Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
May 4, 2021 7 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Tomorrow, Facebook's pseudo sorry supreme court - aka the Oversight Board - decides whether Trump is given back keys to his Facebook account.

Whichever way this plays, it's a disaster for democratic accountability
Facebook is a dumpster fire right now. What *nearly* happened in Washington on Jan 6 already *has* happened in other countries. Yet, this is a company that fails to EVER take responsibility. Witness Sheryl Sandberg spreading untruths here
It is going to be a CIRCUS tomorrow.

The Oversight Board is right! The Oversight Board is wrong!

These are both BAD takes.

Because the Oversight Board is an absurd proposition. And it should be nowhere near this decision
NEWSFLASH: Facebook is not a country! It’s a private company. It exists to make money.

Trump can tell whatever white supremacist lies he wants but the idea that he has a God-given or even First Amendment right to spread them on Facebook is just pure corporate guff
And the idea that Facebook has to outsource this decision to its Very Clever & Highly Paid Committee is also purest corporate guff.

*Trump repeatedly breached its own terms of service*

How hard can this be?
The only way that this decision is of any importance is *if the press makes it so*

It was dreamed up by Facebook’s PR dept & is overseen by its king of spin, one @nick_clegg.

Who to date has a 💯 % track record in being on the wrong side of history

Anyway, for what it’s worth (NOTHING) & even tho those closest to Oversight Board have been predicting it will let him back on..really?!

Wouldn’t it be equivalent of strapping on suicide vest & blowing itself up? It’s desperate for credibility. And wd lose it instantly & forever

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More from @carolecadwalla

Dec 23
Hahaha. I just got a call to ask if 'I'm going to the Indie'. To be clear, this is Lord Lebedev trolling me. But the serious point is that we just lost a liberal independent newspaper. With everything that entails for both journalists & readers.
1/
This week the Scott Trust sold the Observer brand to Tortoise Media. But they're using this to slash 70 core Guardian jobs in a sleight of hand. Observer journalists are *Guardian* journalists on *Guardian* contracts.
2/
But TUPE legislation legally allows the Guardian to transfer any part of its company out. So, 70 journalists on Guardian contracts have a choice to make this Christmas: go to a financially struggling start-up which may or may fail in a couple of years. Or take voluntary redundancy.
3/
Read 9 tweets
Dec 22
Well this is very exciting. My investigation into the Guardian’s new partner & the Observer’s new owner has just got the thumbs up from the Baron of Siberia.

I’m not entirely sure he’s familiar with my journalistic oeuvre, mind… Image
The Guardian is cancelling my contract after 19 years continuous employment with no pay-off so totes happy to go to the Indie to continue my investigation into Evgeny’s dad, the ex-KGB spy.

The UK media: so many fine choices.

theguardian.com/media/2019/nov…
To be clear, I’m not being singled out: fully one third of Guardian & Observer staff are on either zero hours or sham ‘freelance’ contracts. The Guardian issued notice on all these this week. If you’re an employment lawyer, feel free to slide into my DMs!
Read 4 tweets
Dec 20
This week the Guardian's owner, the Scott Trust, gifted the 233-year-old Observer to Tortoise Media.

This isn't just a dark day for journalism, it's a sign.

Meet the team.

This is Putin giving Tortoise's energy advisory board member an 'Order of Friendship' medal in 2017.
1/ Image
Independent news is under pressure across the world. The US is already crumbling: ABC settled with Trump. WaPo pre-obeyed.

This week Guardian lost 100 journalists & one of its arms. To understand what's lost, let's start with Putin's friend: Ivan Glasenberg, ex Glencore CEO.
2/
Glasenberg didn't just get a medal from Putin, he sat on the board of a Russian oil company, Rosneft, chaired by one of Putin's closest allies

And here he is: on Tortoise's energy advisory board, assembled by Tortoise, founder, owner & editor, James Harding.
3/ Image
Read 17 tweets
Dec 15
This is what the Observer team & I were doing between strikes. Please read it because it couldn’t be more relevant. I interview Asif Kapadia about his alarming new film, 2073, with its stark warning of where Trump, Musk & Farage are taking us..

theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/…
Kapadia won an Oscar for Amy, his heartbreaking film about Amy Winehouse. This is emotional too, a sci fi thriller with Samantha Morton set in the future made of fragments of the present. I tell the story of how I accidentally ended up in the film. But it’s so much more than that
It’s a chilling warning of what’s to come. The first film I’ve seen that attempts to unravel the technological crisis that underpins our democratic one. And I’m so pleased to be able to write about in Observer New Review, where I work with the best editors & designers in Britain including @JaneFerg who commissioned this & made it look beautiful. It’s where we’ve relentlessly covered the technoauthoritarian takeover that’s at the heart of Asif’s film…as part of the Guardian’s core journalistic output. While Asif’s film has journalists & journalism at its heart. I’m proud & flattered to be part of it but it also brings home what we stand to lose 😢Image
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Read 4 tweets
Nov 28
This is an incredible short film. If you want to understand why the Guardian & Observer journalists are fighting for our survival, please watch it. It gave me the chills.

Winnie Mandela on how the Observer helped save Mandela's life & the ANC leadership
What I find so fascinating film is the parallels to our own time. In the film, the son of legendary editor, David Astor, describes how it was witnessing fascism in Germany that made his father alive to the danger & evil of apartheid. A fact that informed his whole editorship.
And, here we come full circle, with the Observer under mortal threat. Just as apartheid bleeds again into fascism. Because it's 2 men, raised in apartheid SA, with their hands on the steering wheel of the world's superpower & coming authoritarian state: Elon Musk & Peter Thiel.
Read 6 tweets
Nov 25
If you’re a Guardian or Observer reader, please share this. The need for a strong, free & independent press couldn’t be greater. Yet, here it is. The billionaire Scott Trust is preparing to push a core part of the Guardian over the cliff into the hands of speculators & profiteers
If you haven’t heard about this, it’s probably because you’re a Guardian or Observer reader. The one place you won’t read about the turmoil. Or as @paulfwebster - the Observer’s editor until week ago calls it - the betrayal of everything we represent

broligarchy.substack.com/p/how-to-speak…Image
@paulfwebster Thank you to everyone who’s written. If you have views on the sale you can write to observer.readers@observer.co.uk. And/or or copy me in: Carole.Cadwalladr@theguardian.com. I think what makes us feel so sad & naive is that we had this ‘implicit trust’ too. Image
Read 4 tweets

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