Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Apr 2, 2022 8 tweets 6 min read Read on X
1/. Tomorrow, voters in #Hungary will go to the polls

#Orban, who installed what he calls “illiberal democracy” is running for his fifth term

He controls public television

His allies dominate private media

Voters are inundated with pro-Orban coverage
google.co.uk/amp/s/www.nyti…
2/. Ahead of the European elections, virtually all Hungary's newspapers ran the same front page Orban interview

Research found that 77% of political & public affairs media is financed by sources decided by ruling Fidesz party

These tactics are part of the authoritarian playbook Image
3/. Fascism experts like @TimothyDSnyder, believe politicians around the world are reviving century-old fascist tactics

They use populist rhetoric to stir-up divisions & harness the power of tech, big data & social media to win power & reshape narratives.
4/. Many far-right nationalists are actually trans-nationalists

Here @PeterKGeoghegan explains how the far right are connected globally & how huge sums of dark money, advanced tech & a network of demagogues, are shaping the world in truly terrifying ways
5/. In 2015, Bannon asked #CambridgeAnalytica’s @chrisinsilico to build a “psychological warfare tool” to hollow out democracies & rive open divisions

We’re seeing this happening globally, with culture wars & hatreds stirred-up, sometimes by a hidden hand
6/. “It’s as if the Age of Reason - the era of evidential argument - is ending & knowledge is delegitimized & scientific consensus is dismissed.

Democracy, which depends on shared truths, is in retreat, & autocracy, which depends on shared lies, is on the march.”@SachaBaronCohen
7/. Fascists today don’t need jackboots

Fascism isn’t a form of govt

It’s a collection of tactics used to convince people to surrender their freedom by handing over power

Freedom is fascism’s victim

Freedom to question
Freedom to choose
8/. In 1996 Carl Sagan warned:

“We’ve arranged a society based on science & technology, in which nobody understands anything about science & technology. This combustible mixture of ignorance & power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces”

I’m afraid that time is now

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More from @StefSimanowitz

May 15
1/. Four years, ago this tweet👇broke the #CareHomeScandal

The govt had INSTRUCTED hospitals to send people “who may have #COVID19” to care homes WITHOUT TESTING

They KNEW about asymptomatic transmission in Jan 2020

Many thousands died

This revelation led to other questions…
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2/. From the start of the pandemic the govt had given #Palantir, a US spyware company with reported links to #CambridgeAnalytica, access to NHS health data

The NHS = the most trusted brand in the UK

Cambridge Analytica = the least trusted

Disturbing…

3/. Palantir worked on the NHS data store with #FacultyAI - a company with ties to Cummings

In 2020, @amnesty warned that Big Tech firms might use the COVID crisis to hoover up genomic data, obliterating the last frontier of privacy: our biological selves

Read 5 tweets
Mar 9
1/. “It is the greatest mass-killing in recorded history; & it goes on daily, hourly, as regularly as the ticking of your watch”

Arthur Koestler’s 1944 essay expressing frustration at the failure of the world to acknowledge Nazi atrocities resonates today
wethescreamers.com
2/ “There are a few of us…yelling at you in newspapers…Now & then we reach your ear…But it only lasts a minute. You shake yourself like puppies who’ve got their fur wet; then the screen again descends & you walk on, protected by the dream-barrier which stifles all sound”
#Gaza Image
3/ Koestler notes maniacs lose contact with reality so “perhaps it’s we, the screamers, who react in a sound & healthy way to the reality which surrounds us, whereas you are the neurotics who totter about in a screened fantasy world because you lack the faculty to face the facts” Image
Read 8 tweets
Feb 23
“They got me!” Liz Truss tells far-right kingpin, Steve Bannon, before going on to explain that, to have effectively tackled “the deep state” that runs Britain & its institutions, she would have “needed a bigger bazooka”! #LizTruss #BritanniaUnchained
"I was just saying it like it is & that’s what people respect me for"(!)

Liz Truss’ compares her premiership to a one night stand & says she was just “fattening the pig” for slaughter & that she should have gaslit the public like Rishi Sunak is doing (!)
"I faced the most almighty backlash...from the usual suspects in the media” Liz Truss

“Truss's decline is simultaneously tragic & horrifying but the claim that the media conspired against her can't go unchallenged. There are front pages praising her to the rafters” @mrjamesob



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Read 4 tweets
Nov 6, 2023
Despite previous denials, Michelle Mone finally admits her involvement in failed PPE supplier Medpro

There should be a criminal investigation into possible intentional breach of beneficial ownership disclosure rules

The govt VIP Lane needs investigating

Something about the #MichelleMone interview doesn’t pass the smell test

Why are Mone & her husband - currently under criminal investigation in UK & Spain - being given a prime time slot to tell ‘their side of the story’?

5 questions @bbclaurak should ask

@bbclaurak “I don’t honestly think there’s a case to answer. I can’t see what we’ve done wrong” @MichelleMone

Wow! #MichelleMone & #DougBarrowman on @bbclaurak’s programme, this morning

Read 13 tweets
Oct 3, 2023
As the 2nd module of the #CovidInquiry begins covering “core UK decision-making & political governance”, comes news that Rishi Sunak - like Boris Johnson - has also fail to fully comply with the order to hand his WhatsApp messages

Both claim they can’t access key messages
#COVID
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“The govt needs get professional IT experts to recover these messages”

Charles Persinger who lost his wife & mother to #COVID, echoes the call of @CovidJusticeUK’s lawyers calling on the @covidinquiryuk to commission experts to retrieve Sunak & Johnson’s ‘lost’ WhatsApp messages
“It was like watching his death approach & seeing every mistake that was made”

@LoreleiKing describes listening to the timeline of govt inaction in the months leading to her husband’s death of #COVID19

Bereaved families want accountability #Covidinquiry
Read 19 tweets
Sep 9, 2023
Twitter's new privacy policy takes effect on 29 September

It gives X the right to use your posts - including DMs - & all your data - including phone, email, biometrics (e.g. face scans & eye scans) to train their AI & to share with any partner X wants👇
twitter.com/en/privacy



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“I do not accept that Twitter has deteriorated in any way since Elon Musk took over”
A week before Twitter’s change in privacy policy, some questions for @elonmusk

1. What biometric information will be collected & what are the intended uses?

How will X ensure that that the data of X’s 530 million users isn’t used for unlawful purposes?
mashable.com/article/x-twit…
Read 13 tweets

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