Alexander Fanta

Why don't we have these second names for popular apps?

I propose:

FB - "Zuck's schmucks"
X - "Musk's muck", or "Incel's Insta"
ChatGPT - "slop til you drop"
Telegram - "poor man's Darknet"
Netflix - "screenwriter's 2nd-best ideas"

Israel info withheld, big tech secrecy & vanishing messages Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism

How the EU refuses to talk about its Israel policy, more secrecy on Big Tech policy, and a new uproar over Ursula's texts - today we publish a new edition of our Secrecy Tracker newsletter. 👏 @ftm.eu @investigate-europe.eu @euobserver.com

Read it for free:
www.ftm.eu/newsletters/...

Just tried to find the sign-up for your newsletter on your website. Could you reply with the link? Sounds amazing.

An dem Auftritt gab es damals breite Kritik, einerseits weil die IV der Brexit-Huldigung Johnsons eine Bühne bot, andererseits weil Johnson für hohe Honorare bekannt ist. Nun wissen wir, wie viel sich die IV das hat kosten lassen.

We have a new firm invitation for Mr. Johnson which is outlined below. We are working on a vet of this group and will pass it along once available. Here are the details: Host: Rosam Grünberger Jarosch & Partner OBO Federation of Austrian Industries *Please note, our main point of contact is Rosam Grunberger Jarosch & Partner, who are producing and managing the event on behalf of Verein Club Salzburg Summit, an entity owned by the Federation of Austrian Industries. To confirm, Verein Club Salzburg Summit, and by extension the Federation of Austrian Industries, will be the contracting and paying entity for Mr Johnson’s participation. Event Date: Friday, July 26, 2024 Alternate Dates: None Location: Salzburg, Austria Venue: Salzburg Congress Convention Centre Honorarium and Travel Expenses: $53,743 [€50,000]. In addition to the Fee, the host will pay for first-class airfare to and from the event city for Speaker and up to one (1) staff member, as well as hotel accommodations, ground transportation, meals and incidentals.

Money well-spent? Die Industriellenvereinigung hat Boris Johnson voriges Jahr 50.000 Euro plus bis zu 25.000 Euro an Reisekosten für seinen umstrittenen Auftritt beim Salzburg Summit angeboten, wie aus geleakten Emails hervorgeht.

Die Mail stammt aus dem Boris-Files-Leak...

Public money is funding spyware!

With 39 MEPs from 4 political groups, we are writing to the @ec.europa.eu to express deep concerns following @ftm.eu revelations that EU financed spyware companies!

This must stop! We call on full transparency and follow up on the PEGA committee recommendations!

What Europe’s fishing boom hides beneath the surface Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism

The European Commission budgeted €1.8 million to develop its access to documents portal 'EASE'.

But the technical system behind this modernised FOI platform has some limitations, @alexfanta.bsky.social and I learned when envelopes with USB sticks started arriving...

www.ftm.eu/articles/wha...

So weird. No review of The Hack in either the Sun or the Times. Wonder why.

Deleting texts to save space, Ursula? ‘It’s not the 1990s.’ Tech experts debunk the European Commission’s policy of deleting its president’s phone messages to “save space.”

My comment on @politico.eu. The European Commission's explanation for Ursula von der Leyen deleting messages on instant messengers “due to lack of space” sounds bizarre in 2025. Security is important. But so is public transparency for officials. www.politico.eu/article/dele...

Of course, this can not stand! I filed another complaint with the European Ombudsman, which has decided to open an investigation. (See press release above.) The Commission will have to explain itself, at the very least.

Stay tuned!

3.) The Commission admits using auto-delete on VDL's Signal messages - which means we likely won't see any of them, ever. Which means, nobody except the Commission gets to see and decide about keeping a document, let alone give access to it. That means any judicial review - poof - out of the window.

2.) The Commission claims it did not have to keep the messages because, essentially, Macron had said similar things in public before. Which sounds like an excuse, is an excuse, should never be allowed to work as an excuse.

1.) VDL's chief of staff Björn Seibert appears to have allowed the deletion of a document after someone (in that case me) made a request for it. Absolute no-no! If this flies, not internal document is safe.

🤯 Ursula von der Leyen's text messages are under investigation - again! This time, its about a Signal message sent by Emmanuel Macron to VDL, which the Commission lost - once again - around the time I made a request for it.

This is troubling for three reasons: 🧵

Yep, that was me again

Daten zur Verbesserung generativer KI Darf LinkedIn Ihre auf LinkedIn erstellten personenbezogenen Daten und Inhalte verwenden, um generative KI-Modelle von LinkedIn zu schulen, die zum Erstellen von Inhalten verwendet werden? Ihre Daten zum Schulen von KI-Modellen verwenden, um Inhalte zu erstellen ein/aus

Wir werden alle Datenfutter für die KI von LinkedIn (zu Microsoft zugehörig), wenn wir uns nicht wehren. LinkedIn nutzt das Opt-Out-Land Schweiz aus (ob EU weiss ich nicht). Und setzt den Toogle bei uns allen auf ON.

Ja, es ist verdammt frech.

Hier ⬇️aussteigen:
www.linkedin.com/mypreference...

Podcast | Meloni's €70-million migration fiasco When Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ran her election campaign in 2022, she promised a bold solution to Italy’s migration issues: building offshore migrant centres in Albania. But three years la...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni vowed to solve Italy’s migration challenges by building offshore migrant centres in Albania to process asylum seekers. Three years on, the hubs are half-empty, construction costs have ballooned into millions and courts keep stalling progress.

EU shields defence spendings from public scrutiny Follow the Money - Platform voor onderzoeksjournalistiek

Find this in our latest newsletter, free to read:
www.ftm.nl/nieuwsbrieve...

OLAF says questioning its indecision in Huawei scandal would be “premature” The EU’s anti-corruption office OLAF is pushing back against criticism that it had too easily dismissed corruption allegations by a whistleblower, who sent them a tip-off about Huawei lobbyists and EU lawmakers. As we reported in our latest Crime and Corruption newsletter, the corruption watchdog shrugged off the tip-off after a few web searches a couple of years ago, an internal document obtained by Follow the Money. As you all know, that decision didn’t age well – two years later, Belgian police raided Huawei offices in Brussels and are investigating several people – including four members of the European Parliament – over the allegations. A few minutes after we published Wednesday’s newsletter, OLAF finally replied to questions about the move. As it were, OLAF’s press office doubled down at its “nothing to see here” line. The reply claimed that “to transmit allegations to other bodies, OLAF needs to have in its possession concrete elements pointing to wrongdoing, which was not the case”. OLAF also said it was too early to say whether its decision not to investigate was the wrong call. “It would be premature to draw comparisons or suggest alternative courses of action”, according to the press office. Well, okay, sure. Alexander Fanta

Our latest on the Huaweigata saga, and OLAF's failure to act years ago

MOMENT.at MOMENT.at bietet unabhängigen Journalismus mit Haltung im Interesse der Vielen über Politik & Gesellschaft: Klimakrise, Arbeit, Kapitalismus und Ungleichheit.

Das wäre doch ein schönes Thema für Moment.at: Warum sich die Wiener Stadtregierung und die Wiener SPÖ mit dem Thema Fahrradfahren so schwer tun.

Von der Leyen’s secret texts with Pfizer Podcast Episode · Follow the Money: The Podcast · 10/09/2025 · 24m

In 2021, von der Leyen texted Pfizer’s CEO ahead of a multi-billion € vaccine deal. When @alexfanta.bsky.social
asked to see the texts, the Commission refused. In episode #9 of the @ftm.eu podcast, we unpack #Pfizergate with @lise-witteman.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...

I appreciate the candor

Podcast | Von der Leyen’s secret texts with Pfizer At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Commission struck a multi-billion-euro deal with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for vaccine doses. In preparations to the deal, Commission President U...

When journalist Alexander Fanta requested access to text messages between Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer, the European Commission refused – and they have still never seen the light of day. In this episode, we unpack Pfizergate: the scandal that has dogged von der Leyen’s presidency.

Could you give some more context?

So, Slovakia. Not a single left of center party that even has made it into a poll, let alone parliament. Why?

Anti-corruption office dismissed Huawei allegations after a few web searches Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism

New banger from the Huaweigate investigation:

How OLAF had a highly informed tip TWO YEARS before the corruption allegations broke, but FAILED TO DO ANYTHING about them.

More details in our latest newsletter:
www.ftm.eu/articles/ant...

Spannend: Das erste Dokument, dass durch das neue Informationsfreiheitsgesetz in Österreich öffentlich wird. Eine interne Anleitung für kommunale Beamte, die z.B. Eheschließungen vornehmen.

Informationsfreiheitsgesetz: Vertreibt den bösen Geist des Amtsgeheimnisses! Ein Gesetz regelt das Machtgefälle zwischen Bürger und Republik neu – um es mit Leben zu füllen, braucht es Druck von der Zivilgesellschaft und mutige Entscheidungen von Gerichten

Ein Gesetz regelt das Machtgefälle zwischen Bürger und Republik neu – um es mit Leben zu füllen, braucht es Druck von der Zivilgesellschaft und mutige Entscheidungen von Gerichten, schreibt @alexfanta.bsky.social​ im Gastkommentar ↓

DOSSIER · Crowdfunding: Behind the Scenes of DOSSIER: Die Recherche zu »Österreichs Orbánisierer«

Investmentbanker Heinrich Pecina zerrt DOSSIER vor Gericht. Grund ist ein Porträt aus dem Magazin »Ungarn – eine Reise ans Ende der Demokratie«. Wie unsere Recherchen zu »Österreichs Orbánisierer« abgelaufen sind und was sie zur Folge haben? (1/2) 🔗 crowdfunding.dossier.at/index.php?id=2137

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