Tag: BERLIN

ANALYST SUES FACEBOOK FOR ‘SUBVERTING’ ELECTION WITH SELECTIVE CENSORSHIP

Analyst Sues Facebook For ‘Subverting’ Election With Selective Censorship

Tech giant deleted thousands of accounts ahead of Indian elections

RT – APRIL 11, 2019

While Facebook claims to have deleted thousands of pages to prevent meddling in the Indian elections, the American company’s selective deletions have led at least one man to ask: Who is watching the election watchers?

A little over a week ahead of the beginning of elections in India this Thursday, Facebook raised some eyebrows when it announced that it had removed a number of politically oriented pages as a part of its “election integrity” efforts.

The social media giant removed 138 pro-opposition pages that had over 200,000 followers for “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” While they only removed 15 pro-government pages, as it turned out, those pages had a far wider reach with millions of likes.

Given the apparent imbalance, it is all the more concerning that the purge was conducted with assistance from the US-based Atlantic Council, a think tank that receives millions of dollars in funding from the US State Department and NATO allies.

Indian defense analyst and security expert Abhijit Iyer-Mitra is one of the people extremely concerned with the impact the American private company could have on India’s elections. He has even filed a criminal complaint with police in New Delhi, describing Facebook’s actions as an act of war, and an attack on the country’s sovereignty.

Speaking to RT, Iyer-Mitra blasted the social network for their glaring double standards: while making extensive efforts to protect American elections from foreign actors in the wake of the alleged “Russian meddling” scandal, the company seemingly had no qualms about letting a state-department-linked think tank act in place of Indian election officials.

“The point is they are an American company, this is an Indian election,” said Iyer-Mitra. “We are not willing to cede our sovereignty to other countries like this. I think they are making a big mistake and I intend to pursue this to the end.”

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Former Obama White House Counsel to be Indicted for Ukrainian Collusion

The Democratic lawyer failed to register as a foreign agent of Ukraine.

By Richard Moorhead

Attorneys for former Obama White House Counsel Greg Craig revealed Wednesday that the longtime Democratic lawyer expects to be indicted by federal prosecutors on charges related to his work with the Ukrainian government in 2012.

Findings discovered in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into supposed Russian meddling in American politics may have contributed towards the upcoming charges against Craig. Craig performed work for Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice, and was apparently connected with the Ukrainians through Paul Manafort, the Republican operative indicted by Mueller for overseas political activity.

Craig was originally investigated by the Justice Department for failing to register as a foreign agent while working for the Ukrainian government. However, it seems statues of limitation have since expired for that crime, and his attorneys expect him to be indicted for making false statements to DOJ investigators instead.

Craig was President Obama’s White House Counsel from 2009 to 2010. He also has been a political advisor to liberal bigwigs Ted Kennedy and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

An associate of Hillary and Bill Clinton for decades, the high-society lawyer even rented an apartment to the Clintons as a Yale Law Student in the 1970’s. He would go on to lead the legal team representing President Bill Clinton in impeachment proceedings in the 1990’s.

Craig possibly represents the most high-profile elite Democrat to be indicted for foreign political activities in the past few years. Democratic kingpin Tony Podesta was investigated by Robert Mueller’s team for similarly suspect political activities in Ukraine, which may have involved lavish compensation that went unreported to the American government from pro-Russia political parties. After being investigated, Podesta ultimately wasn’t charged by the government, although the political consulting firm known as the Podesta Group he led with his brother John shut down.

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Islamists arrested after plotting to massacre kindergarten full of children in France

By Emma R.

Two Islamic extremists, both 20 years old, have been arrested by police in Paris after allegedly plotting to massacre a kindergarten full of children, Breitbart reports.

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The two men were arrested on March 25th with the Paris prosecutor charging them over plotting to kill children and police officers.
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One of the men involved is said to have been known to the General Directorate of Homeland Security (DGSI), France’s internal intelligence agency.
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The man, who investigators consider the mastermind of the plot, admitted after his arrest that he wanted to enter the kindergarten, attack the children, and then take some hostage until police arrived, at which point he would attempt to kill the police officers.
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The suspect also spoke highly of terrorist Mohamed Merah, the Islamic extremist who was behind the Toulouse and Montauban shootings that targetted French soldiers along with teachers and children at a Jewish school in 2012.
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A source close to the investigation also told broadcaster RTL that the chief suspect in the plot has “very strong psychiatric instability”, as well as signs of depression, narcissism, and suicidal tendencies.
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DGSI had been observing the man since 2015 after he had become increasingly close to the radical jihadist movement.
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Police decided to arrest him shortly after he made it known he was looking to procure weapons and adding that his plot had not reached a concrete planning stage at the time of his arrest.
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The arrest is just the latest terror plot to be foiled in France. Last October, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that authorities had managed to thwart five major terror attacks in 2018 alone.
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French Police Discover Migrant ‘Unaccompanied Minor’ Actually 47-Years-Old

An African migrant posing as an ‘unaccompanied minor’ turned out to be 47-years-old, according to local media.

The man told French police that he was a 16-year-old from Guinea in order to “take advantage of the procedure to welcome unaccompanied minors in France,” Sud Ouestreports.

He even provided a birth certificate stating that he was born in 2002.

However, officers discovered the man had recently applied for a visa in Spain.

“The Charente police force, faced with the exponential increase in the number of unaccompanied minors, has strengthened its control system, and in particular has approached the Spanish authorities,” Sud Ouest explains.

“Thus, Angoumoisins police discovered that the man had made a visa application in Spain, in 2017, with his passport as support. The latter indicates that he is in fact aged 47-years-old.”

The man was then detained and ordered to leave French territory immediately.

A similar case had reportedly unfolded the day before when a 21-year-old Malian told French police he was 16.

After a coordinated investigation with Spanish authorities, the Malian was also ordered to leave France.

A 2017 report by Die Welt revealed that 43% of the nearly 56,000 migrants in Germany claiming to be under the age of 18 were actually adults.

 

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Facebook Sends Enforcer to Indian Man’s House, Asks If He Really Posted Political Content

Facebook Sends Enforcer To Residence India

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An Indian man says Facebook sent representatives to his physical home to verify whether he posted certain political content on the platform, highlighting more concerns about privacy and freedom of speech.

A man living in New Delhi, India, who says he made political posts on the platform, claims he had a representative from Facebook show up at his residence to ask questions about the post. It is believed the company took this action as part of its ongoing fight against “fake news,” and that it is the first known instance of Facebook appearing at someone’s physical address to determine the veracity of posts.

Top legal experts in India seem to consider the possible invasion of privacy unprecedented, and believe it could open Facebook to legal recourse.

News 18 reported:

“This action, if true, clearly infringes upon the privacy of a user. Sending a representative to physically verify a user is a blatant invasion of his or her privacy space. Only the state can act like this under proper laws,” Pavan Duggal, the country’s top cyber law expert and a senior Supreme Court advocate, told IANS.

Facebook, Duggal said, can at best discontinue a Page, Group or delete the post, or remove the user from its platform as it has done so in the past. When it comes to those who wants to run political ads on Facebook, the company verifies residency of advertisers either by physical verification (by sending someone to the address provided) or by sending a code in the post.

The article also notes that Duggal considers the move a “gross violation,” and “unwarranted under the ambit of the Information Technology Act, 2000,” quoting Duggal as saying “In such a scenario, the user can sue Facebook and even the government for allowing such activities under its nose that infringes on the privacy of a user.”

As Facebook attempts to stamp out fake news in India, which is the world’s largest democracy, the country quickly approaches an important election on April 11.

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Muslims in Germany Call for “Islamophobia Czar” to Crack Down on Free Speech

by Jim Hoft April 8, 2019

Germany, a country of 80 million, received over one million migrants and unvetted “refugees” in 2015. Chancellor Angela Merkel expected another million migrants in 2016.

In 2016 Islamic extremists murdered 22 people in Germany in seven different attacks.

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A map was made of all of the rapes, homicides, assaults, terror attacks, swimming pool assaults, robberies by migrants to Germany in 2016.

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Now this…
Muslims in Germany called for an “Islamophobia Czar” to crack down on free speech.
Because fear of Allahu Akbar killers is irrational.

Die Welt reported, via Legal Insurrection:

The head of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims calls for a Federal Commissioner to combat hate against people of Islamic faith. He received support from the leader of the Left Party [successor of the East German Communist Party]. The suggestion received mixed reaction in the parliament.

The Left Party backed the demand made by the head of Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek, to appoint a Federal Commissioner to fight hostility towards Muslims. “Because Islam is part of Germany, there should be a Commissioner to counter anti-Muslim hostility,” head of the Left Party, Katja Kipping, told Die Welt. “It is an expression of our basic Liberal order, that not only people who reside here can practice their faith, but also that we protect the faithful against hate and defamation.”

Kipping was reacting to Mazyek’s demand. Talking to the Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung, he had called the appointment of such a Commissioner “necessary than ever before” because there is a “latent anti-Muslim sentiment in Germany.” (…)

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