Investigative reporter at Bloomberg News. Email: ryan@rjgallagher.co.uk Signal/WhatsApp: +44 737-678-6842
Oct 9, 2018 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
NEW: We got a leaked transcript of Google's search engine chief Ben Gomes discussing the company's censored China search engine plan, "Dragonfly." It exposes a stark contrast between Google's public & private statements about the secretive project: theintercept.com/2018/10/09/goo…
Last month, Gomes told a BBC reporter that the censored search engine was just “an exploration” & claimed "we don’t have any plans to launch something." A Google source told me that was "bullshit." (bbc.com/news/technolog…)
Sep 21, 2018 • 22 tweets • 5 min read
NEW: Google bosses have suppressed an explosive memo circulating inside the company revealing its censored China search plan. The memo said the search system would store users' location data & share their search records "unilaterally" w/ a Chinese company: theintercept.com/2018/09/21/goo…
The memo was authored by an engineer who said they were asked to work on the censored search project, code-named Dragonfly. It began circulating in early September & contained a detailed analysis of the censored search system based on an internal review.
Sep 14, 2018 • 18 tweets • 5 min read
NEW: Google built a prototype of a censored search engine for China that links users’ searches to their phone numbers, making it easier for Chinese authorities to monitor people’s queries: theintercept.com/2018/09/14/goo…#Dragonfly
Google compiled a censorship blacklist for the search engine that included terms such as “human rights,” “student protest,” & “Nobel Prize” in Mandarin, according to information newly obtained by @theintercept.
Sep 13, 2018 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: Senior Google scientist resigns over plan to launch censored search engine in China. "I view our intent to capitulate to censorship & surveillance demands in exchange for access to the Chinese market as a forfeiture of our values," he says: theintercept.com/2018/09/13/goo…
Jack Poulson is one of about five Google employees to resign over the "Dragonfly" censorship plan so far. He was a senior research scientist in Google’s research & machine intelligence dept. He learned about the secretive project after @theintercept revealed it in early August.
Sep 5, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
UK authorities name two Russians as suspects in novichok nerve agent poisoning case - say there's "sufficient evidence" to charge Alexander Petrov & Ruslan Boshirov w/ conspiracy to murder spy defector Sergei Skripal: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-454214…
Aug 28, 2018 • 20 tweets • 8 min read
NEW: 14 leading human rights groups are uniting to demand that Google cancel its China censored search engine plan, which they say would amount to the company "actively participating" in repression of dissent across the country: theintercept.com/2018/08/28/goo…
The groups have issued the call in a letter to Google CEO @SundarPichai. The letter says the censored search is “an alarming capitulation by Google on human rights” that could result in the company “directly contributing to, or [becoming] complicit in, human rights violations.”
Aug 19, 2018 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
An interesting dimension to the Google-China saga is that inside the company there is a debate now raging among employees regarding leaks to the press. Here's my perspective:
Some argue the leaks are harmful to the internal culture of openness & will damage trust & stop leadership sharing info. Others argue the leaks represent a leadership failure & were in fact triggered by a lack of openness over Dragonfly.
Aug 17, 2018 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
NEW: Google executives misled staff in a meeting Thursday on the company's China censorship plans. Here's 13 questions they've been dodging & must answer. #Dragonflytheintercept.com/2018/08/17/int…
Google CEO Sundar Pichai claimed in the meeting that Dragonfly was an “exploratory” project -- which contradicts information contained in internal Google documents & statements made by senior Google officials on the project, seen by The Intercept.
Aug 16, 2018 • 26 tweets • 6 min read
NEW: Google Staff Tell Bosses China Censorship is “Moral and Ethical” Crisis: theintercept.com/2018/08/16/goo…
Google employees have circulated a letter that condemns the Dragonfly project & criticises the secrecy around it. "We urgently need more transparency, a seat at the table, & a commitment to clear and open processes: Google employees need to know what we’re building," they write.
Aug 13, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This is one reason I'm told Google is refusing to publicly discuss details about its China censorship plan: Beijing's censorship demands are a *state secret* & Google execs, who've been trying to ingratiate themselves w/ Communist Party officials, don't want to upset the regime.
That extract is from a Google's transparency report: transparencyreport.google.com/government-rem…
Aug 8, 2018 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
NEW: Inside Google’s effort to develop a censorship system in China: theintercept.com/2018/08/08/goo…#Dragonfly
According to confidential documents, Google analysed search terms entered into a Beijing-based website to help develop blacklists for the censored search engine it has been planning to launch in China.
Aug 1, 2018 • 27 tweets • 12 min read
Revealed: Google is planning to launch a censored search engine in China that will blacklist websites & search terms about human rights, democracy, political opposition, academic studies, religion, & peaceful protest: theintercept.com/2018/08/01/goo…
The confidential project - code-named "Dragonfly" - has been underway for more than a year. It's a dramatic shift in Google's policy on China nearly a decade after the internet giant pulled its search engine out of the country, citing concerns about "forces of totalitarianism."
Jul 30, 2018 • 15 tweets • 8 min read
I put together a short timeline comparing WikiLeaks' public statements on Trump with its leaked private comments on him. Useful for anybody trying to keep track of all the duplicity that's going on.
Privately, 19 Nov 2015: WikiLeaks says "we believe it would be much better for GOP to win." Calls Clinton, "well connected, sadistic sociopath." theintercept.com/2018/02/14/jul…
Jul 24, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
UK spy agency GCHQ's access to vast amounts of personal data from telecoms companies was unlawful for more than a decade, tribunal rules: bbc.co.uk/news/technolog…
In Oct 2016 the tribunal issued a similar ruling, stating GCHQ & MI5 unlawfully maintained mass surveillance databases - known as "bulk personal datasets" - for 17 years. theintercept.com/2016/10/17/gch…
Jul 17, 2018 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
A few thoughts on this Lawfare piece regarding Russia & US hacking. lawfareblog.com/uncomfortable-…
It's right NSA hacks countries across the world in violation of local laws. But I studied Snowden docs for years & can't think of a single case we found of the agency hacking election systems & leaking foreign politicians' emails to influence an election outcome like Russia did.
Jul 13, 2018 • 27 tweets • 14 min read
In central London to cover the #TrumpProtest this afternoon. This is the scene currently on Regent St. March will soon begin moving toward Trafalgar Sq. Police on scene tell me the turnout is much larger than they expected.
I met Kaya Mar, an artist who painted this piece for the #TrumpProtest. He is Spanish but has lived in London for 42 years. "I'm here to show contempt for Trump," he says. "Because of his policies & the way he is behaving. It will take many decades to clean up the wreckage."
Jun 25, 2018 • 45 tweets • 15 min read
Revealing eight buildings across the US, hidden in plain sight, that documents & sources indicate are central to one of NSA's largest & most controversial internet surveillance programs: theintercept.com/2018/06/25/att…
The eight buildings are involved in an NSA program called FAIRVIEW, which has collected communications from AT&T's networks since 1985.
May 19, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
At 9pm Japan time Sat (8am US ET) NHK will air a new investigation focusing on Japan's most secret govt agency, the "DFS." Sources & a classified doc from the spy agency shine light for the first time on activities inside its hidden HQ in central Tokyo.
The allegations in these docs about the Assad regime's assassination of journalists Marie Colvin & Gilles Jacquier are horrifying. Esp the testimony of a former regime intel officer, who provides new evidence about the killings & the people responsible. theintercept.com/2018/04/09/mar…
According to the documents, a regime spy unit drove around Baba Amr w/ a surveillance device called a "rashida," in an effort to pinpoint where Colvin was broadcasting her news reports. Informants confirmed she was in the Baba Amr Media Center. It was then targeted w/ rockets.
Oct 23, 2017 • 15 tweets • 2 min read
Here's a quick summary of a very interesting day at Birmingham Crown Court.
Josh Walker, who fought against ISIS in Syria, is accused of a Terrorism Act offence for downloading the "Anarchist Cookbook" at university.