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Poland’s PM says previous government illegally used Pegasus spyware
- tomohawk 3y ago[flagged]
- kuschku 3y agoThe article you've posted is engaging in mental gymnastics and misrepresentation that I've never considered possible. To sum up the facts: - PiS got into power several years ago - PiS fired all the journalists of public broadcasters and replaced them with staff they selected. Major private media corporations in poland were already closely aligned with PiS, and independent media was shut down. - As a result, for several years all media in poland was pro-government. Regardless of your political ideals, that's not something that happens in a working democracy. - In the most recent election, PiS lost. - The new government fired the employees at public broadcasters that PiS had selected. The actions of Donald Tusk's government lead to more opinions being represented in media. Which indicates that Tusk's government provides more freedom of the press than the previous one.
- mklkj 3y ago> Major private media corporations in poland were already closely aligned with PiS Actually... it was quite the opposite. The vast majority of private media were not pro-PiS. The problem only concerned public media, financed from the state budget
- throwawayqqq11 3y ago> that's not something that happens in a working democracy. PiS winning their second term would also be a product of a working democracy. Their certain continuation of their power grab would be a contradiction to your statement.
- psacawa 3y ago> Major private media corporations in poland were already closely aligned with PiS [...] This statement is an outright lie. For example, Gazeta Wyborcza, all of Agora Media, and TVN have always been anti-PiS. >[...] and independent media was shut down. Can you elaborate on this? > As a result, for several years all media in poland was pro-government. Completely untrue.
- wafflemaker 3y agoWorth pointing out that bribed* by PIS reporters have made the Polish "public" (in reality party owned) television into a meme by the sheer amount and ridiculousness of propaganda. What older people watched out of habit and inability to get their information online, was so bad that you could as well watch it as a monthy python episode. And one of the most shown topics was blaming literally anything on the PM that ruled 8 years ago (one who thrown then out now). They blamed from immigrants and war in Ukraine to bad weather and situation in health services. They even showed the guy with parts of his previous party logo as horns and with his face hued with red. I'm not making this stuff up. *They were bribed with money taken from defunded children cancer treatments.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago> What older people watched out of habit and inability to get their information online The quality of "news" old people end up finding online isn't any better than on TV. I know because unfortunately, my parents in their 60's, both with advanced degrees, are now more retarded and brainwashed than ever, by all the nasty shit that gets pushed to them on Facebook, Youtube and Tiktok. I think those are even worse than the TV, because in the EU what gets shown on TV is at least mildly regulated, but what gets shown to you on social media isn't.
- unpopularopp 3y ago>Remix is funded in part by the Batthyány Lajos Foundation in Budapest Yeah that's the usual populist Fidesz propaganda then, why I'm not surprised Edit: you can downvote me these are facts HUF 3.5 billion from Rogán's ministry to the Lajos Batthyány Foundation, full of Fidesz members https://444.hu/2020/06/10/35-milliardot-kapott-rogan-miniszteriumatol-a-fideszesekkel-teli-batthyany-lajos-alapitvany https://444.hu/2020/06/10/35-milliardot-kapott-rogan-miniszt... Rogán's Ministry gave HUF 9.2 billion to the Lajos Batthyány Foundation in January https://hvg.hu/gazdasag/20230228_rogan_miniszterelnoki_kabinetiroda_batthyany_lajos_alapitvany https://hvg.hu/gazdasag/20230228_rogan_miniszterelnoki_kabin... The Protected Society Foundation has received HUF 22 million from the Lajos Batthyány Foundation, which operates with billions of public funds, according to a report by the organisation that spreads far-right ideas https://telex.hu/belfold/2023/05/26/vedett-tarsadalom-alapitvany-batthyany-lajos-kozpenz-tamogatas-fidesz https://telex.hu/belfold/2023/05/26/vedett-tarsadalom-alapit... The Fidesz-affiliated The European Conservative aims to become a leading European news publication, and will receive the necessary support from the government through the Lajos Batthyány Foundation (BLA), worth more than HUF 1.6 billion https://index.hu/kulfold/2023/07/26/brusszel-batthyany-lajos-alapitvany-fidesz-miniszterelnokseg-tamogatas-european-conservative/ https://index.hu/kulfold/2023/07/26/brusszel-batthyany-lajos... etc etc etc
- sjwhevvvvvsj 3y agoCall it what it is: Fidesz is an arm of the Putin regime.
- rasz 3y agoNo, he kicked previous party minions from Public TV station, politicians who somehow had private passes allowing them to roam free around Public Broadcaster facilities. Previous regime in Poland was super close to becoming another Hungary with only Party aligned media being allowed to operate. They did try to shut down US owned TV station by using "anti russian media influence" law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_TVN https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_TVN
- canadiantim 3y ago[flagged]
- hef19898 3y agoThey have a new one, you know?
- canadiantim 3y agoyeah that's the one I was talking about. The one who's acting like a dictator and shutting down the free press
- hef19898 3y agoYou are either a professional troll, or you don't know which year we are living in. Maybe both...
- canadiantim 3y ago[flagged]
- peterhadlaw 3y ago[flagged]
- andrenth 3y ago“Poland and the demon in democracy” https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/poland-and-the-demon-in-democracy https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/poland-and-the-demon-in-d...
- Kwpolska 3y agoPoliticians committing crimes end up in courts and then in prison, plain and simple. And this is plain propaganda, repeating many talking points of the PiS party (the party previously in power, who illegally used Pegasus).
- Tostino 3y agoiT's poLitICal PerSeCutiOn!
- andrepd 3y agoIs anyone fooled by this drivel? Honest question. Because some things are pernicious: misleading but in a subtle way, sly and devious. This is just so in-your-face laughable.
- padjo 3y agoAbout 40% of American voters appear to be falling for it.
- bobx11 3y agoThe author seems to contradict themselves in many places… maybe they just really want it to be true. For example, “allegedly” and “convicted” in this case: > He was convicted during Tusk’s previous regime (2007-2014) for allegedly abusing his power while pursuing government corruption with “excessive zeal,” but was officially pardoned by then-new President Andrzej Duda in 2015 – a long-standing point of displeasure for the Polish left.
- Tade0 3y ago> The former top European Union official’s party only won 30% of the vote compared to the 36% of his incumbent conservative, EU-skeptical rivals, the Law and Justice (PiS) party, but was nonetheless able to assemble a coalition of leftists to take power. Just one party in this coalition is from the left. The rest is decidedly centre to centre-right. Hard to treat this piece seriously.
- rasz 3y ago1 Over 7000 licenses for Pegasus alone. Both opposition and own party surveilled. 2 Usage of Pegasus means all intercepts are on the servers in Israel. All Government secrets and potential kompromat transferred to foreign power.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago>Usage of Pegasus means all intercepts are on the servers in Israel Wait, seriously? Any sources on that? I find it hard to believe that any government would spend $$$ on a security tool that doesn't allow on-prem installation and instead beams all your surveillance to another country.
- DANmode 3y agoYou have a lot to catch up on, then.
- xemoka 3y agoI’m curious about this statement too, seems there’s evidence that they don’t and the customer is the data handler: https://www.edps.europa.eu/system/files_en?file=2023-01/0221_2022-0615_019_redacted.pdf https://www.edps.europa.eu/system/files_en?file=2023-01/0221... top of page 4. I guess this is all according to NSO claims. I’d like to see evidence otherwise!
- axlee 3y agoWhy would you trust anything a spyware company says? This is not a tongue-in-cheek question.
- miohtama 3y agoNo honour among the thieves
- giancarlostoro 3y agoIt is a lot of money lost if it comes out that you lied to some of your biggest clients.
- agilob 3y ago"and illegally" is strangely missing from the title
- dkjaudyeqooe 3y agoGod knows what dystopian regulations/powers they created for themselves.
- dang 3y agoThat's no doubt an artifact of HN's 80 char title limit, which required the submitter to shorten the title. Edit: I've changed it now.
- joecool1029 3y agoIs 80 still the hard limit? I see it warns if too long when typing in a new submission. However, HN guidelines don't provide guidance in what to do if the title is too long.
- dang 3y ago80 is the hard limit with a few weird exceptions like you can have 6 extra chars for " [pdf]". > However, HN guidelines don't provide guidance in what to do if the title is too long We can't get to that level of detail in the guidelines—it would make them so long that no one would read them! Except maybe to look for loopholes.
- sjwhevvvvvsj 3y agoFuck NSO Group.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoThe NSO is only supplying a product for which there is insatiable demand from every government. If they wouldn't build them, someone else will. They're kind of like arms manufacturers. Do you blame them if your government shoots you?
- Qem 3y ago> They're kind of like arms manufacturers. More like hired hitmen.
- p_l 3y agoIf the arms manufacturer explicitly works with unethical and illegal uses of clients as main sales target, yes.
- axlee 3y ago> The NSO is only supplying a product for which there is insatiable demand from every government. There is also insatiable demand for nuclear weapons, but if a private company from the US started selling them to random dictatorships, yes, I would blame them.
- dogma1138 3y agoPoland isn’t a dictatorship, it’s an EU member state and a member of NATO. Also let’s not compare malware/spyware to nuclear weapons. Poland can get their hands on any weapon or controlled technology they pretty much want.
- axlee 3y agoPegasus is notoriously sold to more than 40 countries worldwide, among them a fair share of dictatorships: Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, (Hungary?), Bahrain, Russia...
- machinekob 3y agobest of all they spy on their own party members and some businessmen's which were rivals of some party members family
- dkjaudyeqooe 3y agoTo absolutely no one's surprise.
- darthrupert 3y agoWhat is surprising is that Poland was able to rescue itself from this catastrophe with democratic means. Unlike Hungary and Belarus.
- miohtama 3y agoThis is what happens when democracy starts to dysfunction and the ruling party wants to cling to power any means necessary.
- morehypocrisy 3y ago[dead]
- chewz 3y agoJust bear in mind that this is the same Polish PM whose former government set World record making requests to Apple for data from 241 509 iPhones in 1H2015… (out of 300 thousand total request from the entire World)… Quarter milion iPhones in 2015 in Poland was basically everyone who counts in public life. https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/pdf/requests-2015-H1-en.pdf https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/pdf/requests-2015-H...
- dmortin 3y agoMaking requests is one thing, because Apple can deny the request, while using Pegasus simply hacks the phone without oversight.
- chewz 3y agoThank God we have Apple to uphold civic society and due process in Poland
- Szpadel 3y agofrom your linked document: *Poland: predominately requests from Customs and Revenue Authorities
- chewz 3y agoKAS is under government control MoF, not an independent institution, right?
- p_l 3y agoKAS has very specific mandate though and doesn't share with other institutions - they tend to go after very specific things that they do know how to get. Not that it's a crystal clear institution, but everything will go around taxes and customs with them, even when it's something rotten.
- morehypocrisy 3y ago[dead]
- cvalka 3y agoWhy not target the NSO group headquarters with a drone?
- IYasha 3y agoBecause that must be helluva drone!
- gadelat 3y agoIs Pegasus still working, or OS manufacturers patched the vulnerabilities it was using?
- kiicia 3y agoPegasus is in constant development, its not one off spyware
- WonderingMary 3y agoPegasus is only the malware that has the spying capabilities (file upload, download and command execution...etc). it usually infects the intended target using an exploit (0-day) that doesnt have a fix, if you're asking if there are 0days that can hack modern iPhones, the answer is most likely yes, given the most recent hack against the iPhone of one of the executives of the russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f6YyH62jFE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f6YyH62jFE