The event lit up Twitter, so we were in no hurry to blog about it. We recount it here for those who missed it on Twitter, for those who don't read German, and for those who could not care less.
We'll call him Joe German, an average citizen, because he has led an unobtrusive life before that Facebook post that propelled him to international attention.
The post was an obviously satiric, funny affair in the wake of the Great Pathetic Spy Scandal, and it was an invite by a fake spy equivalent of the SPCA. With humans being animals, we could just let the acronym of Society for the Protection and Care of Animals stand as it is, but some numbnut might be tempted to slap us with the all purpose labels of unpatriotic or un-American.
So, let's change the name of the fake organization to Society for the Protection and Care of Spys for this reason and because it reflects more accurately the post by the young man.
He invited the public for a stroll along a suspected NSA facility in Germany.
The invite was picked up by the authorities and resulted in a visit by police as well as the intervention of the state domestic protectors. Once satisfied that the man had no extremist leanings or ambitions, they declared his stroll to be a demonstration which required a permit.
Playing nice, he filed an application, which was granted.
The stroll took place on a very sunny summer day, the number of attendees was way under 100, the police kept an eye on this now official event, and that was that.
The context of the event and its handling by the authorities do not inspire confidence - you could hardly ask for a better example of all-out surveillance, could you?
In political terms, it looks very much like the equivalent to the little old lady being robbed in bright daylight with hundreds of people looking on passively, well, not that passively, since the smart phones would be out capturing the whole thing on camera.
From the perspective of the police, the affair looks quite simple. Someone points out a Facebook post, a couple of officers read the post, don't find it really that alarming but their boss tells them to just go and talk to the man and make sure.
From the perspective of a citizen in a surveillance state (experts like Bruce Schneier call it that), this is not a great experience. Note that they did not arrest him and "only" put up some bureaucratic hurdles but asking him to not talk about that too much, this is a problem.
The K-landnews team would love to hear what happens to the young man should he ever feel like going on vacation to the US. Will the greatest country on earth let him ramble and enjoy a vacation?
The lesson learned: Don't joke on Facebook.
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