Democrats win the House, and he’s already fired Sessions: Trump thread 87

[TheClaws]

We start this new thread on a brighter note: the mid-terms were a win for the Democrats, securing the House of Representatives and further seats in the Senate. This means more scrutiny for POTUS and the GOP, and bargaining power.

He’s still a feckless, vain bully, oddly admired by some varieties of Christians - enjoy the cartoon by Mike Luckovich.

Oh Quantum, that's very good to hear.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-staff-wiping-electronic-devices-subpoena-fbi-investigation-russia-a7651276.html?amp&__twitter_impression=true

NB That article about wiping devices is from 2017.

Likely even more relevant now...

Oh yes. Hackers still a problem.

www.newsweek.com/someone-hacked-donald-trumps-wikipedia-page-replaced-photo-image-penis-1228571?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true

theintercept.com/2018/11/19/civilian-casualties-us-war-on-terror/

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/we-are-jamal-khashoggis-daughters-we-promise-his-light-will-never-fade/2018/11/23/8be7d4f2-ef36-11e8-96d4-0d23f2aaad09_story.html?utm_term=.5555b433ab40

Thanks lionheart that was lovely to read by Kashoggi's daughters.

Just thought I'd share...

twitter.com/KateBennett_DC/status/1064684912601702402

You are welcome Quantum. So glad they wanted to remind everyone of what has been lost but how terrible that it is necessary.

I do like that pic of the poor horse.

www.inquisitr.com/5174973/to-defend-ivanka-trump-just-invented-100000-hillary-clinton-emails-which-never-existed/

www.rawstory.com/2018/11/gullibility-extraordinary-pulitzer-prize-winner-describes-trump-gets-easily-played-putin-saudi-prince/

Crikey

Parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers

Documents alleged to contain revelations on data and privacy controls that led to Cambridge Analytica scandal

amp.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/24/mps-seize-cache-facebook-internal-papers

Damian Collins, the chair of the culture, media and sport select committee, invoked a rare parliamentary mechanism to compel the founder of a US software company, Six4Three, to hand over the documents during a business trip to London. In another exceptional move, parliament sent a serjeant at arms to his hotel with a final warning and a two-hour deadline to comply with its order. When the software firm founder failed to do so, it’s understood he was escorted to parliament. He was told he risked fines and even imprisonment if he didn’t hand over the documents.

“We are in uncharted territory,” said Collins, who also chairs an inquiry into fake news. “This is an unprecedented move but it’s an unprecedented situation. We’ve failed to get answers from Facebook and we believe the documents contain information of very high public interest.”

[here is the serjeant at arms www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/principal/serjeant/ ]

Claude Moraes MEP
@Claude_Moraes
Facebook really aren't afraid of a British man in tights or willing to reform without regulation. That's why Zuckerberg hasn't turned up to the Commons, & they are appealing the UK ICO's important but tiny fine. Time for the EU to move on them, and I believe that's inevitable.

Carole Cadwalladr
@carolecadwalla
...says the chair of the EU committee that is leading on Facebook, Cambridge Analytica & more...🔥🔥🔥

So, this US company Six4Three currently has a court case against Facebook. And then the founder of Six4Three made a business trip to London.

Parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers
www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/24/mps-seize-cache-facebook-internal-papers

MPs leading the inquiry into fake news have repeatedly tried to summon Zuckerberg to explain the company’s actions. He has repeatedly refused. Collins said this reluctance to testify, plus misleading testimony from an executive at a hearing in February, had forced MPs to explore other options for gathering information about Facebook operations.

“We have very serious questions for Facebook. It misled us about Russian involvement on the platform. And it has not answered our questions about who knew what, when with regards to the Cambridge Analytica scandal,” he said.

“We have followed this court case in America and we believed these documents contained answers to some of the questions we have been seeking about the use of data, especially by external developers.”

The documents seized [by Parliament] were obtained during a legal discovery process by Six4Three. It took action against the social media giant after investing $250,000 in an app. Six4Three alleges the cache shows Facebook was not only aware of the implications of its privacy policy, but actively exploited them, intentionally creating andeffectively flagging up the loophole that Cambridge Analytica used to collect data. That raised the interest of Collins and his committee.

The Information Commissioner did tell the DCMS committee, days before the raid on Cambridge Analytica, that her international counterparts were watching very closely as the ICO broke new ground.

CNN have a very clear summary of the Six4Three case www.cnn.com/2018/11/24/us/six4three-facebook-uk-parliament/index.html

Interesting way of getting around a court seal on the papers in the States.

That link's really helpful, thank you OYBBK.

cheers!

Well, you know, the tech companies are all about doing things differently and throwing out the old norms.

So it's poetic justice for them to be on the receiving end of new tactics in investigations.

I love that the UK and Canadian parliaments are working together, with the EU chugging alongside. The companies like to play international peek-a-boo – "Oh sorry, my servers/staff/registration aren't in your jurisdiction even though my readers and advertisers are" – so it's the perfect response.

Sorry, still going here.

From OYBBK's CNN link:

Facebook contacted the court in California when it learned of Collins' request. Tuesday, the judge in the case ordered that no unredacted copies of the relevant sealed documents should be released until further notice from the court, and that "failure to comply will be considered an act of contempt."

Friday night, one of Six4Three's lawyers, Stuart Gross, confirmed to CNN that the British committee had obtained materials from Six4Three that are under seal. It is not clear when the documents were obtained. Gross said that Six4Three had asked the committee to "refrain from reviewing them and to return them to counsel or to Facebook."

'If' is a very big word but keep persisting!

If the 2020 Electoral College matches the 2018 House popular vote, it will look like this
twitter.com/billscher/status/1066510595904733185?s=21

It's absolutely fascinating. Now let's hope that our committee can do something useful with the documents.

MP on the committee that's just seized the Facebook docs:

Ian Lucas MP
@IanCLucas
Facebook said: “The materials obtained by the DCMS committee are subject to a protective order of the San Mateo Superior Court restricting their disclosure. We have asked the DCMS committee to refrain from reviewing them and to return them to counsel or to Facebook.” Too late.

hah!