..
Parler says it referred FBI to violent content more than 50 times BEFORE riot,
including on ‘specific threats’ to the Capitol
26 Mar, 2021 02:44
FILE PHOTO. © Global Look Press / Keystone Press Agency / Thiago Prudencio
The conservative-friendly social media network Parler said it directed the FBI to dozens of posts encouraging violence in the weeks before the January 6 Capitol riot, also arguing other sites permitted “far more” violent content.
The company forwarded posts to the FBI on more than 50 occasions prior to the unrest in Washington, DC, it said in a letter addressed to the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Thursday, rejecting allegations that the site acted as a “far-right instigator” ahead of the riot.
“The company has acted to remove incitement and threats of violence from its platform and did so numerous times in the days before the unlawful rioting at the Capitol,” Parler said, adding that it took “the extraordinary initiative to develop formal lines of communication with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
In fact, in the days and weeks leading up to January 6, Parler referred violent content from its platform to the FBI for investigation over 50 times, and Parler even alerted law enforcement to specific threats of violence being planned at the Capitol.
Parler cited a November 2020 email exchange between the platform and an FBI agent, who said a colleague “spoke highly” of the company and its “working relationship with the FBI.” The company said that after establishing a line of communication with the bureau, it “regularly” forwarded screenshots of “unlawful posts that called for violence,” or that merely “merited additional investigation to protect public safety,” including specific threats against US officials such as former Attorney General Bill Barr.
“Even after the violent attacks stopped, Parler continued to dutifully and proactively report posts to the FBI where users threatened additional violence,” the company continued.
Parler also claimed it had been targeted by “absurd conspiracy theories” put forward by “Big Tech and its media allies,” arguing they were part of a “widespread disinformation campaign designed to scapegoat Parler for the riots at the US Capitol.”
Soon after the unrest, Parler was swiftly booted from both Apple and Google’s app platforms, while Amazon kicked the site off of its cloud servers and effectively took it offline, a decision the company condemned as “unlawful and anticompetitive.” All three tech firms accused Parler of allowing violent content to proliferate on its platform, but the company insisted that it did more to remove such posts than other, larger social media sites.
“It is now well-documented and understood by honest observers that incitement occurred far more frequently on Big Tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter than Parler,” it argued, pointing to a Forbes analysis last month which found that “Facebook was far and away the most utilized social media platform by rioters on January 6.”
Thursday’s letter was penned as a response to a House Oversight inquiry sent to the company in early February, which relayed a litany of charges against the site and urged it to disclose details about its ownership and financing, suggesting it might have murky “ties to the Russian government.”
Parler rejected those allegations unequivocally, denying any collusion with “the Russians” or that it attempted to “promote Russian disinformation,” as the Democrat-led committee insinuated.
“We have investigated these claims and explained to Committee staff that there is no evident or relevant Russian connection to the company, and we repeatedly requested that the Committee staff provide us with additional details that could facilitate a more targeted review to avoid a costly and unduly burdensome fishing expedition into the company’s files,” the letter went on.
Parler’s lengthy rebuttal comes amid ongoing legal battles not only with Amazon, which it sued over its decision to deplatform the site, but also with its own ex-CEO, John Matze. The former executive filed a suit against Parler earlier this week, arguing he was unlawfully forced out of the company and that rivals within the firm had stolen his 40% ownership stake, which he claimed was worth millions.
Twice in the long history of my news watching, have I been astonished at the complete lack of security that allowed a grievous event to occur. The decision to not have any extra security for the house when there were months of social media discussions about it, is incomprehensible.
The previous event was the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. Even as a dumb teenager I was horrified when I saw Oswald emerge into the garage at the head of all his security. It seemed obvious to me, even then, that it was a staged event. It is just as obvious that the FBI, and who knows who else, wanted the attack on the Capitol Building to occur for some nefarious reason.
As mask bribery scandal spreads in Merkel’s conservative bloc,
another German politician resigns
21 Mar, 2021 15:39
Alfred Sauter, seen alongside protective face masks © Wikipedia and Reuters / Fabrizio Bensch
A Bavarian lawmaker has quit his party offices amid a probe into allegations he took bribes to arrange procurement contracts for face masks. He is the fourth politician connected to Chancellor Angela Merkel to resign this month.
Alfred Sauter is a three-decade veteran of the Christian Social Union (CSU), a sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) based in the southern German state of Bavaria. He served two stints as the state’s minister for justice in the 1990s, and until Sunday afternoon sat on the CSU’s board, chaired its financial committee and held the district chairmanship of the CSU in his hometown of Guenzburg.
Sauter relinquished all of these offices on Sunday and paused his membership of the party’s parliamentary group, days before the CSU was due to hold a vote on expelling him.
His resignation came as prosecutors in Munich investigated reports that he took bribes from a supplier of protective equipment to land them a lucrative contract with the state as the coronavirus pandemic hit Bavaria last year. Sauter rejected the allegations of bribery, and claimed that any money he was given personally in relation to the deal was donated to charity.
In a letter to party bosses seen by the Augsburger Allgemeine on Sunday, Sauter said that he was stepping down to deflect bad publicity away from his party, but insisted that he was innocent.
“I am doing this even though I am convinced that I have in no way violated my parliamentary duties or the law,” he said. He went on to blast the CSU for even considering a vote on expelling him, writing that “to exclude a member of parliament on suspicion – in my case after a 31-year membership – before clarifying the facts… is incompatible with the constitutional rights of the MP.”
A corruption scandal involving a regional political figure wouldn’t usually make international headlines, but Sauter is at least the third elected official this month to resign in the face of similar accusations, all of them members of the CSU and CDU.
The multiple scandals came immediately before voters went to the polls in the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The CDU suffered heavy losses in both states, a dark omen given their previous support for the party, especially in the run-up to a general election in September.
Russian regional governor facing time behind bars on corruption charges after allegedly accepting $415k bribe from pharma company
22 Mar, 2021 14:04
Russia's Penza Region governor has been remanded in custody after being accused of taking a bribe from Biotek, a Russian pharmaceutical company. The alleged bribe was reportedly paid in part with a Mercedes V250D car and a watch.
Governor Ivan Belozertsev is the latest in a long line of regional chiefs to be arrested in the last few years. Belozertsev was a member of the United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin. The former governor’s party membership was revoked after his arrest.
According to investigators, Belozertsev received a bribe of 31 million rubles ($415,000) from Boris Spiegel, the head of pharmaceutical company Biotek, in return for "competitive advantages" for their work in the region. Spiegel's wife Evgenia was also implicated, as well as Anton Koloskov, the head of a local chain of pharmacies.
It is also alleged that the bribes were partially received in the form of a Mercedes V250D car and a Breguet watch.
From January to October 2020, medical institutions in Penza signed almost 300 contracts with the company, totaling an amount of over 700 million rubles ($9,000,000).
According to Moscow daily Kommersant, around 500 million rubles ($6,600,000) were found in cash during the search of the governor's home. The newspaper also reported that the investigation decided to look into all of Belozertsev's financial and economic activities since he was elected in 2015 and discovered irregularities in the amount of around 2.9 billion rubles ($38,000,000).
News agency Interfax, citing a source, also claimed that Belozertsev's conversations have been wiretapped.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin may dismiss the Penza Governor due to loss of trust, but, so far, no decision has been made.
"[Putin] is aware of what happened," Peskov explained. "As for the substance of the case and the charges brought, that's a matter for the law-enforcement agencies at the moment."
According to Russia's criminal code, bribe-taking can be punished with a sentence of up to fifteen years in prison.
Belozertsev was appointed as acting governor of the Penza Region in May 2015. Later that year, he won the regional election with 86% of the vote. In September 2020, he was re-elected with 78.72% of the vote.
No comments:
Post a Comment