The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
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The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
@adfichter good luck and if its possible to make a one time donation, id be happy to chip in
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The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
@adfichter Peter Thiel is a despicable creep with some truly appalling beliefs, including the notion that freedom and democracy are incompatible. He is well aware that billionaire oligarchs may well provoke a 2nd American revolution and this is why he has secured both citizenship and a bolthole in New Zealand. He and Palantir need to be held democratically accountable, which is exactly what he's afraid of.
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@dzu @OliverCzulo @adfichter i'd prefer a simple iban instead of being required to register an account and who knows what else to be able to give away my money for a good cause though.
@stefanct @dzu @OliverCzulo @adfichter something like a crowdfunder or similar for a fighting fund for this particular issue would be great, IMO?
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The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
@adfichter go girl
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The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
-
@adfichter
Stay strong!
Only the good get sued
You have a great project and maybe it'll wake some more people upThey just have machines and money - we are more people and have reasons to fight
You'll grind Palantir until there is nothing left other than Streisand
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The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
-
The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
@adfichter Palantir is a company we should all fear. Stay strong and "beat the bully-boys" Every best wish for a successful outcome.
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@stefanct @dzu @OliverCzulo @adfichter something like a crowdfunder or similar for a fighting fund for this particular issue would be great, IMO?
@srtcd424 @stefanct @dzu @OliverCzulo we're working on a donation solution
thank you so much! -
@srtcd424 @stefanct @dzu @OliverCzulo we're working on a donation solution
thank you so much!@adfichter @srtcd424 @stefanct @dzu Thank you! 🥳
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The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
@adfichter
Best of luck! I loved reading your research.
Is there any way we folks here can help? Donations, other? -
The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
@adfichter Thank you for your service and fighting back against them!
Sadly not every state seems so adamant not buy palantir... *looking at you Landtag of Baden-Württemberg and especially the Greens*
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The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
@adfichter I hope we get a good David vs. Goliath example from this. Moreover, a playbook on how to defeat Palantir would be great.
What does this endavour mean financially wise? Does Republik need support at some point?
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The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
@adfichter With the new revelations coming out about #PeterMandelson and #Palantir we can imagine that certain of the contracts signed by the UK government could be affected if not cancelled.
-
The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
@adfichter
Unfortunately many other European countries, including mine
, forges ahead and have implementeret Palantir in the police and military. -
@srtcd424 @stefanct @dzu @OliverCzulo we're working on a donation solution
thank you so much!@adfichter @srtcd424 @stefanct @dzu @OliverCzulo Anyone standing up against Palantir deserves my support.
Especially journalists who have done thorough research and created curated journalism.
So I have subscribed for now. It will be good for my German skills.
-
The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
@adfichter Regardless of the chances to win their court case, Palantir can now say (e.g. to investors and media) that they “reject the unfounded allegations of the Swiss media and are suing the originator in court“, and that as long as the court case can be dragged on.
-
The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level:
#Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin.
A small Swiss media company, funded by readers, founded in 2018 and free of advertising. I am not aware of any other media company globally that Palantir is currently targeting so aggressively.
What is this about? Together with my wonderful colleagues at the WAV research collective Jenny Steiner, Lorenz Naegeli, Marguerite Meyer, and Balz Oertli, we published a two-part series on Palantir's activities in Switzerland on December 8 and 9.
Using an extensive corpus of documents – which we obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act – we were able to trace a sales campaign over a period of seven years. Palantir tried to get in with many federal authorities – and was rejected everywhere.
And we also found out that the Swiss Army Staff evaluated the software and came to the conclusion that the army should refrain from using Palantir products.
Among other risks, they feared that data would be passed on to the US authorities.
Palantir is not just any company. ICE uses its products to hunt down migrants in the US. The Israeli army IDF uses the software in its Gaza offensive. The British health authority NHS has made itself dependent on the products for data analysis during the pandemic. And CEO #AlexKarp displays inhuman and aggressive rhetoric towards Europe, while the company itself advertises the “optimization of the kill chain.”
These are all facts, repeatedly verified and published by renowned media outlets. Our research relating to Switzerland and Zurich is based on this.
In addition to analyzing documents, we also spoke to various sources – including Palantir executives here in Zurich. The quotes used were presented to them and approved. Of course, we always adhered to the high standards of journalistic work. We conducted a thorough fact check before publication.
But the company doesn't want us to write the truth.
After the US company owned by right-wing tech billionaire #PeterThiel dedicated an absurd blog post to us, claiming some misinformation (such as that they had not participated in official tenders with the federal administration, a point we never claimed. On the contrary: we spoke from the outset of attempts to establish contact, sales talks, informal meetings, business as usual), after the Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties (PCL) Engineering and contact person for Swiss media Courtney Bowman launched personal attacks against us in LinkedIn comments between Christmas and New Year (“partisan fear-mongering”), Palantir's Swiss lawyers demanded a counterstatement on December 29.We rejected this in its entirety.
In January, they demanded the same thing again. We rejected it again.
And now we see each other in court.
But why all this?
Our research on the Swiss army report caused a huge international media response. The Guardian and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported on the Swiss army's rejection. Numerous financial portals and stock market magazines picked up our news (which could have consequences for the overvalued stock market company Palantir).
And Chaos Computer Club spokesperson Constanze Kurz presented our research to a huge audience at the renowned IT conference Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg at the end of December.
All of this is making Palantir nervous.
We have now submitted a comprehensive defense brief. We can substantiate all of our findings with several documents and publicly available media reports.
We trust in the rule of law and freedom of the press in this country.
In keeping with yesterday's event “Zurich, little Big Tech City” at the Gessneralle, where we first announced this news exclusively to the audience on site:World politics will soon be negotiated in Zurich: freedom of the press, the facts about ICE, Trump, Israel, Karp, tech authoritarianism.
The truth.
All this at the Zurich Commercial Court.
We will not be intimidated. And we will keep you informed.
@adfichter in the meantime, they have these "blog" things now.
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@OliverCzulo @adfichter That is easy to answer: https://shop.republik.ch/
@dzu
Schade. Hatte euch gerne unterstützt. Da kann ich aber nur mit einer klassischen Kreditkarte bezahlen. Habe ich aber nicht für das Konto, mit dem ich zahlen muss.
Könnt ihr nicht SEPA oder #wero anbieten? Oder einen der anderen Zahlungsanbieter wie #liberapay bzw. Alternativen? (https://alternativeto.net/software/liberapay/)
@OliverCzulo @adfichter -
@dzu
Schade. Hatte euch gerne unterstützt. Da kann ich aber nur mit einer klassischen Kreditkarte bezahlen. Habe ich aber nicht für das Konto, mit dem ich zahlen muss.
Könnt ihr nicht SEPA oder #wero anbieten? Oder einen der anderen Zahlungsanbieter wie #liberapay bzw. Alternativen? (https://alternativeto.net/software/liberapay/)
@OliverCzulo @adfichter@SebastianGallehr Kontakt@republik.ch hilft dir da schnell weiter! @dzu @OliverCzulo

