Thread by @SamuelStolton

1/ This is either remarkably unconscionable or profoundly negligent from the European Commission.

A SHORT THREAD.

I recently found out that President @vonderleyen met the CEO of one of the US's most controversial big data analytics firms, Palantir, at Davos this year...

2/ Yes, the same Palantir founded by Peter Thiel - billionaire Facebook investor who donated millions to Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential election...
nytimes.com/2016/10/16/tec…

3/....& the same Palantir known for its work with US intelligence agencies during the war on terror & its partnership with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in executing deportations of immigrants from the United States: theintercept.com/2017/03/02/pal…

4/... Against this background, @vonderleyen had met Palantir's CEO Alex Karp on January 22nd 2020 at Davos.

Here is a record of the meeting in the company's transparency register recorded with the European Commission:

5/...Naturally, wanting to find out a bit more about this meeting between the President of the Commission and the CEO of one of the US's most controversial data analytics firms, I wrote to the Commission to request any & all documentation held concerning the meeting...

6/ After an initial delay, the Commission responded this morning, essentially telling me that it does not hold any documents at all corresponding to the meeting:

7/ This is an extraordinary derogation of public and political responsibility on behalf of @EU_Commission.

In this vein, I recall that @vonderleyen's political priorities are the start of her term included an enhanced emphasis on 'transparency.'

8/ I have appealed to the Commission to justify the decision made not to document the meeting. I should think that the Commission would have wanted to keep some sort of a record of the meeting more than most other engagements.

Frankly appalled at this lack of judgement.

ENDS.

And, of course...there are these links, as well: cnbc.com/2018/03/27/pal…