Data and Democracy in the UK a Report by Tactical Tech's Data and Politics Team
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Report of an Investigation in Respect Of
Report of an investigation in respect of - Vote Leave Limited - Mr Darren Grimes - BeLeave - Veterans for Britain Concerning campaign funding and spending for the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU 17 July 2018 1 Other formats For information on obtaining this publication in a large-print or Braille version, please contact the Electoral Commission. Tel: 020 7271 0500 Email: [email protected] The Electoral Commission is the independent body which oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK. We work to promote public confidence in the democratic process and ensure its integrity. 2 Contents 1 Introduction..................................................................................................... 4 2 The decision to investigate ............................................................................. 9 3 The investigation .......................................................................................... 12 4 The investigation findings ............................................................................. 16 Joint spending by Vote Leave and BeLeave ................................................... 16 Vote Leave’s spending limit ............................................................................. 21 Other issues with Vote Leave’s spending return ............................................. 24 BeLeave’s spending ........................................................................................ 25 Mr Grimes’ spending return ............................................................................ -
BIG DATA and the FUTURE of DEMOCRACY (The Matrix World Behind the Brexit and the US Elections)
BIG DATA AND THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY (The Matrix world behind the Brexit and the US Elections) Hannes Grassegger and Mikael Krogerus (Investigative journalists attached to the Swiss-based Das Magazin specialized journal. The original text appeared in the late December edition under the title: “I only showed that the bomb exists” (Ich habe nur gezeigt, dass es die Bombe gibt). This, English translation, is based on the subsequent January version, first published by the Motherboard magazine (titled: The Data That Turned the World Upside Down). Approved, present is the advanced version of the original Zurich text for the MD. Additional research for this report was provided by Paul-Olivier Dehaye). Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 12 February 2017. Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS). “Aegean theater of the Antique Greece was the place of astonishing revelations and intellectual excellence – a remarkable density and proximity, not surpassed up to our age. All we know about science, philosophy, sports, arts, culture and entertainment, stars and earth has been postulated, explored and examined then and there. Simply, it was a time and place of triumph of human consciousness, pure reasoning and sparkling thought. However, neither Euclid, Anaximander, Heraclites, Hippocrates (both of Chios, and of Cos), Socrates, Archimedes, Ptolemy, Democritus, Plato, Pythagoras, Diogenes, Aristotle, Empedocles, Conon, Eratosthenes nor any of dozens of other brilliant ancient Greek minds did ever refer by a word, by a single sentence to something which was their everyday life, something they saw literally on every corner along their entire lives. -
In the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware Karen Sbriglio, Firemen’S ) Retirement System of St
EFiled: Aug 06 2021 03:34PM EDT Transaction ID 66784692 Case No. 2018-0307-JRS IN THE COURT OF CHANCERY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE KAREN SBRIGLIO, FIREMEN’S ) RETIREMENT SYSTEM OF ST. ) LOUIS, CALIFORNIA STATE ) TEACHERS’ RETIREMENT SYSTEM, ) CONSTRUCTION AND GENERAL ) BUILDING LABORERS’ LOCAL NO. ) 79 GENERAL FUND, CITY OF ) BIRMINGHAM RETIREMENT AND ) RELIEF SYSTEM, and LIDIA LEVY, derivatively on behalf of Nominal ) C.A. No. 2018-0307-JRS Defendant FACEBOOK, INC., ) ) Plaintiffs, ) PUBLIC INSPECTION VERSION ) FILED AUGUST 6, 2021 v. ) ) MARK ZUCKERBERG, SHERYL SANDBERG, PEGGY ALFORD, ) ) MARC ANDREESSEN, KENNETH CHENAULT, PETER THIEL, JEFFREY ) ZIENTS, ERSKINE BOWLES, SUSAN ) DESMOND-HELLMANN, REED ) HASTINGS, JAN KOUM, ) KONSTANTINOS PAPAMILTIADIS, ) DAVID FISCHER, MICHAEL ) SCHROEPFER, and DAVID WEHNER ) ) Defendants, ) -and- ) ) FACEBOOK, INC., ) ) Nominal Defendant. ) SECOND AMENDED VERIFIED STOCKHOLDER DERIVATIVE COMPLAINT TABLE OF CONTENTS Page(s) I. SUMMARY OF THE ACTION...................................................................... 5 II. JURISDICTION AND VENUE ....................................................................19 III. PARTIES .......................................................................................................20 A. Plaintiffs ..............................................................................................20 B. Director Defendants ............................................................................26 C. Officer Defendants ..............................................................................28 -
ASD-Covert-Foreign-Money.Pdf
overt C Foreign Covert Money Financial loopholes exploited by AUGUST 2020 authoritarians to fund political interference in democracies AUTHORS: Josh Rudolph and Thomas Morley © 2020 The Alliance for Securing Democracy Please direct inquiries to The Alliance for Securing Democracy at The German Marshall Fund of the United States 1700 18th Street, NW Washington, DC 20009 T 1 202 683 2650 E [email protected] This publication can be downloaded for free at https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/covert-foreign-money/. The views expressed in GMF publications and commentary are the views of the authors alone. Cover and map design: Kenny Nguyen Formatting design: Rachael Worthington Alliance for Securing Democracy The Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD), a bipartisan initiative housed at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, develops comprehensive strategies to deter, defend against, and raise the costs on authoritarian efforts to undermine and interfere in democratic institutions. ASD brings together experts on disinformation, malign finance, emerging technologies, elections integrity, economic coercion, and cybersecurity, as well as regional experts, to collaborate across traditional stovepipes and develop cross-cutting frame- works. Authors Josh Rudolph Fellow for Malign Finance Thomas Morley Research Assistant Contents Executive Summary �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1 Introduction and Methodology �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� -
An Analysis of Euroskepticism's Influence on Britain's Vote to Leave the European Union
An Analysis of Euroskepticism’s Influence on Britain’s Vote to Leave the European Union* Kayla McCrary Abstract In June 2016, the United Kingdom held an in/out referendum on membership in the European Union (EU) resulting in a narrow victory for Euroskeptics. Historically, Britain has notably been a Euroskeptic nation, and the following analysis of Britain’s relationship with the EU will explore the implications of Brexit in context with Euroskepticism. This analysis is a result of previous research on the British vote to the leave the EU and draws substantially on research in the fields of voting patterns, social identity, and Britain’s unique characteristics that culminated in the vote to leave the EU. As a result, this paper relies heavily on historical implications of Euroskepticism as well as recent literature on the theories of Euroskeptic voting, demographics, and the history of the relationship between the UK and the EU. The paper concludes that populist and anti-globalist sentiments driven by political parties such as the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) mobilized Euroskepticism, allowing for a philosophy to transform into effective policy change. The main driving factors behind Britain’s unique position of leaving the EU were economic and social. This conclusion is substantiated by a constituency-based analysis, which utilizes demographic data, voter turnout, and the referendum result data in order to quantify Euroskepticism and its impact on the top constituencies that voted to leave the EU. Keywords: European Union, Euroskepticism, Brexit, UKIP, Britain, referenda *Adapted from “An Analysis of British Euroscepticism and Britain’s Vote to Leave the European Union,” a University Honors Thesis for Middle Tennessee State University. -
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Friday 15 International Friday, July 26, 2019 Britain new leader rejects ‘unacceptable’ Brexit deal Johnson urged EU leaders to rethink their opposition LONDON: Britain’s new Prime Minister Boris ing the EU after 46 years without an agreement will Johnson yesterday called the current Brexit deal be less painful than economists warn. The markets negotiated with the EU “unacceptable” and set were relieved by the appointment of former preparations for leaving the bloc without an agree- Deutsche Bank Sajid Javid as finance chief. The ment as a “top priority” for the government. In a pound held steady against the dollar and euro as pugnacious debut in parliament, the former London traders waited for Johnson’s first policy moves. mayor urged EU leaders to rethink their opposition Other appointments were more divisive. Brexit to renegotiating the deal. hardliner Dominic Raab became foreign secretary After installing a right-wing government follow- and Jacob Rees-Mogg - leader of a right-wing ing a radical overhaul, Johnson doubled down on faction of Conservatives who helped bring about his promise to lead Britain out of the EU by Octo- May’s demise - as the government’s parliament ber 31 at any cost. In case of a no-deal exit, he also representative. New interior minister Priti Patel threatened to withhold the £39 billion ($49 billion) has previously expressed support for the death divorce bill that Britain has previously said it owes penalty and voted against same-sex marriage. The the EU and instead spend the money for prepara- Labor opposition-backing Mirror newspaper tions for leaving with no agreement. -
A Duty Ethics Analysis on the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica Scandal
A Duty Ethics Analysis on the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica Scandal STS Research Paper Presented to the Faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Virginia By Christopher Truong March 1, 2020 On my honor as a University student, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this assignment as defined by the Honor Guidelines for Thesis-Related Assignments. Signed: _______________________________________________ Approved: _______________________________________ Date ________________________ Benjamin J. Laugelli, Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering and Society 1 Introduction In early 2018, a whistleblower revealed that the British political consulting firm had harvested personal data from millions Facebook profiles and was using the data to microtarget political advertisements during election cycles in various countries, most notably in the United States, where it assisted with Senator Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential election campaign and later Donald Trump’s campaign. While the efficacy of these microtargeted ads is debatable -- one could argue that they did not have an appreciable effect on the results of the election, they play into the much larger problem of election interference in the 21st century, where new technology developments have changed the game in how social and political interactions happen. Much of the literature on the topic focuses on the legal and political consequences of what transpired in the time period between when Cambridge Analytica began its operations and when it was whistleblown and subsequently scrutinized. There is little literature on the morality of the actions of the key players in the operation, such as the developer of the app and the CEO of Cambridge Analytica, who was presumably making the decisions of the company. -
Brexit: Initial Reflections
Brexit: initial reflections ANAND MENON AND JOHN-PAUL SALTER* At around four-thirty on the morning of 24 June 2016, the media began to announce that the British people had voted to leave the European Union. As the final results came in, it emerged that the pro-Brexit campaign had garnered 51.9 per cent of the votes cast and prevailed by a margin of 1,269,501 votes. For the first time in its history, a member state had voted to quit the EU. The outcome of the referendum reflected the confluence of several long- term and more contingent factors. In part, it represented the culmination of a longstanding tension in British politics between, on the one hand, London’s relative effectiveness in shaping European integration to match its own prefer- ences and, on the other, political diffidence when it came to trumpeting such success. This paradox, in turn, resulted from longstanding intraparty divisions over Britain’s relationship with the EU, which have hamstrung such attempts as there have been to make a positive case for British EU membership. The media found it more worthwhile to pour a stream of anti-EU invective into the resulting vacuum rather than critically engage with the issue, let alone highlight the benefits of membership. Consequently, public opinion remained lukewarm at best, treated to a diet of more or less combative and Eurosceptic political rhetoric, much of which disguised a far different reality. The result was also a consequence of the referendum campaign itself. The strategy pursued by Prime Minister David Cameron—of adopting a critical stance towards the EU, promising a referendum, and ultimately campaigning for continued membership—failed. -
Additional Submissions to Parliament in Support of Inquiries Regarding Brexit Damian Collins MP Dear Mr Collins, Over the Past M
Additional Submissions to Parliament in Support of Inquiries Regarding Brexit Damian Collins MP Dear Mr Collins, Over the past many months, I have been going through hundreds of thousands of emails and documents, and have come across a variety of communications that I believe are important in furthering your inquiry into what happened between Cambridge Analytica, UKIP and the Leave.EU campaign. As multiple enquiries found that no work was done, I would like to appeal those decisions with further evidence that should hopefully help you and your colleagues reach new conclusions. As you can see with the evidence outlined below and attached here, chargeable work was completed for UKIP and Leave.EU, and I have strong reasons to believe that those datasets and analysed data processed by Cambridge Analytica as part of a Phase 1 payable work engagement (see the proposal documents submitted last April), were later used by the Leave.EU campaign without Cambridge Analytica’s further assistance. The fact remains that chargeable work was done by Cambridge Analytica, at the direction of Leave.EU and UKIP executives, despite a contract never being signed. Despite having no signed contract, the invoice was still paid, not to Cambridge Analytica but instead paid by Arron Banks to UKIP directly. This payment was then not passed onto Cambridge Analytica for the work completed, as an internal decision in UKIP, as their party was not the beneficiary of the work, but Leave.EU was. I am submitting the following additional materials to supplement the testimony and documents I gave to the DCMS Committee last year as follows: 1) FW PRESS INVITATION HOW TO WIN THE EU REFERENDUM INVITE ONLY.pdf a. -
Final Programme
Final Programme Follow us OFFICIAL CORPORATE SUPPORTER @IBAevents #IBARome Expert and professional advice since 1975 The law firm Studio Legale Tributario Fantozzi & Associati was established in 1975 by Augusto Fantozzi, a lawyer and full professor of tax law at the ‘’La Sapienza’’ and ‘’LUISS’’ Universities in Rome. Professor Fantozzi was the Italian Minister for Finance and the Minister of Foreign Trade between 1995 and 1998, and he is a member of the Board of Directors and the Board of Statutory Auditors of several leading Italian companies and multinational corporations. The Firm has offices in Rome, Milan and Bologna. With 8 Senior Partners, all lawyers or chartered accountants, and more than 30 legal professionals, the Firm is highly specialised in tax law, and as such provides clients with advice on Italian and international fiscal law, and assists them in tax litigation. Thanks to the years of experience of its partners and legal professionals, the Firm can offer clients full support in resolving tax and corporate issues, both nationally and internationally. Over the years the Firm has dealt with the fiscal aspects of numerous important corporate and financial operations carried out by public and private companies, banks, finance companies and insurance undertakings, and has become their go-to adviser on ordinary and extraordinary tax matters. ROMA | MILANO | BOLOGNA www.fantozzieassociati.com Follow us CONTENTS Contents @IBAevents #IBARome Introduction by the President of the IBA 5 IBA Management Board and IBA Staff 6 Opening -
Supplementary Evidence from Chris Wylie
A RESPONSE TO MISSTATEMENTS IN RELATION TO CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA INTRODUCTORY BACKGROUND TO THE COMPANIES Mr Wylie was the Director of Research for SCL and Cambridge Analytica from 2013 to the end of 2014. SCL Group is a UK-based military contractor that specialises in Information Operations (“IO”). SCL’s clients have included the UK Ministry of Defence, US Department of Defense and various NATO militaries. Information Operations is the area of military strategy that deploys, manipulates or weaponises information to support operational objectives. Within IO, there are related fields such as Psychological Operations and Cyber Operations. It is important to highlight that as IO is a military strategy, which is often deployed in combat situations where the Data Protection Act would not apply, many IO approaches are not generally congruent with the Data Protection Principles. This is because there are two key objectives of IO. The first is the notion of “informational dominance”, which focuses on capturing, interfering or manipulating as many channels of information surrounding the target as possible. This is typically done, by necessity, without the knowledge of the target. The second is using information collected about the target to identify and then exploit mental vulnerabilities to provoke certain behaviours in the target that would be conducive to operational objectives. Cambridge Analytica (“CA”) was created by SCL Group with funding from Robert Mercer, an American billionaire based in New York. Robert Mercer installed the alt-right political activist Stephen Bannon as CA’s Vice President with responsibilities to manage the company day-to-day. Mr Mercer wanted to use the IO tactics SCL had used on military projects for his political aims in the United States, and elsewhere, including the United Kingdom. -
Disinformation and 'Fake News': Interim Report
House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Interim Report Fifth Report of Session 2017–19 Report, together with formal minutes relating to the report Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 24 July 2018 HC 363 Published on 29 July 2018 by authority of the House of Commons The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and its associated public bodies. Current membership Damian Collins MP (Conservative, Folkestone and Hythe) (Chair) Clive Efford MP (Labour, Eltham) Julie Elliott MP (Labour, Sunderland Central) Paul Farrelly MP (Labour, Newcastle-under-Lyme) Simon Hart MP (Conservative, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire) Julian Knight MP (Conservative, Solihull) Ian C. Lucas MP (Labour, Wrexham) Brendan O’Hara MP (Scottish National Party, Argyll and Bute) Rebecca Pow MP (Conservative, Taunton Deane) Jo Stevens MP (Labour, Cardiff Central) Giles Watling MP (Conservative, Clacton) The following Members were also members of the Committee during the inquiry Christian Matheson MP (Labour, City of Chester) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication Committee reports are published on the Committee’s website at www.parliament.uk/dcmscom and in print by Order of the House. Evidence relating to this report is published on the inquiry publications page of the Committee’s website.