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Alexander Fanta Profile picture
Alexander Fanta
@FantaAlexx
Journalist @netzpolitik_org. I write about Big Tech, EU lobbying and surveillance. FOI curious. Alumni @risj_oxford. On the advisory board @access_info.
Oct 15, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
BREAKING - After reports that the EU Commission used political microtargeting to sway key groups of their controversial CSAM proposal, the European Data Protection Supervisor has reached out under the "so-called pre-investigation procedure."

What does this mean? The EDPS requested "information related to the described use of microtargeted ads, to be provided by 20 0ctober."
Feb 13, 2023 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
This is a huge, huge deal. Could be the biggest EU transparency litigation in a decade.

The New York Times is taking the European Commission to court over Ursula von der Leyen's secret text messages with the CEO of Pfizer.

A bit more context in this 🧵

politico.eu/article/new-yo… What is this about?

In 2021, the EU was desperate for more Covid vaccines. Pfizer had the goods, but was slow to deliver.

In the dire early months of 2021, Von der Leyen took it on herself to personally negotiate for 1,8 billion vaccine doses.
Jul 14, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
The Commission has denied access to the EU membership questionnaire which president Zelenskyy personally handed to Ursula von der Leyen during a visit to Kyiv in June. #Ukraine Von der Leyen handed a piece of paper by Zelenskyi Why is this important? Von der Leyen said in a speech on April 8 that "[t]his questionnaire is the basis for our discussion in the coming months." It details on political and economic criteria for accession, as well as the aquis of European law.
Apr 30, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Eigentlich recht merkwürdig, dass das ziemlich beachtliche Interview von @KappacherS mit Gemeindebundpräsident Riedl im Mittagsjournal heute so wenig Beachtung fand. Warum es so interessant war? Ein 🧵 Zum einen hat Riedl mit seiner kritischen Haltung zur ÖVP-Spitze kaum hinter Berg gehalten und deutlich Ärger über die vielen Korruptionsvorwürfe spüren lassen. Im einzigen Zeitungsbericht im Kurier kommt das zahm rüber, aber an der Basis brodelt offenbar.
kurier.at/politik/inland…
Jan 28, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
What Ursula von der Leyen is typing into her phone is, frankly, not a private matter. We need public scrutiny of EU text messages when they are used to make billion euro vaccine deals. The @EUombudsman says it loud and clear today in regard to a complaint I filed. (Thread) Ursula von der Leyen typing into phone What's this about? Early this year, the Commission announced it will buy 1,8 billion additional Pfizer doses. This made Pfizer the EU's most important vendor and fuels the booster campaigns around the EU. The deal was clinched in calls and text messages, @MatinaStevis reported.
Jan 27, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Nice win regarding transparency in EU negotiations - the Council replied positively to my request and released 60 documents detailing how member states negotiated their position on the Digital Services Act. This will be a really nice resource for anyone working on this. #dsa Earlier today I published one bit from the trove, a document showing that NATO's Riga centre for strategic communication actively lobbied the Council to change one particular Article in the DSA with the intention to give NATO researchers access to data from Facebook etc.
Jan 18, 2022 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
📱📱📱 News on the saga of Ursula von der Leyen's text messages with Pfizer CEO Bourla.

Dutch MEP Sophie in t'Veld asked the Commission if VdL deleted the message!

What the Commission said next will simply astound you. (Thread) Some context: In May 2021, the NYT reported that Von der Leyen and Bourla had brokered a deal over 1,8 billion doses of the Pfizer Covid vaccine in calls and text messages.

I asked the Commission for these texts. nytimes.com/2021/04/28/wor…
Apr 26, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
** Servicetweet **

Die DSGVO ist ein super Werkzeug, um sich als Kunde Extra-Gebühren bei Firmen zu ersparen, z.B. bei einem Internet-Provider, der Kund*innen ernsthaft 3,5 € pro Stück für pdfs von alten Monatsrechnungen abknöpft. Oder einer Bank, die € für Kontoauszüge will. 1. Schritt: Finde die E-Mail-Adresse in der Datenschutzerklärung oder eine allgemeine Service-Adresse.
2. Schreib der Firma kurz und formlos, welche Unterlagen du brauchst (die deine Daten enthalten). Beruf dich auf §15 DSGVO (Recht auf eigene Daten) und § 20 (Portabilität).
Nov 16, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
100 Millionen Europäer:innen nutzen die chinesische Video-App TikTok, doch bei der Datenschutzaufsicht klafft eine Lücke von der Größe Irlands. Das ärgert die Datenschutzbehörden in Hamburg und Bonn.
netzpolitik.org/2020/tiktok-in… Die Iren sind ja durchaus stolz auf die Ansiedlung TikToks.
Oct 26, 2020 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
One can learn much from Google.

For instance how to outsmart the publishing industry.

@roofjoke and I spent the past months studying Google's 7-year-campaign to neutralise its adversaries among the world's leading media firms with strategic gifts. Here is what we learned: Image 1. Since 2013, Google gave 200m. € in no-strings cash to media after a few EU countries tried to tax Google more heavily. After a pilot media fund in France, Google rolled out a Europe-wide Digital News Initiative (DNI) which gave millions for 'innovation projects' in news orgs.
Oct 5, 2020 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
26 years ago, The Sun splashed this headline, which turned into one of the arch-myth of Brexiteers - the idea that 'bonkers bureaucrats' in Brussels banned bendy bananas. [Thread] The idea that unfettered Eurocrats just would enact crazy, arbitrary laws took hold in the British imagination. It became one of these narratives that are so powerful that they are hard to refute with facts.
Sep 29, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Senior EU Commission officials say that Corona tracing apps will be interoperable from October 17 onward, with the German and Italian apps being among the first to connect to new European gateway. Other countries will join in the following days. #ContactTracing According to Commission tally 18 EU member states have apps, but not all can be included - French app uses centralised system which can not easily be integrated into European framework. They are working on a solution, the officials say. But unclear how that could work.
Sep 3, 2020 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
EU parliamentarian @SophieintVeld is rightly exasperated about the Commission refusing to properly answer questions on use of facial recognition by police forces. "The Commission is doing bugger-all about it. (...) This is not a democratic procedure!" #LIBE Image LIBE chair @JFLopezAguilar agrees that the quality of replies by the Commission to written inquiries by parliament is very poor, "absolutely unacceptable". The Commission can not just copy-paste legal situation, but must address the political nature of the questions.
Jun 29, 2020 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
On this day 11 years ago, the European Commission promised a unified charger for all smartphones. This never happened. Here is the reason why. #commoncharger
(THREAD) Back in 2009, Commissioner Verheugen got the major mobile manufacturers in the room and made them promise to unify the hodgepodge of charging plugs that previously had made it impossible to use chargers made for other devices.
May 23, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
After two years of investigation, the Irish data protection authority has readied two draft decisions on Big Tech cases, it tells netzpolitik.org, investigating Twitter data breach and WhatsApp/Facebook data sharing. Now it well send this to discuss in @EU_EDPB. Release: Image In the past few months, the Irish DPC faced criticism for acting slowly on a number of key cases involving Facebook, Google and other giants. Now at least two investigations are moving to an unprecedented new phase - decision made jointly by European data protection authorities.
May 13, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Letter on the Digital Services Act by 9 countries including Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Estonia and the Netherlands -
the "pro-tech coalition" (D9+). They call for EU-wide notice-and-takedown procedure and offer a guarded comments on competition overhaul.
gov.pl/attachment/880… Image This is a timely intervention by a group of states that profit from a booming tech industry, be it Ireland as coporate base for companies such as Facebook or Sweden with its Spotify, as well as start-up-loving Estonia and tax-management-accomodating Luxembourg and NL.
Apr 23, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
News from the EU's Terrorist Content Regulation. Despite Corona, the Commission is pushing for online trilogues. The aim is to get platforms to remove 'terrorist' content within one hour or face steep fines. Image Civil society warns parts are deeply problematic. A joint letter by NGOs recently reminded member states the new law "must respect fundamental rights and freedoms, the constitutional traditions of the Member States and existing Union law in this area." edri.org/wp-content/upl…
Apr 14, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The EU Commission recently announced a "landmark agreement", under which AirbnB, Expedia, Booking-com and Tripadvisor will share some of their data with @EU_Eurostat. I just got the non-disclosure agreements from the deal via an FOI request: asktheeu.org/en/request/agr… Image On a first look, the most interesting bit is that the agreement may allow Eurostat to scrape data from, say, Airbnb's website and access information via API. Image
Apr 9, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
In Zeiten der Coronakrise arbeitet die EU über Videochat. Einheitliche Sicherheitsmaßnahmen gibt es aber nicht: Deutschland verbietet seinen Diplomaten die Nutzung von Zoom, doch andere Staaten nutzen die umstrittene App selbst für hochrangige Treffen.
netzpolitik.org/2020/eurogrupp… Beim gestrigen Treffen der Eurogruppe wählte sich Maltas Finanzminister per Zoom ein. In einer früheren Version dieses Tweets war sogar die Chat-ID sichtbar (!). Das hätte womöglich unbefugten den Zugang erlauben können.
Mar 5, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
In the debate about platform liability, I wonder if we are right to frame "illegal content" as being mainly about things such as hate speech and copyright breaches. Of course liability changes should not lead to curbs on free speech and other rights.
politico.eu/article/5-peop… The main thing that liability changes could and should address, in my opinion, is issues such as fraudulent offers in eCommerce, bad or deceptive offers for digital services and algorithmic distortions in online price comparison.
Feb 24, 2020 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
WhatsApp has become a standard tool for diplomacy. But is it really safe enough? We looked into some issues.
netzpolitik.org/2020/is-whatsa… WhatsApp’s popularity with European diplomats comes from the fact that it is encrypted and has a large base of users, says @CBjola. „Almost everyone has a WhatsApp account“, he notes.