" abroad – not unique to the US but the US is the dominant world power still so it gets a lot of criticism from the left. It's hard to get the right perspective when you live in an imperial core that has done a lot to insulate its civilian populace from the impacts of conflict, and governments don't like it when whistleblowers make it easier.