Not a single UK news org reported on UK links in Senate Intel report. Including amazing detail that Cambridge Analytica polling data from Trump was passed to Russian spy. In fairness..it sounds too nutty to be true, right? Much easier to dismiss & move on. Except..it is true
I mean..I get it. It’s literally crazy. And...so un-British. We are not built for plots like this. Kitchen-sink dramas are our thing. But you can’t really understand the misreporting of this week’s Cambridge Analytica news without understanding the bizarro background context
Elizabeth Denham, the UK commissioner, has led the world in investigating the abuse in data in politics. She did something bold & brilliant in taking on the tech giants & trying to uncover the truth about how personal data has been weaponised but political parties & campaigns
And in March 2018, she seized Cambridge Analytica’s servers. As well as investigating the referendum & all political parties & all political campaigns, she also took on the task of processing 700 terabytes of data from a firm which worked on 150+ elections around the world...
A Wilmslow-based govt regulator basically tried to do the job of the FBI. Its final report - that was supposed to include a forensic analysis of the 700 terabytes of data - has been delayed & delayed & delayed. And then it was announced that it wasn’t coming..
Instead she wrote a letter to parliament’s DCMS committee. That contained a few brief broad brushstrokes. Which prompted this headline which led to an unholy alliance of Brexiteers & data bros saying I told you so. Plus ca change, plus c’est etc etc. But here’s the thing..
The truth is so much wilder than you’d believe. I wish I *was* a crazy cat lady but this stuff is literally written down in congressional reports based on evidence of people now in jail. All this stuff *did* happen. Cambridge Analytica polling data *was* passed to a Russian spy
I don’t make this shit up. I’ve just spent 4 years down a rabbithole trying to wrestle it out into the open. The fact that the ICO basically gave up on trying to figure it out does not surprise me one bit. If I could have given up I would have. It’s crazyville. It’s a headfuck.
The stuff about the Russian spy is eyebrow raising. But it’s also just the tip of the iceberg. We know it actively sought to subvert elections. We know it was involved in - allegedly - criminal offences. We know it partnered with Israeli psyops firms. This is documented
The ICO is not the FBI. And the idea that it could interrogate & prosecute an operation of this scale is for the birds. But I end with a plea: *please* don’t delete the evidence. One day in the future, we will need to understand..surely? We will want to know how we got here..
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NEW: I'm seeking permission to appeal in the Supreme Court. There's no meaningful free expression in this country if after proving your speech is lawful, you're hit with £££ costs: a devastating ruling that will chill public interest journalism
by @_EmmaGH theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m…
This was filed today in the Court of Appeal. If the Supreme Court rejects it, we believe there’s a strong case to take it to the European Court of Human Rights.
Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights puts an obligation on states to ensure freedom of expression. According to the ruling in this case, it's very far from free: even if you can prove your speech is lawful, it'll still cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds...
It's been a long time but v happy to be back in @ObserverUK today with 2 pieces, both close to my heart. And to launch a new project with @allthecitizens.
1/ An astonishing new claim that MI5 refused to investigate Russian spy's infiltration of Tory party theguardian.com/politics/2023/…
2/ Delighted to profile the fierce & brilliant @pevchikh for @ObsNewReview. If you've seen the Navalny doc, she's the woman sitting by Navalny's side as he calls one of his FSB poisoners & gets him to confess to Novichoking his underpants. theguardian.com/world/2023/jan…
3/ Finally, the story of how the Kremlin captured Britain. And how the UK government covered it up. If you've wondered why no British broadcaster has told the real story behind the Russia Report, please watch this & consider contributing.
My jaw hit the floor when I discovered Boris Johnson left an emergency NATO meeting after the Kremlin’s chemical warfare attack on Britain & flew to an off-the-books meeting with an ex-KGB spy.
In July 2019, Johnson had just been made PM. And @nickhopkinsnews published 2 extraordinary stories about Foreign Secretary Johnson flying from a NATO meeting to a party in Italy at the height of the Skripal crisis.
The party was at Evgeny Lebedev’s villa. The owner of Independent & Evening Standard.
Hopkins’s first story suggested he’d given his security detail the slip to fly to Italy. Then a Guardian reader supplied photos of him leaving: hungover & dishevelled 3/
Thank you to the judge, my stellar legal team & the 29,000 people who contributed to my legal defence fund. I literally couldn’t have done it without you 🙏🙏🙏
I haven't read the judgment yet but what I can say that the last 3 years have been extraordinarily difficult. Fighting this has been a crushing, debilitating, all-consuming experience that I sincerely hope no other journalist ever has to go through. 2/ judiciary.uk/judgments/bank…
The fact that his case was brought clearly shows how our libel laws favour the rich & powerful. I was only able to defend myself because of the incredibly generous support of the public. But this judgment is a huge victory for public interest journalism.
3/