1/. A week ago, 2 powerful earthquakes shook the region near the Turkish-Syrian border, claiming tens of thousands of lives & opening 190-mile-long fissure
Humanitarian crises that result from natural disasters can create human rights issues & exacerbate existing vulnerabilities
3/. Last week, a 3-month state of emergency was announced which included prison terms for anyone “spreading fake news, exaggerated rumours & news intended to cause panic”.
There have been numerous reports of journalists threatened, harassed, detained or prevented from reporting.
4/. “We call on Turkish authorities to immediately lift the restrictions on access to information & freedom of expression, & ensure that journalists are not blocked from covering the news”
5/. The Turkish govt introduced a smartphone app to report people who are believed to have produced or disseminated fake news or disinformation online
In the days after the earthquake, 302 people had reportedly been investigated, 37 detained & 14 arrested thearabposts.com/earthquake-hit…
6/. It's not just social media users who've been targeted
There have been reports of journalists being detained or arrested whilst trying to do their work or for social media posts.
Several journalists in Diyarbakır reported that they were blocked from reporting from the field.
7/. Criticism of Turkey's emergency response to the earthquake has been growing with survivors & opposition MPs accusing the govt of slow & inadequate relief effort
8/. "The scale of damage indicates that buildings didn’t meet safety standards."
Questions have been raised about Turkey's lax enforcement of building regulations, use of the estimated $4.6b proceeds of the earthquake tax, & an amnesty for illegal construction. #TurkeyEarthquake
9/. In the wake of the earthquake, disturbing unconfirmed videos on social media appear to show violence & torture by security forces & by others against alleged “looters”
@amnesty’s digital verification team are examining some of the footage & @aforgutu put out this thread👇
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
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
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
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”
“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
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
“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
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
“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…