Share this page!

The Citizens Profile picture
Twitter logo
16 Jun, 4 tweets, 3 min read
Today @Dominic2306 revealed something @allthecitizens has been chasing for a while. That he, when a Special Advisor, conducted the business of government on WhatsApp - an encrypted messaging system that placed his correspondence beyond effective scrutiny.
Last year, our @iainoverton sent an FOI request to the Cabinet Office asking what information was held relating to the use of encrypted messaging software by its Special Advisors.

This was rejected with the claim "the information you requested is not held by the Cabinet Office."
However, Cummings - as a civil servant - clearly did have this information on his phone.

Note this: it is a potential criminal offence, according to the ICO, to "deliberately destroy, hide or alter requested information to prevent it being released."

ico.org.uk/for-organisati…
Questions linger.

Did Dominic Cummings mislead Cabinet Office officials when asked, under FOI, to reveal his WhatsApp correspondence?

Did he deliberately hide information requested?

Follow @allthecitizens for more on this story...

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with The Citizens

The Citizens Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @allthecitizens

The Citizens Profile picture
17 Jun
Should lobbyists be required to declare they’ve donated to political parties on the UK lobby register? We’ve found lobbyists Sir Lynton Crosby & business partner Mark Fullbrook have given £221,000 to the Tories personally / through 2 companies on UK's consultant lobbyist register
Sir Lynton Crosby and Mark Fullbrook are both political lobbyists and directors for the C|T Group (CT Corporate Advisory, CT Partners).

Combined they’ve given almost a quarter of million to the Tories. But you wouldn’t know this from the UK statutory lobby register.
CT’s director Mark Fullbrook - has personally donated £25,000 to the Tories.
Read 8 tweets
The Citizens Profile picture
14 Jun
NEW: June 21 re-opening shelved. Govt finally acknowledges exponential growth of new variant. Yet it’s *still* refusing to disclose data on schools. In this week’s newsletter @dgurdasani1 explains why this is such a scandal
keepingthereceipts.substack.com/p/when-dido-me…
We’ve been banging on about this for last 3 weeks & we intend to carry on because this lack of transparency is literally a threat to life. @dgurdasani1 couldn’t say it any clearer. Full interview 👇 To support our work, please consider subscribing

keepingthereceipts.substack.com/p/when-dido-me…
Why haven’t scientists had access to the data? It’s absolutely infuriating that the govt has been allowed to bury this this crucial information. Secrecy & lack of outside scrutiny has allowed the govt to ignore the danger this new variant poses.
Read 6 tweets
The Citizens Profile picture
14 Jun
🚨NEW🚨
As a result of our legal challenge with our partner @foxglovelegal, the government had to admit Ministers and civil servants are allowed to set messages to delete instantly.

It's s YOUR WIN, because we could not have done it without your support.
bit.ly/35gLZWCb
The admission from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was obtained though an @allthecitizens FOIA request
.@allthecitizens started a legal challenge out of deep concerns that self-destructing messages are being used to avoid scrutiny of decision-making processes, including on key issues such as the government’s coronavirus response.
Read 9 tweets
The Citizens Profile picture
10 Jun
Following stunning assertions from @MattHancock that he had no idea of the relationship between Palantir, Faculty, and Cambridge Analytica:

“um… I don’t think I’m aware of that, no”

- @allthecitizens feels this claim raises serious questions that need to be addressed. THREAD:
Did Hancock really have no idea, despite numerous detailed reports on the matter and easily available mainstream media coverage? Why was proper due diligence not done on Palantir by the Health Secretary before embedding them in the NHS?
Firstly, it’s known that Hancock, then as Culture Secretary, was well aware of the actions of Cambridge Analytica, referring to the scandal as a “turning point” in the debate about online privacy.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
Read 12 tweets
The Citizens Profile picture
10 Jun
When you listen to the @MattHancock hearing today, just remember that there is a human cost to lies.
From the off, Cummings is dragged over the coals by the chair in the intro for not providing any evidence for the accusations he made that he’d promised to deliver.
Hancock refuting the first 3 accusations of his incompetence/dishonesty, by proxy from Cummings via the chair. Now defending procurement process for PPE. He says he takes “full responsibility for the areas he’s responsible for”: an uncontroversial statement, but said with gusto
Read 51 tweets
The Citizens Profile picture
9 Jun
BREAKING: High Court rules Michael Gove acted unlawfully.

It got us thinking about how many times we’ve seen similar headlines since 2019, and yet nothing changes. Here are some of the big ones. THREAD:
Count 1: Today’s win for @GoodLawProject finds Gove broke the law in issuing the Public First deal.

As @GoodLawProject @allthecitizens @BylineTimes @OpenDemocracy have highlighted, gov pandemic procurement has been swamped in “institutionalised cronyism”
goodlawproject.org/update/gove-br…
Count 2: This is the second successful judicial review on procurement that @GoodLawProject has brought against the govt. The first found that Matt Hancock had also broken the law in failing to comply with the govt’s own transparency policy
goodlawproject.org/update/the-jud…
Read 14 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @allthecitizens has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @allthecitizens!

Read all threads by @allthecitizens

:(