This needs US attention:
Andy Wigmore, an air-tight biz partner to largest donor in UK political history, was suspended from Twitter in Nov for "posting violent threats." It appears he may be using a sock puppet account to continue to threaten a globally recognized journalist. /1
My first logical question is whether this "Team Belize" account is indeed Wigmore? The tweets and his Belize history, make it almost certain. But there are also selfies from 2012-2016 - way prior to his being a household name - that make it near 100%. /2
Second logical question is why is he still suspended from Twitter and is he violating their rules again with another account? Here is a screen grab from claims he was unfairly suspended. Not sure if there were other violations - only @TwitterSupport would know. Red box mine. /3
This brings us back to Banks's role in this. This same sock puppet account boosted Banks and his threats and harassment in November and again as recently as yesterday. Banks almost certainly knows about it. And again, the account likely violates Twitter policy. @TwitterSupport /4
If all of this holds up (it almost certainly will) then my questions:
1) Wigmore should have lifetime ban
2) Banks should already be suspended for targeted harassment and threats
3) Banks knowledge of the sock puppet account is deeply concerning /5
Context for all this:
- Banks continues to try to chill journalists by threatening lawsuits and suing journalist personally.
@ICFJ and @UNESCO put out a report on online violence against women journalists yday citing Wigmore that prompted sock puppet. icfj.org/our-work/chill… /6
Banks's motivations in his attempts to chill the press are unclear but public interest in his $ sources, Russian embassy meetings and widely-promoted relations with US concerns, too, including Trump. All of this is more effective in the UK especially when US press ignores it. /7
Here is a report from The Guardian on Banks's SLAPP lawsuit against @carolecadwalla as further background. /8 theguardian.com/law/2019/dec/1…
Lastly, I happened to be tweeting about the case yesterday so here is a thread with links to the crowdfunding site for Carole's defense. She would be reluctant to ask anyone to help fund it but I can. Banks is a wealthy bully with despicable means. /9
And if anyone can help draw more attention to this, it's appreciated. Twitter more than some others has been a friend to journalism and press freedom. Every one of these tweets, including boosts from sock puppet, puts women journalists in harms way. Hence the case studies. /10
And again, if I can ask you to also read and share the ICFJ report. P84 explains Banks and Wigmore. @mariaressa is a very important case involving not only financial harassment but her freedom as the Duterte govt works to chill their reporting. /11 icfj.org/sites/default/…
I’ll add that “bye bye” was a moment of seeing something appropriate happen. Again, the account was used for online violence against a female journalist.
And that was the easy part.
The hard part is proper reporting it and Arron Banks’ role in harassing and chilling the press.
And now it’s clearly labeled as “suspended.” Twitter did the right thing here. Now we just need to remember there are real people behind this online violence and we know exactly who they are.

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More from @jason_kint

30 Apr
Wow 4% - nailed it.

2 things:
(1) user surveys aren’t often accurate but there are no legit incentives to say “yes” & this ⬇️ had 8,500 votes
(2) this kneecaps Facebook who has history of intentionally withholding info from investors.

I still say public is missing this.
Here is a great report by @larakiara, this is the kind of technical detail a topic like this needs. I still say press and public is missing the real story and the greatest single privacy flex and threat to Facebook’s business in history. A good thing.
businessinsider.com/why-you-are-no…
More info in this thread. And to be clear, press overall did an outstanding job describing the rollout and avoiding Facebook’s narrative. I just think the market analysis, analysts and last few days are drunk on earnings (backward-looking).
Read 4 tweets
29 Apr
Help. Americans should know a lot more about Arron Banks. His $, entanglements and ongoing threats & harassment of a journalist. Meanwhile, I recommend donating to her crowdfund to fight a SLAPP suit for having prompted questions of great public interest. crowdjustice.com/case/support-m…
Note, I did a screenshot and added the gray box as his toxic sludge doesn't deserve any additional velocity and reach. You can look him up, watch how he and his sidekick disrespected Parliamentarians of all parties asking equally concerning questions. theguardian.com/law/2019/dec/1…
There is also a case update on the site from a few months ago if you're investing in the latest on it or want to follow along. Bottom-line, this is how $$$ attempts to silence truth and affliction. crowdjustice.com/case/support-m…
Read 7 tweets
28 Apr
78 seconds. Listen closely. Apple has kneecapped Facebook pushing out an update fo 1+ BIL devices.
Remember:
1) in no way does this update stop personalized ads, it stops surveillance
2) a majority of Facebook’s data is collected when users aren’t on its services (surveillance).
Full context for those clips. Sandberg did her normal mom and pop song mixing in vaccine heartstrings. India is a bit much considering FB suppressed Modi protesting today. Again gaslights to confuse FB’s tracking and surveillance business model as simply “personalized ads.” /2
CFO works in short message about “headwinds” and transatlantic data transfer issues (Schrems II). This is all CYA and we’ve seen Facebook’s history of downplaying risk so these mentions mean something big. /3
Read 7 tweets
28 Apr
5pm. Try to not listen to anything about revenues, profits and future FUD and see what else you hear.
Just having this convo. Of course, Facebook will present this as not a big deal. If the world knows data protection (something consumers want) is a risk to Facebook, then sharks will circle and regulatory and advocacy risk will heighten. #KneecapFacebook
So instead they’ll push creators, small business and normal formula for empowering the long tail. The CFO message above will serve as their “CYA” and they will go out of their way not to highlight the largest risk they’ve ever seen.
Read 4 tweets
28 Apr
A word about YouTube. There will be hundreds of euphoric reports this morning on YT's incredible growth in Google's earnings. Having listened, I heard remarkably little detail about the biz and thought about this 2018 piece when they were 60% smaller. /1 digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2018/03/0…
some math:
-YouTube reported $6B in Q1 global ad revenue, much of it video.
-That's $24B+ global / year.
-US market is typically close to 50% of Google's biz
-Google's own trade group says US video ad biz is $26B/yr
-net net, YouTube dominates US digital video ad revenues. /2
It's a remarkable percentage considering video is the one area where there is outsized IP and creator value. Now much of the revenue gets passed on so lots of people are happy. So I'm also 😀. But I still go back to my original piece on Goog obfuscation. For a biz this core... /3
Read 5 tweets
27 Apr
wow, Zuckerberg and press-friendly Mosseri are live trying to steer press towards an a16z-sanctioned creators narrative.
The only story is Apple iOS 14.5, here are 3 points I made earlier today on effect on Apple users, business/investors and the drama between Apple/Facebook.
#1 - Consumers: without question, this is a net positive. With one iOS push, Apple made a default world where the only company who can harvest your data is the app you’re choosing to use and if companies want to track you across other apps they need to ask your permission.
#2 - Investors: Facebook is clear loser and we’ve now seen multiple suits where Facebook has intentionally withheld information from investors. FB gets a majority of their data when you’re not actually choosing to use its apps and Apple has kneecapped it 24hrs before FB earnings.
Read 9 tweets

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