The FBI has decided that accepted Freedom of Information Act requests by email is too … um … Difficult? Time-consuming? Irritating? Easy?
Instead, FOIA requests to the FBI must now be sent by snail mail, by fax (!), or through a new eFOIA portal that restrictes requests submitted per day and subjects covered by requests (and which may be rejected as electronic submissions anyway, and which only operates during certain hours (!).
The FBI motto is "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity." Apparently "Transparency" is distinctly not a part of that.
FBI axes FOIA requests by email, so dust off your fax machine | TechCrunch
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They theory I saw bandied about somewhere is that they couldn't manage the spam. It's possible (governments really can't afford false negatives), but I'm dubious.
Too difficult to verify the requester. It shouldn't be done via fax either.
+Kee Hinckley It doesn't seem like an insurmountable problem, and, even if true, capable of far better solutions than what they are turning to.
The government hates FOIA, for the very reasons that make it so necessary. I have very little doubt that, without executive or legislative (or perhaps judicial) urging, nearly any department would be happy to further slow, stonewall, or stymie such requests.
+Stripes The Tiger I've not submitted a FOIA request, but I know the article noted validation information that needs to accompany such requests, including an email address; I presume there is some circlilng back on these by phone or email with a "We are in receipt of a request, please verify …" thing.