The lobby network: Big Tech’s web of influence in the EUNovember 25, 2021
As Big Tech’s market power grew, so did its political clout. Now, as the EU tries to rein in the most problematic aspects of Big Tech – from disinformation, targeted advertising to unfair competition practices – the digital giants are lobbying hard to shape new regulations.
In ‘The Lobby Network’, Corporate Europe Observatory and Lobbycontrol offer an overview of the tech industry’s EU lobbying firepower. For the first time, we map the ‘universe’ of actors lobbying the EU’s digital economy, from Silicon Valley giants to Shenzhen’s contenders; from firms created online to those making the infrastructure that keeps the internet running; tech giants and newcomers.
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The tech sector spends a hefty sum lobbying the EU. Here’s whyNovember 25, 2021
Big tech companies spend more than €97 million annually lobbying the European Union.
Why does the tech sector spend a hefty amount lobbying the EU?)
Firms’ lobbying efforts in the EU show the tech sector spends more than any other in trying to influence policies and legislation on the continent
A dozen of companies including Vodafone, Qualcomm, Intel, IBM, Amazon, Huawei, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Google are responsible for almost a third of the total tech lobby spend
Most of the sector’s lobbying activity is focused around the EU’s planned digital economy regulations
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Recording reveals police efforts to recruit BLM activist as informantNovember 1, 2021
Swansea activist Lowri Davies recorded call from officer in ‘frightening and distressing’ attempted recruitment
A secret recording has revealed how a covert police unit in Wales tried to recruit a Black Lives Matter activist to be an informant.
The anti-racism campaigner Lowri Davies shared the recording with the Guardian to raise awareness of what she alleges were “distressing” techniques used to try to manipulate her into providing information to the police.
Davies, a Swansea University law student, is one of the main organisers of a local Black Lives Matters (BLM) group that regularly supports protests about the deaths of black people after contact with police.
She said two police officers spent 90 minutes seeking to convince her to become an informant, imploring her not to tell anyone about the attempted recruitment.
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Black Lives Matter: Swansea activist’s trust ‘destroyed by police approach’November 1, 2021
A Black Lives Matter activist said her trust was “destroyed” when police tried to recruit her as an informant.
Swansea University law student Lowri Davies said she was called in March by a covert officer.
The anti-racism campaigner said she was confused to be asked to give details of far-right activists protesting at Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
South Wales Police said a complaint referring to contact made by a covert officer was being considered.
Ms Davies received the call from the woman “out of the blue” on a Tuesday morning.
“She says that she is a covert police officer and she works for informants, usually with drugs and burglary and, in my case, the protests,” she said.
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DECLASSIFIED UK Britain’s secret political policeNovember 1, 2021
A shocking story of how a special squad of Britain’s Metropolitan Police, in collusion with MI5 – the domestic ‘security’ service – secretly infiltrated hundreds of UK political and campaign groups, and the question of whether the spying continues. As told by Asa Winstanley, who has personal experience.
- “The man we’d thought had been our friend had actually been a spy for the state all along”
- Industrial-levels of police infiltration of progressive campaign groups began during anti-Vietnam war movement in 1968
- Metropolitan Police admits for the first time to Declassified that it spied for MI5
- Justice campaigns led by families of people killed in police custody were a particular target of so-called “spycops”. The victims were mostly black men
- Undercover police spied on Labour politicians and nearly every group to party’s left
- Some women, who were tricked into romantic relationships, say it was like being “raped by the state”
- Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter believed to be the most likely targets of current undercover police infiltration
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De AIVD kan ook de boom in!November 1, 2021
Op dinsdag 14 september 2021, had ik tussen half 2 en 2 uur twee gemiste oproepen, 7 minuten van elkaar van een mij onbekend mobiel nummer (06XXX64615). Normaal bel ik niet terug als er geen bericht wordt achtergelaten, maar ik was die dag aan het werk en ging ervan uit dat iemand dringend iets werkgerelateerds van mij nodig had.
Het nummer bleek van ene mevrouw Sterrenburg (?), werkzaam bij Binnenlandse Zaken. Ze wilde graag een vertrouwelijk gesprek met mij over wat er speelt in de samenleving, gezien mijn betrokkenheid bij Amelisweerd. Aangezien ze op dat moment ‘in de buurt’ was, zou ze het liefst meteen afspreken. Het werd niet duidelijk of ‘in de buurt’ betekende dat ze in de buurt van Utrecht, Amelisweerd of mijn huis was.
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Met police ‘tried to recruit ex-officer to spy on climate change activists’November 1, 2021
A former police officer who is now a prominent climate crisis campaigner has accused the Metropolitan police of attempting to recruit him to spy on Extinction Rebellion.
Former detective sergeant Paul Stephens, who joined XR after he retired from the London force in 2018, claims he was approached by an officer he knew near Parliament Square during the group’s campaign of non-violent mass civil disobedience in London in October 2019.
“He asked if I wanted to come on the books – to become a covert human intelligence source [Chis],” Stephens said. “But I turned him down straight away. I joined XR to make those in power do something about climate change, not to spy on peaceful people doing their bit for the planet.”
The Met said it could “neither confirm nor deny any Chis activity in relation to Extinction Rebellion”.
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In the Shadow of 9/11; A Major Terror Plot Interrupted — or a ‘Setup’?November 1, 2021
How seven men in Miami were indicted for the biggest alleged Al Qaeda plot since 9/11. From the director of Leaving Neverland, the bizarre story of an FBI sting that led to a terror prosecution, though the men had no weapons or connection to Al Qaeda.
In 2006, in what was touted by the government as a major success in the post-9/11 “war on terror,” then-U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales took to the podium at a press conference to announce the arrest of an alleged seven-man homegrown terror cell that had pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda.
The group of Black men from the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami had been arrested “on charges of conspiring to support the Al Qaeda terrorist organization by planning attacks on numerous targets, including bombing the Sears Tower in Chicago,” Gonzales said. He quoted the men as saying they wished to carry out a “‘full ground war’” against the U.S., to “‘kill all the devils we can,’” and to make their attacks “‘just as good or greater than 9/11.’”
But the Liberty City Seven had no weapons and had never communicated with anyone from Al Qaeda. Lawyers for the men insist the plot was an FBI setup. The alleged “ringleader,” Narseal Batiste, said he only said what he did because he was desperate for cash, and he had no intention of following through.
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The NYPD Paid An Informant To Help A BLM Protester Charged With Sabotaging Police VanNovember 1, 2021
The NYPD sent a paid informant to surveil, befriend and ultimately drive a Black Lives Matter protester to attack a police van last month, according to a new federal complaint unsealed on Wednesday.
The civilian informant — identified in the filing as the NYPD’s “confidential source” — was involved in the arrest of Jeremy Trapp, a 24-year-old Brooklyn man accused of sabotaging an NYPD vehicle.
“At best, Mr. Trapp is unsophisticated and easily susceptible,” his defense attorney, Ashley Burrell, said during his arraignment on Wednesday afternoon.
According to federal prosecutors, Trapp met the NYPD informant outside Brooklyn Criminal Court on July 13th, as protesters gathered to demand the release of individuals arrested during a demonstration in Bay Ridge.
Trapp told the source that he thought cops were racist, that he wanted to harm police, and that he was previously involved in burning an NYPD vehicle, according to the complaint. After exchanging phone numbers, the two arranged to meet in the informant’s car.
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The FBI Targets a New Generation of Black Activists; The agency would put its investigative authorities to better use by holding police officers accountable for acts of brutality.November 1, 2021
Throughout its history, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has viewed Black activism as a potential national security threat. It has used its ample investigative powers not to suppress violence, but to inhibit the speech and association rights of Black activists. And its reaction to the protests following the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd shows little has changed.
In October 1919, a young J Edgar Hoover, director of the Bureau of Investigation’s general intelligence division, targeted “Black Moses” Marcus Garvey for investigation and harassment because of his alleged association with “radical elements” that were “agitating the Negro movement”. Hoover admitted Garvey had violated no federal laws. But the bureau, the precursor organization to the FBI, infiltrated Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association with informant provocateurs and undercover agents who searched for years for any charge that could justify his deportation.
The justice department ultimately won a conviction against Garvey on a dubious mail fraud charge in 1923. Meanwhile, white vigilantes, police and soldiers targeted Black communities with violence during this period, which included the Red Summer of 1919, the Tulsa massacre of 1921 and scores of lynchings, did not receive the same focused attention from Hoover’s agents.
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FBI Tracked an Activist Involved With Black Lives Matter as They Traveled Across the U.S., Documents ShowNovember 1, 2021
Documents obtained by The Intercept indicate that the FBI surveilled Black Lives Matter activists — and that the Department of Homeland Security drafted a mysterious “race paper.”
At the height of 2014’s Black Lives Matter protests in Ferguson, Missouri, FBI agents tracked the movements of an activist flying in from New York, and appear to have surveilled the homes and cars of individuals somehow tied to the protests, according to recently released documents provided to The Intercept.
The documents, which include FBI emails and intelligence reports from November 2014, suggest that federal surveillance of Black Lives Matter protests went far beyond the online intelligence-gathering first reported on by The Intercept in 2015. That intelligence-gathering by the federal government had employed open-source information, such as social media, to profile and keep track of activists. The newly released documents suggest the FBI put resources toward running informants, as well as physical surveillance of antiracist activists.
The heavily redacted records were obtained by two civil rights groups, Color of Change and the Center for Constitutional Rights, through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and are being published here for the first time. Internal communications from Department of Homeland Security officials, released through this lawsuit, also revealed the existence of a document described by DHS officials as the “Race Paper,” which was the subject of a filing by the civil rights groups on Monday.
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Newly Released Documents Show FBI Used Stakeouts And Informants To Follow Black Lives Matter ActivistsNovember 1, 2021
Newly released documents show that the FBI’s surveillance of the Black Lives Matter movement extends far beyond social media, according to The Intercept.
The documents were acquired by two civil rights groups, Color of Change and The Center for Constitutional Rights, through a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents reveal that the FBI not only used social media to track the whereabouts of black activists, but they also used informants and stakeouts. One of the emails also mentioned the existence of a document called the “Race Paper.” While the papers don’t specifically mention Black Lives Matter, the inquest that resulted in their release was centered around the movement.
A lot of the content is redacted, but what is available provides an overview of the FBI’s movements during the height of the Black Lives Matter fervor in late 2014.
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Why Was an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Tracking a Black Lives Matter Protest? Email obtained by The Intercept shows bureau discussion of Mall of America protest and an informant who relayed plans.November 1, 2021
Members of an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force tracked the time and location of a Black Lives Matter protest last December at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, email obtained by The Intercept shows.
The email from David S. Langfellow, a St. Paul police officer and member of an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, informs a fellow task force member from the Bloomington police that “CHS just confirmed the MOA protest I was taking to you about today, for the 20th of DEC @ 1400 hours.” CHS is a law enforcement acronym for “confidential human source.”
Jeffrey VanNest, an FBI special agent and Joint Terrorism Task Force supervisor at the FBI’s Minneapolis office, was CC’d on the email. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces are based in 104 U.S. cities and are made up of approximately 4,000 federal, state and local law enforcement officials. The FBI characterizes them as “our nation’s front line on terrorism.”
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Revealed: rebranded D-Notice committee issued two notices over Skripal affairMay 17, 2018
Van nieuwsblog.burojansen.nl
Spinwatch can reveal that the Skripal affair has resulted in the issuing of not one but two ‘D-Notices’ to the British media, which are marked private and confidential. We can also disclose the contents of both notices, which have been obtained from a reliable source.
That two notices were issued has been confirmed by the ‘D-Notice’ Committee. The Committee, which is jointly staffed by government officials and mainstream media representatives has recently changed its name to the ‘Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee’. The use of the word ‘advisory’ is no doubt a bid to discourage the public from thinking that this is a censorship committee. However, the DSMA-Notices (as they are now officially called) are one of the miracles of British state censorship. They are a mechanism whereby the British state simply ‘advises’ the mainstream media what not to publish, in ‘notices’ with no legal force. The media then voluntarily comply.
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Does the UK’s case against Russia stack up?May 8, 2018
Van nieuwsblog.burojansen.nl
When a former Russian spy and his daughter were found slumped on a park bench in Salisbury, it wasn’t long before investigators started looking at the Kremlin with suspicion.
The pair were identified as Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. The British government said they had been poisoned with a military grade nerve agent called Novichok, originally developed in Russia.
Over the following weeks, as the victims remained in hospital, Britain’s relationship with Russia began to fall apart. Diplomats from both countries have now been expelled and all planned high-level contact is suspended.
The stakes could not be higher. With Russia denying any involvement in the attack, the stability of global politics hangs in the balance.
But how strong is the UK’s evidence against Russia? And what do the experts think?
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