this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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L33t h4x0r5 and their highlight removal scripts
Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C is a hack now. Neat.
So long as you say “I’m in” after you hit Ctrl+V, it counts.
When the average level is so low, it is.
I mean, "workaround" isn't as headline worthy hahaha.
Ever show someone under 30 a keyboard shortcut? They act like you've performed magic.
Maybe for like, Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+Shift+T but not for copy and paste man c'mon.
They right click every time, I've seen it.
I swear it. I've taught five people in their 20s how to copy paste with the keyboard in the past few years.
I mean it's all just keyboard button clicks. How many clicks minimum until it counts as hacking?
As few as you please on hackertyper
Probably for the inevitable DoJ cases against people disseminating those files.
Keep it up us govt. it seems you are the best disseminating information against yourself.
Edit is to us
Don't underestimate how important this particular screw up is: It means that there's now publicly available proof that they redacted information in a manner that violates the law, and that it can enter the conversation while the Epstein files still have the public attention, rather than months or years later.
Can't wait for the Supreme Court to decide in 10 years that releasing a document with ineffective redactions means the document was not technically redacted, so no laws were violated.
.... while simultaneously ruling that the information that was supposed to have been redacted can not be used because they say so.
But only this time for this ruling.
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We’re founding a committee to oversee discussions about how to consider moving forward with this. Action will be taken at a faster rate than usual compared to usual congressional processes. This legislative action is expected to take place in 2047 once deliberations are complete.
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"Hacks" lol
The ultimate hack: Ctrl+C Ctrl+V
I know better than to try this and shutdown my computer. I'm not an idiot.
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I choose to believe that this was done deliberately by disgruntled FBI agents.
It was probably just incompetence, but let me believe what I want.
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How is copying text from a PDF a hack?
I see 2 potential paths to this, possibly both:
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Unknowledgeable individuals were tasked with redactions, and didn’t understand adding black bars over documents is closer to a sticky note than a marker.
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Knowledgeable individuals taught others to ‘redact’ in this manner to sabotage the effort, and those who signed off on the release didn’t look any further than the rendered result, if they even did that.
It's like people saying their facebook got hacked when in reality, they logged in on a public computer and didn't log out. Or their password is their kid's name or some shit.
I've seen people claim their account was hacked when somebody created a duplicate.
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Adding to theory 2, I bet there was very little record keeping regarding which agent was redacting which document. The point of a coverup is that you try to reduce accountability. Even if only Trump loyalist FBI agents were selected for the censorship job, I doubt they all could remain loyalists after reading the Epstein files.
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This is what happens when you pull in people that don’t normally do records management. They redact using black highlighter instead of the redaction tool.
Or, this is what happens when people who work for the government really hate Donald Trump.
Malicious compliance
Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
It's a good general rule, but taking this as gospel makes it very easy for the malicious to pass off their cruelty as stupidity.
If your goal is to reduce general stress, take it as it is and leave it there. If your goal is to distinguish what exactly is actually going on, then this is a tool worth keeping around, but it's not going to do the job on it's own.
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You have to be more careful than many people expect think with the redaction tool. Sometimes it's text being redacted. Sometimes it's a graphic. Sometimes it's both on top of each other.
That's why my final step in redacting documents for Open Records (I do a LOT of it) is to flatten the PDF.
But the real bitch is protected docs. Some docs keep the redaction tool from working (e.g. docs with digital signatures). Sometimes I actually have to print a doc out and re-scan it to get the redactions to stick.
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Someone shouldn’t have blabbed about it so quickly. There are more files to release, and now they will do a better job redacting them.
I was gonna say, "Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake".
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Carry on hackers!
One thing you can always count on with MAGAs is their virtuosic incompetence.
People have been making these same mistakes for literally decades... How does the government not have a 1-click dedicated tool for this yet?
Because Elon probably dodged the people who knew their job
You think this was a mistake? Certainly some staffers did this on purpose, my friend. Good for them.
There are no heros working on this, any breaks we get are for to incompetence.
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That is fucking hilarious, this government doesn't even know how to use a black highlighter correctly.
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simply highlighting text to paste into a word processing file.
Did they just change the back and foreground colours to black and call it a day?
I would like to think that it was on purpose. So whoever was working on that knew that someone could realize it. I don't know why I keep having faith in people.
It makes sense. They didn't flush the entirety of the FBI and we know Patel isn't doing all this himself, so I too believe that there are people just doing some good ol' malicious compliance. Apparently documents from previous administrations didn't have this issue so they could do it correctly, they just aren't.
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