I am so angry & upset with 10 Downing Street for outing Shahmir. And I’m fucking furious with the BBC for treating it like a spat. #Marrtheguardian.com/uk-news/2018/m…
This is absolutely indefensible. Number 10’s press office outed a 24-year-old man against his will. Think about it. This was sanctioned and approved by Theresa May’s government.
Why? Because this is a scandal that goes to the very heart of government. Boris Johnson, Michael Gove & 2 of Theresa May's advisors in the frame. This isn't about party politics. It's about the law.
This is a Google drive. Set up by Vote Leave to co-ordinate BeLeave's messaging.
March 1, 2017: Electoral Commission opened an investigation into illegal co-ordination between campaigns.
March 17: senior Vote Leave director deletes herself & 2 others from 140 files.
On Friday, 10 Downing Street not only outed Shahmir against his will. It also put out a lie. And this email proves it.
Shahmir has family in Pakistan where homosexuality is neither accepted nor tolerated. I had grave fears for him & them. And on Friday those fears were realised when no 10 outed him. Shocking, shameful & indefensible that Theresa May's office did this.
Last week's story about about Facebook? The one that wiped $79 billion off the stock price? It was dropped by @BBC's Panorama. This week's story? Dropped by @BBC's Panorama. They have this evidence. They've just refused to broadcast it. Questions?
To clarify: I love @BBC. Many valid journalistic reasons why it's difficult to cover certain subjects in certain contexts. But I do think BBC 'nervousness' re Brexit needs to be addressed. This story isn't about Brexit. It's about the technology, democracy, the law.
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BREAKING: This is a BIG deal. @HillaryClinton backs @DamianCollins & @tom_watson’s call for a full public inquiry into Brexit referendum. Put in has interfered in ‘elections & referenda’ across Europe. Democracy is in crisis. The world must act.
.@HillaryClinton also slams the European politicians who shield Orban in Hungary ‘including British Conservatives’ who are failing democracy. ‘They are very far from being still the party of Churchill or Thatcher’
Also warns what China is doing with the mass harvesting of data & scoring of its citizens is ‘like an episode of Black Mirror. In fact I think it was an episode of Black Mirror’. ‘A dystopian future is taking shape before our eyes’
The constant belittling attacks. The entirely different metrics used to judge your behaviour & work. A gender pay gap of up to nearly 30% at some news orgs. The hours spent composing letters/listicles ‘12 Key Facts Your Crude Hit Job Got Wrong’.
But then being a woman in journalism is like being a woman in public life. A woman in politics. I’m off to Oxford to hear someone who knows this more than most - @HillaryClinton. But she - rightly - is going to be focusing on the worldwide threat to human rights.
I interviewed Chelsea Manning this week on her first visit to the UK since her release. What an extraordinary story she has.. theguardian.com/us-news/2018/o…
"Marketing or death by drone, it’s the same math,” she says. This was fascinating. @xychelsea's understanding of data & profiling & targeting is from the military...but it's the same technology that Facebook uses to flog us socks or Trump or Brexit..
And this is @xychelsea on the algorithms that now control our world. She describes the way that neural networks work as "primitive living entities". Even the techies who build them don't know why they do the things they do...
Perfect. I look forward to her getting no hard questions on her role in colluding with - and covering up - Russian interference. Again. Well done @bbc. Keep it coming.
Number of @bbc reports on Kremlin's attempts to influence @arron_banks & @nigel_farage's LeaveEU campaign? 0. If any part of the organisation wd like to & wants source material, you cd ask me @peterjukes, half a dozen @sundaytimes reporters. Or, here's a thought..@isabeloakeshott
When @BBCPanorama dropped its report into both Cambridge Analytica & Vote Leave overspending scandals, I didn't think it mattered too much. It wd would have to catch up. But it never did. & it continues to be a problem. If @BBC isn't covering it, it's as if it not happening..
I'm sorry but can someone please ask @lordashcroft how he has the brass neck to write about the dangers of Putin to Britain's security. While withholding info about Russian attempts to subvert British democracy? He refuses to answer my qs. Can someone else PLEASE put this to him?
.@IsabelOakeshott on stage with @GavinWilliamson tomorrow. I want to know why she & @lordashcroft sat on info about Kremlin's relationship with @Arron_banks & whitewashed it in her book. I want to know why they haven't handed over other material they have to @commonscms committee
In addition: the minister for defence @GavinWilliamson needs to respond to questions re foreign interference in our democracy. And why govt has not responded to calls from @commonsCMS to make public what it is doing
Warning: THREAD. Because this was a big deal. Labour's dep leader asks why no investigation into Russian interference in UK. It is completely BAFFLING that Trump-Russia is THE story in the US. But here, we're in total denial about our own role slap bang in the middle of it. Why?
Why has govt refused to answer @DamianCollins & @CommonsCMS questions about what NCA is doing? What intel services know? Cross-party group of MPs called for urgent investigation into source of @arron_banks' £££. But NCA told @BenPBradshaw, nothing doing. What is going on?
Two days, the great @JaneMayerNYer published this piece in @NewYorker & addresses the denialism about if and how Russian active measures worked. Read it & remember that the same companies & same individuals were directly involved in Brexit... newyorker.com/magazine/2018/…