Journalists: Post public records without paywalls
We’ve all probably had this experience at some point: a news story discusses a government document the reporter has managed to obtain and that we’d like to read as well. But, after scouring the article for a link to said document, it becomes clear that it’s not there.
This used to be a minor annoyance. Why not let people see public source material for themselves? No matter how thorough journalists may be, they often don’t have room to tell us all the document might. Plus, as law professor Sarah Fackrell noted, reporters might miss something about a court filing a lawyer would pick up on, something about a public health document a doctor might catch, and so on.
But the stakes are higher now, as government websites and records disappear, agencies are haphazardly folded, lawless oligarchs shield their shady quasi-governmental operations from view, and the future of the National Archives is uncertain.
It’s on all of us to preserve the public domain. Everyone should be getting into the habit of archiving any government record they access online so it’s not lost. But the press should help lead the charge. Or, at the very least, when they obtain government documents, they should let news readers share the wealth.
That means news stories should include links to public documents (hosted somewhere other than government sites from which they might disappear). It also means not paywalling them.
Ideally, we’d like to see news outlets not paywall any government records-based reporting. It’s a problem that misinformation is free and real news isn’t. But if that’s not economically feasible, at least let people access the records themselves for free. They’re public records, after all.
News isn’t just any business, it’s a constitutionally protected public service. And the moment calls for the Fourth Estate to do whatever it can to preserve transparency.
News outlets could even take it a step further: proactively post all newsworthy public records they find during their reporting, whether online, through the Freedom of Information Act, or otherwise. We’re not asking them to forfeit scoops: They can wait till they’ve either reported on the records or decided they’re not going to anytime soon.
We get it: News outlets expend significant resources in pursuit of government records, sometimes litigating FOIA cases for years before finally getting what they’re after. Why should people get to piggyback off those efforts for free?
Well, because news isn’t just any business, it’s a constitutionally protected public service. And the moment calls for the Fourth Estate to do whatever it can to preserve transparency.
But beyond that, what’s to say that sharing public records is bad for business? What’s more likely to entice someone to subscribe: brief previews of articles that offer no assurance that the rest is worth reading, let alone paying for? Or the clearly newsworthy — but often dense — records the articles explain?
Most people don’t want to read, synthesize, and contextualize public records themselves — they rely on journalists for that. If journalists show them what records they’re digging up, they might gain respect for the work reporters do and want to know what they have to say about them.
Over the next few years, a lot of people and industries will have to put aside assumptions and norms from a bygone era and do what’s needed to preserve American democracy (or at least a record of what once was). Sharing public records with the public is one low-cost, low-risk strategy for journalists to do their part. Who knows, it might even be profitable.
Trump hides migrant detention away at Gitmo
Thanks to dogged reporting and unnamed sources, we know that as of last week, the Trump administration has sent nearly 100 migrants to the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where at least some are being held in the same military detention facility as terrorism suspects.
Yet much remains unknown by the press and the public about the migrant operation at Gitmo. As Freedom of the Press Foundation Senior Advocacy Adviser Caitlin Vogus wrote in The Daily Beast, the government’s detentions at Gitmo are happening largely out of sight of the American people — seemingly by design.
Vogus wrote:
“We shouldn’t have to rely on reporters’ tenacity and commitment to the fourth estate to gain basic information about what the government is up to. Sending deportees to Gitmo doesn’t just signal that the Trump administration is cracking down on immigration—it’s cracking down on the public’s right to know, too.”
#ransomware 🇮🇹
Altra vittima che si aggiunge all’elenco, presto probabilmente da monitorare con #Ransomfeed
Gruppo Alf nel Trevigiano
Azienda ferma da 7 giorni
🔗 tribunatreviso.it/nordest/hack…
Stay tuned
Attacco hacker, azienda paralizzata. A casa 350 lavoratori da 7 giorni
E’ successo nella galassia Alf, gruppo di aziende e marchi del mobile con quartier generale a Francenigo di Gaiarine, nel Trevigiano, Sistemi bloccati e richiesta di riscatto da parte di una cyber-gang: tutto fermo, scatta la cassa integrazione in tr…Fabio Poloni (Tribuna di Treviso)
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Happy to announce that we restored ready-to-use builds of #Zenroom as native library on Android & iOS, with blazing fast performance! 🏃🏾
📦 Base binaries will still be available as uncompressed download links for Win, OS X & Linux
github.com/dyne/Zenroom/releas…
Releases · dyne/Zenroom
Embedded no-code VM executing human-like language to manipulate data and process cryptographic operations. - dyne/ZenroomGitHub
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Inhaftierter Demokratie-Aktivist: Britischer Premier will sich für Alaa Abd el-Fattah einsetzen
#Ransomware Allied Tenesis
#Lynx group claims this company, but the real name is Allied Telesis. This may be a typo.
It's evident from the image and the description.
800 GB claimed.
The same target was claimed by #lockbit3 in May 2024
All this data is on #Ransomfeed ⤵️
🔗 ransomfeed.it/index.php?page=p…
Ransomfeed
An italian project to track cyber gangs and store results in MySQL database to generate free RSS feedsransomfeed.it
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No-vax Kennedy Jr nominato Segretario del Dipartimento della Salute e Servizi Umani (HHS)
#PoliticalNotes
ilglobale.it/2025/02/no-vax-ke…
@politica
No-vax Kennedy Jr nominato Segretario del Dipartimento della Salute e Servizi Umani (HHS)
ilGlobale - Quotidiano di informazione economica, politica e tecnologicailGlobale.it
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Boom @m455 ! You are follower number 777! 💜
Thanks for tuning in to the feed everyone!
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Fragwürdige Beschlagnahme: Absurdes Prüftheater um den Adenauer-Protestbus
Great news for anyone who thought their electric bill wasn't high enough already! As we embrace the 'Age of Electricity,' remember: it's not just your devices that need charging—so do your wallets. 🔋💸
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#CyberSecurity
securebulletin.com/oh-ship-ste…
Oh Ship! Steam game “PirateFi” caught red-handed dropping password-stealing malware - Secure Bulletin
Ahoy, gamers! Hope you weren't sailing the high seas of Steam with a recently released free-to-play game called PirateFi.dark6 (securebulletin.com)
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🇮🇹 è online il terzo report quadrimestrale 2024 di Ransomfeed
Come sempre, trovate:
📄 la panoramica sul #ransomware globale e Italiana
🥷🏻 i nuovi gruppi
🗺️ stats per area geografica
🧰 stats per settore economico
Qui il link per download e condivisione
🔗 ransomfeed.it/data/reports/202…
Qui altri report:
🔗 ransomfeed.it/index.php?page=r…
Ransomfeed
An italian project to track cyber gangs and store results in MySQL database to generate free RSS feedsransomfeed.it
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Amnesty International e HRW affermano che l'ordine del Regno Unito sui dati cloud di Apple viola i diritti alla privacy
Venerdì, i gruppi per i diritti umani Amnesty International e Human Rights Watch hanno condannato l'ordine del governo britannico che intima ad Apple di dargli accesso ai dati sul cloud, affermando che tale mossa "danneggia gravemente i diritti alla privacy degli utenti nel Regno Unito e nel mondo".
jurist.org/news/2025/02/amnest…
Amnesty International and HRW say UK order for Apple cloud data undermines privacy rights
Rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on Friday decried the UK government's order directing Apple to give it access to cloud data, asserting the move 'severely harms the privacy r...Christine Yang | U. Ottawa Faculty of Law, CA (- JURIST - News)
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Pirate Security Conference is Going on Now: Watch It Live!
The Pirate Security Conference 2025 is going on now (February 15–16, 2025). You can watch it live or after the fact on YouTube at youtu.be/E_nWrp4EBds.
Pirate Parties International (PPI) is proud to sponsor this year’s event together with Denk Selbst e.V., Piratenpartei Oberbayern, and Alpha Team & Cerberus Systemhaus GmbH.
Since its inception, for 11 years now, the conference has taken place alongside the Munich Security Conference. This year’s event includes an exciting lineup of talks, including discussions on AI-driven infiltration, cybercrime treaties, and disruption management from Dietmar Pichler, Benjamin Tallis, Stephen Douglas, and more. The hybrid war dimension gets special attention in sessions examining cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, disinformation tactics, and the new global alliances.
Special thanks go to the dedicated organizing team, led by Alexander Kohler, who have worked tirelessly on bringing great speakers and audiences year after year.
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Dialogue Over Division: Pirate Parties and BDS
A recent article in the German Pirate affiliated Flaschenpost newspaper by Markus Schaub entitled “The working structure of BDS” <die-flaschenpost.de/2025/02/13…> describes a hierarchical and centrally coordinated movement with ties to terrorist groups. This image stands in contrast to the grassroots campaign many associate with BDS.
Within the Pirate Party movement, there is a notable divide. Many Pirates see BDS as a tool for Palestinian advocacy, an expression of civil disobedience, a legitimate form of protest against genuine attrocities of the Israeli government… Another contingent of our supporters, as depicted in Markus Schaub’s exposé, equate BDS’s goal as the extermination of Jews in Israel, the whitewashing of Hamas’s atrocities, an extension of Palestinian militant ideology… This presents a conundrum.
Most organizations would shy away from confronting such a point of contention within the organization, but Pirates are not afraid to discuss dangerous topics.
Overall, our movement believes that excluding others is not the ideal way to resolve a conflict. A boycott-driven approach, by its nature, excludes. So, we particularly worry that outside forces attempt to exclude moderate Israelis and Palestinians who are essential for any sustainable peace process. Increasing international involvement in the region will lead to greater adherence to international norms and prosperity. Rather than supporting boycotts that polarize discourse, the Pirate movement should advocate for more dialogue between Israelis, Palestinians, and all people. We hope that our organization can be a bridge for positive communication.
We don’t associate all Palestinians with Hamas, and we don’t associate all Israelis with the IDF. At the end of the day we’re all just people trying to survive while our governments do whatever the fuck they want at the expense of innocents who have done nothing wrong. We must not dehumanize an entire population, whether they are Jewish, Muslim, or any religion, ethnicity, gender, subculture… We can be critical of the ruling forces in Israel and Palestine, but we should be mindful that boycotting an entire country stifles the activities of the opposition.
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U.S. Government: Leak allegedly reveals DOGE list of „wasteful projects“
US-Regierung: Leak zeigt mutmaßlich DOGE-Liste mit „Verschwendungsprojekten“
#CyberSecurity
securebulletin.com/fog-ransomw…
Fog ransomware: a deep dive into its tactics and targets - Secure Bulletin
Okay, I can do that! Here's a short, discursive article about Fog Ransomware based on the provided document, written in English and suitable for online publication: Fog Ransomware emerged in April 2024 and quickly became a significant cyber threat, p…securebulletin.com
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#CyberSecurity
securebulletin.com/redmike-sal…
RedMike (Salt Typhoon) continues global Telecom attacks - Secure Bulletin
Despite widespread awareness and U.S. sanctions, the Chinese state-sponsored threat group RedMike (also known as Salt Typhoon) remains a persistent danger to telecommunications providers worldwide.securebulletin.com
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First Amendment law legend: ‘Fight back’
Dear Friend of Press Freedom,
Happy Valentine’s Day. Here are the topics we’re keeping in our hearts this week.
First Amendment law legend: ‘Fight back’
James Goodale, former vice chairman and general counsel of The New York Times, has seen it all when it comes to press freedom. He was involved in all four cases that the Times took to the Supreme Court and led its resistance to the Nixon administration’s war on the press, most notably in the historic Pentagon Papers case.
We sat down with Goodale to discuss the Trump administration’s multipronged attacks on journalism, particularly by extracting settlement payments from media outlets. Read more here.
Hypocrisy as deep as the Gulf of Mexico
The same Trump administration that issued an executive order on its first day to restore free speech spent the week barring The Associated Press from executive order signings because it writes “Gulf of Mexico” despite Trump’s “Gulf of America” stunt.
We told The Washington Post that “punishing journalists for not using words the government likes is an egregious violation of the First Amendment. Trump’s team knows that, notwithstanding their ridiculous justifications, and clearly doesn’t care.”
That being said, we also told the Post, we hope “news outlets Trump punishes by restricting their access to briefings, signings and the like will take the opportunity to double down on hard-hitting investigations that don’t require access to ceremonies and spin sessions.”
National Archives under threat
We helped lead a bipartisan coalition protesting both the unwarranted firing of the archivist of the United States, Colleen Shogan, and the possibility she may be replaced by someone unqualified to lead the National Archives and Records Administration.
NARA plays a key role in making sure agencies preserve records. The public needs to know now more than ever that it has qualified leadership. Otherwise, the government will have an easier time keeping secrets. Read more here.
UK spy order imperils First Amendment
New revelations by the Post about a secret spying order in the U.K. should alarm journalists everywhere. The Post reported that the U.K. government obtained a secret order requiring Apple to create a “backdoor” that allows security officials to retrieve all content uploaded to the cloud by any Apple user worldwide.
The order “requires blanket capability to view fully encrypted material.” As others have pointed out, once the U.K. claims this authority, it will be a hop, skip, and a jump to other countries doing the same. It’s not hard to imagine what Russia, China, or the Trump administration would do with this vast spying power. Read more here.
Privacy policy update
We’ve updated FPF’s privacy policy to include a new data processing provider and to refresh our website hosting information. See the updated policy for details.
What we’re reading
How Elon Musk and the right are trying to recast reporting as ‘doxxing’ (The New York Times). “If living in the U.S. in 2025 means you can expect a criminal investigation for criticizing the government, we’re all in a whole lot of trouble,” said Will Creeley of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
When ICE raids go awry, reporting gets blamed (Columbia Journalism Review). Reporting on what Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers do in public isn’t “leaking.” The government loves to claim there’s no privacy in public when it wants to surveil you, but not when it wants to spend your money on ICE raids.
Casino mogul Wynn asks US Supreme Court to revisit Times v. Sullivan defamation rule (Reuters). We can’t imagine how lowering the bar for defamation claims could ever come back to bite conservative media. You’d think an ex-casino boss would be a smarter gambler.
FCC investigating San Francisco radio station over coverage of ICE raids (CNN). We told CNN that government regulators “don’t get to decide what news the public is interested in hearing about.”
2024 is deadliest year for journalists in CPJ history; almost 70% killed by Israel (Committee to Protect Journalists). “At least 124 journalists and media workers were killed last year, nearly two-thirds of them Palestinians killed by Israel.”
Judge: Presidents may be immune from prosecution but not transparency (The Dissenter). A federal judge ruled that the FBI’s reasons for hiding information about its classified documents case against Trump no longer apply.
A plea for institutional modesty (Columbia Journalism Review). “You are not the first chairman to use the Federal Communications Commission as a pulpit ... But there is one thing you should keep in mind: you don’t have as much power as you may think,” Robert Corn-Revere of FIRE, and former FCC chief counsel tells FCC Chair Brendan Carr.
Trump accused of leading a ‘multipronged’ attack on US media (Al Jazeera). CBS claiming it was legally compelled to turn over outtakes of its Kamala Harris interview “is a head-scratcher,” we told Al Jazeera. “There is a legal system where you can resist unconstitutional demands from the government.”
Bill would give Wyoming strongest laws in country to fight frivolous defamation lawsuits (Cowboy State Daily). Even the reddest states’ legislatures understand there’s nothing partisan about protections against anti-speech lawfare.
Here’s how to share sensitive leaks with the press.
Studie zu KI in politischen Kampagnen: Ob real oder nicht – die Botschaft zählt
Zähe Verwaltungsdigitalisierung: Normenkontrollrat will föderale Hürden überwinden
Glitching out your video-sequences with #frei0r?
This swag might be for you! Currently 22% off everything in the House of Dyne swag shop (until 17/2)
This is part of a series with limited availability in time. Don't snooze! 🔥
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FreiØr Glitched Out swag | Hacker fashion by Dyne.org
The mythical open source video plugin-suitHacker fashion by Dyne.org
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Sommet de Paris sur l’IA : accélérer, quoi qu'il en coûte
Le sommet de Paris sur l’intelligence artificielle (IA) organisé par la France s'est tenu les 10 et 11 février 2025. Il restera dans l’histoire comme un grand moment d’accélération.La Quadrature du Net
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Liberties-Studie: So steht es um die Aufsicht des Digital Services Act
Secret U.K. spy order imperils press freedom
New revelations by The Washington Post about a secret spying order in the U.K. should ring alarm bells for journalists everywhere.
On Friday, the Post reported that the U.K. government obtained a secret order requiring Apple to create a “back door” that allows security officials to retrieve all content uploaded to the cloud by any Apple user worldwide. The order doesn’t just require Apple to turn over data from a specific account for a specific criminal case; rather, it “requires blanket capability to view fully encrypted material.”
The target of the order is reportedly Apple’s Advanced Data Protection setting, which uses end-to-end encryption to protect certain data stored in a user’s iCloud account, including notes, photos, and iMessage backups.
If you’re a journalist who follows digital security tips from Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), Advanced Data Protection should sound familiar. FPF and other experts frequently recommend that journalists enable it to protect against data breaches, hacking, and government orders demanding journalists’ data. Because Advanced Data Protection end-to-end encrypts more data stored in iCloud, Apple simply doesn’t have access to it and cannot turn it over when governments come knocking or criminals break down the doors.
Why would journalists in the U.K. need to worry about legal orders for their iCloud data? Perhaps because of the U.K.’s excessively harsh secrecy laws that have been used to target the press. Politicians are constantly trying to expand those laws in ways that would criminalize whistleblowing and journalism. Not to mention the fact that the U.K. has illegally spied on journalists to try to uncover their confidential sources in the recent past.
And it’s not just U.K. journalists who need to be concerned. As others have pointed out, once the U.K. claims this power, it will be a hop, skip, and a jump to other countries — including authoritarian ones or ones on their way there — demanding similar powers. It’s not hard to imagine what Russia, China, or the Trump administration would do with a built-in back door that allows them to spy on the encrypted iCloud backups of journalists, dissidents, and government critics.
The U.K. could also use these powers to target journalists in other countries. According to news reports, the U.K. government could issue demands for the data of any iCloud user, not just U.K. citizens, and Apple would be legally prohibited from telling the targeted user about the order.
In theory, then, the U.K. could compel Apple to turn over the iCloud data of journalists living and working in other countries with stronger protections for freedom of the press. The journalists may not know their data has been demanded, so they wouldn’t be able to fight back in court.
It’s not hard to imagine what Russia, China, or the Trump administration would do with a built-in back door that allows them to spy on the encrypted iCloud backups of journalists
That will leave journalists in the U.K. and around the world much less able to protect their confidential data, including the identities of confidential sources. That’s a huge problem for the public’s right to know. Sources who need anonymity won’t be as likely to come forward if they know that governments can glean their identities by spying on journalists.
Case in point: This very news story. We only know about the secret U.K. surveillance order because unnamed sources spoke to journalist Joseph Menn at The Washington Post. U.K. law makes it a crime to reveal it.
If the U.K. government could go digging through Menn’s encrypted iCloud data (or other encrypted services, should the U.K. expand its back door demands) to try to find out his sources’ identities so it can criminally prosecute them, those people will be much less likely to blow the whistle.
Legal demands for data aren’t the only concern for journalists as a result of the U.K.’s order. Bad actors may also try to take advantage of any back door built for the U.K. government by targeting it for hacking. That’s exactly what China did to the legal back door built into the U.S. telecommunications system, which inspired the FBI to encourage Americans to (surprise!) use encryption. The result is a loss of security for journalists and everyone else who relies on Advanced Data Protection.
But foreign governments and hackers may not even need to come in the back door as a result of the U.K. order. Apple is reportedly likely to stop offering Advanced Data Protection in the U.K. rather than comply with the order and break its promise to users that their iCloud data is secure. That’s the right move, and it’s admirable that Apple is refusing to lie to its U.K. users. But it also means that the U.K. government may just have ensured that its own citizens don’t have access to the most secure way to store their iCloud data.
All of this to say, the U.K. is in cloud cuckoo land if it really believes this order will make its citizens safer. The U.K.’s demand that Apple break iCloud encryption by adding a back door is a gift to hackers and dictators around the world, at the expense of U.K. citizens and journalists everywhere.
App-Tracking: Kartellamt rügt Apple wegen strengem Datenschutz, der nur für Dritte gilt
📒 We're excited to launch the Digital Services Coordinator (DSC) Database, a resource that tracks Digital Services Act #DSA investigations into online platforms.
Compiled by @edri and civil society partners, this database has background information on all DSCs and enforcement actions they have taken to ensure people are able to exercise their rights and freedoms online. ✊🏾
Read more and explore the database: edri.org/our-work/the-digital-…
The Digital Services Coordinator Database: Tracking DSA investigations into Big Tech - European Digital Rights (EDRi)
A comprehensive overview of all enforcement authorities and the cases they have taken against online platforms.European Digital Rights (EDRi)
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Excellent work! 👍 🙏
feeding to (German-speaking) timelines:
#Datenschutz #TeamDatenschutz #DigitalServicesAct #Digitalpolitik #SaveSocial #SwitchDay #UnisInsFediverse
The Digital Services Coordinator Database: Tracking DSA investigations into Big Tech
EDRi has launched its Digital Services Coordinator Database which provides a comprehensive overview of all enforcement authorities and the cases they have taken against online platforms under the EU’s Digital Services Act.
The post The Digital Services Coordinator Database: Tracking DSA investigations into Big Tech appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).
Prevent Duty: Redefining terrorism in the wake of Southport attacks
On 23 January 2025, 18 year old Axel Rudakubana was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in prison for the horrific murder of three young girls and the attempted murder of eight other children, as well as two adults who tried to save them.
Now that the facts of the case are public, the question being asked is: What could have been done to avert the teenager from committing such a heinous crime? So far, the government’s response has focused almost exclusively on missed opportunities through the lens of counter-terrorism – specifically, the harmful Prevent Duty.
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Prevent: A deeply flawed intervention
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Between 2019 – 2021, when Rudakubana was 13 and 14 years old, he was reported to Prevent three times. Yet, because he lacked a clear ideological motive, he was not flagged as a serious terrorist threat. Prevent has since come under increased scrutiny.
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Last week, the government published a Prevent Learning Review to identify what must be learnt from Rudakubana’s engagement with Prevent, while Prime Minister, Keir Starmer announced that he will look at changing the law to recognise the “new and dangerous threat” posed by lone attackers who are not driven by a single ideology. But is Prevent even the right tool to address these evolving threats of violence?
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In expanding the scope of the Prevent Duty, Starmer not only risks casting an increasingly wide net that could lead to the surveillance of thousands more innocent people, but it is also likely to mean diverting resources away from the services, community support and infrastructure that could genuinely keep our communities safe.
Turning teachers and social workers into spies
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We all want to live in a world in which people feel free and safe to be ourselves. But, the reality is, many Prevent referrals are based on gut instinct, rather than concrete evidence.
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People are not typically referred to the Prevent Duty because they have committed a crime, but because a public sector worker thinks that something they have said or done could mean that they are at risk of so-called ‘radicalisation’.
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A Guardian article revealed that a Prevent document listed “believing in socialism, communism, anti-fascism and anti-abortion as potential signs of ideologies leading to terrorism”. In this sense, it’s no surprise that the vast majority of those reported to the Prevent Duty do not progress to a Channel panel, the multi-agency body involving police and local authorities responsible for assessing cases.
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Ultimately, children need safe spaces to express their thoughts and feelings – where they can be challenged and supported by trusting adults. Instead, the Prevent Duty forces teachers and other public sector workers into the role of surveillance spies, undermining trust and eroding the very relationships that could help prevent violence.
The risk of criminalising free expression
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The Prevent Duty already uses dangerously broad definitions of ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’, which risk criminalising legitimate free speech. In Rudakubana’s case, his interest in Israel-Palestine, MI5, and terrorist groups was cited in the government’s Prevent Learning Review as a potential warning sign.
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However, with the Southport murders now being framed as a “new terror threat”, the government must resist using this one case to justify further expansion of the Prevent Duty. Such an approach risks further targeting surveillance at Muslims and neurodivergent people – who are already disproportionately referred under Prevent, often simply for religious expression; or behaviours that may be misinterpreted as signs of radicalisation – as well as students, activists, and those perceived to have grievances against the government.
The problem with ‘pre-crime’ policies
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Unlike most children reported to the Prevent Duty, Rudakubana had carried out crimes prior to the Southport murders. In 2019, at just 13 years old, he called Childline asking: “What should I do if I want to kill somebody?” He had also carried a knife to school because he believed he may need to protect himself as he was experiencing racist bullying. He was later permanently expelled for repeatedly bringing a weapon onto school grounds.
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In the years that followed, Rudakubana encountered various arms of the legal system, including youth justice services and Lancashire Constabulary, Children’s Social Care services, MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs) and local mental health services.
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Yet, despite these interventions, he still went on to commit the Southport murders.
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Rather than focusing on the Prevent Duty, the government must ask why, despite extensive contact with multiple agencies, Rudakubana still went on to commit such a devastating attack. If the goal is to prevent violence, resources should be directed towards strengthening public services, community based support and safeguarding interventions based on trust – not expanding a failing programme that criminalises people based on speculation.
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When ‘safeguarding’ becomes surveillance
There is a common misconception that the Prevent Duty is a safeguarding programme. In reality, many referrals come from public sector workers who believe a child might receive additional support and care, that is otherwise not available to them. But, surely children should not have to be considered at risk of becoming a terrorist in order to access help?
Redefining terrorism will mean more people are referred to the Prevent Duty, but that won’t necessarily make anyone any safer. It risks branding more children – most of whom will never engage in serious violence – as threats, exposing them to long-term surveillance and stigma.
Open Rights Group’s report, ‘Prevent and the Pre-Crime State’ highlighted that the overwhelming majority of Prevent referrals do not meet the threshold for a Channel intervention (a multi-agency ‘deradicalisation’ programme). Despite this, the data of Prevent referees is retained and shared across multiple databases for years, meaning more people can experience life long harms as a consequence of being referred.
Speaking to The Times, Neil Basu, the former National Head of Counter-terrorism, warned that Starmer could be making a “colossal mistake” if he changed terror definitions to include anyone with violent intent. He warned it might have the opposite effect and inspire more “very violent people” who would relish the terrorist label. He said the focus should be on how to divert the thousands of young people with an interest in violence and on putting funding into “completely broken” state institutions, including mental health trusts.
The Prevent Duty already sweeps thousands of innocent people into its scope. By doubling down on Prevent, while neglecting to address the ongoing cuts to essential public services, Starmer risks criminalising and stigmatising even more children, who pose no real threat – undermining efforts to tackle the root causes of violence, social alienation and mental health struggles.
Moving forward: Addressing violence at the root
So, the question remains: What lessons must be learnt from the Southport murders? The attack serves as a tragic reminder that violence does not exist in a vacuum – it must be understood in context. If the government is serious about tackling this violence, it must address its root causes – poverty, under-resourced health and social care, youth programmes and community based support – interventions that truly makes a difference to people’s lives. Expanding Prevent will not create safety – it will only deepen division and fear.
Speaking in court, a 14 year old survivor of the attack said, “Physically I’ve healed but my scares remain as a reminder of what you did to me, to us all. No sane person could do that.” We owe it to her – and to all the families left grieving – not to double down on failed ‘deradicalisation’ programmes, but to meaningfully address the defunding of public infrastructure and community support which allow this kind of unthinkable violence to manifest.
Prevent and the pre-crime state
ORG’s report into how unaccountable data sharing under the Prevent programme is harming a generation.
Find out more
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End Pre-Crime
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in reply to N_{Dario Fadda} • • •oh, finalmente! Ora che l'ultima tesserina del domino è stata piazzata, possiamo aspettare che l'influenza aviaria dia la prima spinta... 😱
@politica
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Andrea Millozzi
in reply to N_{Dario Fadda} • •N_{Dario Fadda} likes this.