Lighthouse Reports
@lighthousereports.com
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Radically collaborative journalism. Working with the world’s leading media on deeply reported, public interest investigations. http://bit.ly/LHR-newsletter
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When Assad’s security state collapsed, locked doors opened, spilling decades of secrets.

Among them: 100s of stolen children, hidden in orphanages & used to blackmail parents. We’ve done the deepest dive yet into this cruel system. Here’s what we found 🧵

www.lighthousereports.com/investigatio...
Syria’s Stolen Children
Under the Assad regime, hundreds of Syrian children were hidden in orphanages to extort their parents. Families still have few answers from the new government or the international charity that kept it...
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ZDF Frontal explores how Italian investigative reporter Gianluigi Nuzzi was heavily tracked as he released an explosive book on Vatican corruption, with his locations presented to pope’s police force
Heimlich überwacht? Dein Handy als Spion | frontal
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The firm says its tech is used by law enforcement to fight crime & it has no knowledge of its use after installation. It says it doesn’t do business with sanctioned clients
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Ex-employees told us there were no red lines. We went undercover to the world’s biggest spy trade fair. On hidden camera, First Wap execs explained how a mining company could use their tool to monitor eco-activists & laughed about breaking sanctions
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Targets incl: Asmaa al-Assad, wife of Bashar, Hollywood star Jared Leto, Blackwater founder Erik Prince, Austropop star Wolfgang Ambros, 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki, an ex PM of Qatar & an editor at Indonesian media partner Tempo.
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We analysed 1.5m rows of data, and with 13 partners spoke to 100+ victims, obtained confidential docs, showing use by authoritarian govts and corporations. Stories in the data stretched from Red Bull to Rwanda
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We started with an unprecedented trove of data from the deep web. When decoded it contained 1,000s of phone numbers of journalists, activists, businesspeople, politicians. All with times, dates & locations
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Surveillance Secrets breaks the story of a European-led phone tracking firm whose hidden history rewrites what we thought we knew, spilling all over the world from the Vatican to Silicon Valley, led by @lighthousereports.com & @papertrailmedia.de
Surveillance Secrets
Trove of surveillance data challenges what we thought we knew about location tracking tools, who they target and how far they have spread
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🧵What’s the biggest lie the surveillance industry tells? That they only sell to legal clients. That there are red lines. But what do these companies say when they think nobody is watching? We went undercover to find out
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Another, Martin Akuagwuagwu, said TBI would push technology & AI solutions on countries with more fundamental issues to contend with

‘They have issues around hunger, poverty, mass unemployment – & we’re getting them to commit towards some fancy projects like using drones and AI’
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Beyond Britain, ex TBI staff described a sea change in culture following Ellison's cash injection, w/ AI boosterism that silenced nuance & forced them to engage in ‘tech sales’ for Oracle

‘It felt icky,’ said one. Another said the focus became 'more tech, big tech, all the time’
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Critics say this 'major influence operation' could culminate in US tech firms taking control of UK's most valuable data, the NHS

'This govt has failed to understand the value of Britain’s data.. they listen to what TBI says - and what Oracle wants,’ says Baroness Beeban Kidron
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TBI staff have been brought into govt. Tom Westgarth was seconded to Dsit to work on the AI Opportunities Action Plan, with his salary paid by TBI

More recently, Kirsty Innes, who worked for TBI for 4 years, has been appointed special advisor for new tech secretary Liz Kendall
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We reveal how TBI privately lobbied UK ministers for Oracle & had its policy proposals taken up by the govt

Correspondence obtained via FOI show meetings in which ministers seek advice on tech & AI from TBI staff, who in turn push Oracle’s interests
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TBI has ballooned in recent yrs to 900+ staff across the globe, coinciding w/ a surge in funding from Ellison

TBI insists it operates separately from Oracle – but we found the 2 entities share board members & hold joint retreats. Ex TBI staff characterise the 2 as ‘inseparable’
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Ellison, 81, described by Trump as ‘CEO of everything’, co-founded cloud computing giant Oracle & is now the world's 2nd richest man after only his friend Elon Musk

Since 2021, Ellison has donated or pledged £257m to the TBI

We spent months trying to find out what it bought him
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By speaking to 29 Tony Blair Institute insiders & obtaining FOI docs, @lighthousereports.com & Democracy for Sale provide 1st insider account of TBI’s symbiotic relationship w/ Ellison & his firm Oracle – & how this has transformed Blair’s org into a vehicle for AI boosterism & ‘tech sales’
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Revealed: How Tony Blair is lobbying on behalf of tech billionaire Larry Ellison

We expose former PM’s unprecedented influence over the UK govt & how this is shaped by the interests of his Institute’s largest donor & one of the world’s richest men www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Thread
Inside the Tony Blair Institute
Who really benefits from the former PM’s tech evangelism?
www.newstatesman.com
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