New poll indicates want for third party 

A new Gallup poll says a majority of Americans want a third party to compete with Republicans and Democrats.

The poll shows 60 percent of Americans thought a third party was needed to represent them, the highest ever in the ten-year history of the poll.

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Republicans and Democrats almost equally supported the option of a third party with 52 percent of Republicans and 49 percent of Democrats in favor. In addition, 71 percent of Independents saw the need for a third party.

The poll comes on the heels of the government shutdown, which has led to historic disapproval ratings for both parties.

However, the poll is likely to have little effect on the political landscape according to David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.

“This country is hardwired for two political parties,” he said. “Throughout our history we have had various political movements crop up and try to become the third party. I think the last time it succeeded was in the 1850s when you saw emergence of the Republican Party. So it took a civil war to change the lineup of political parties.”

Yepsen said it was more likely that one of the major parties would simply steal the popular positions of a third party, similar to how the Democrats absorbed Social Security policy from the Socialist Party. He said the poll was more indicative of Americans’ desire for choice.

“If you did a poll that asked, ‘Should Baskin Robbins Ice Cream have more choices?’ Americans would say ‘Yes, of course,’” he said. “Americans like choices, we like options.”

Snapchat admits giving ‘snaps’ to law enforcement 

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Snapchat has admitted to handing over unopened picture messages to law enforcement.

Snapchat, the popular picture messaging app that automatically deletes the pictures – known as snaps – after a short amount of time, said they complied with around a dozen warrants in which they gave unopened snaps to law enforcement.

“Since May 2013, about a dozen of the search warrants we’ve received have resulted in us producing unopened Snaps to law enforcement,” Director of Operations Micah Schaffer said in a blog post Oct. 14. “That’s out of 350 million snaps sent every day.”

Schaffer assured users that snaps were only handed over in the case of warrants as opposed to storing large amounts of pictures and handing them over, as is the case with some companies and the National Security Agency.