Environmental campaigners appear to have been targeted by security companies linked to London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
The protestors intended to unveil a banner about a planned road tunnel outside a Q & A attended by the Mayor at the O2 centre near Canary Wharf.
They were identified, individually addressed by name and prevented from entering and unfolding the banner.
The security firm did not reveal the source of this information but it is suspected the activists WhatsApp group was hacked.
Last week, at a launch party for Laurent Richard’s book on Pegasus, I asked the Guardian’s investigations editor Paul Lewis why he thought no stories had been broken about the use of Pegasus by the British police and on UK left wing activists.
Particularly given that there is an ongoing inquiry into Spycops – police adopting the identity of dead children on order to infiltrate the lives of law abiding activists, even fathering children with them.
Paul told me (and the rest of the room) that Brits aren’t as bothered about privacy and surveillance as they are in America.
Though I was (quietly and politely) disappointed with this answer at the time, I should really reflect on what exactly upset me.
Just because I, like most Americans, think hacking phones is outrageous, maybe Paul is right – maybe in Britain we just don’t care.
To be clear – Paul said that he and the Guardian are completely against hacking phones themselves.
Maybe we are more interested in hearing Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak repeat the term “small boats” and take away our right to a fair trial than we are in protecting what used to be referred to as our human rights.
The same is said when speaking about GM food – that the British people are not bothered about GM food or pesticides.
It’s an elegant way for PR people & lobbyists to undemocratically push unregulated technology for profit and increased social control without any fear of a backlash.
If you’re on the payroll then you tend to be all for this type of argument because it pays your bills, but it’s a false economy, a Faustian pact, because when you need a functioning food supply or health system the political decisions you did nothing to prevent will be the ones that come back to haunt you.
Of course you may be blissfully ignorant of all that by the time they affect you because your mind will be busy being controlled by the next big thing to be upset about. Distraction from the real issues. Your own complicity and your own powerlessness to do anything to help yourself or the people around you.
Not for me to disempower you of course. This is supposed to be an enlightened space.
Pegasus is probably being used on people around you that it shouldn’t be – and it isn’t going to be reported on because it is not judged to be newsworthy.
The irony being that Paul Lewis told me what he told me in a room full of journalists!
I don’t hold him responsible for the way news is perceived in his newsroom. He probably has more clout than he realises but it appears to be a team sport and likely relies on state actors to be able to do what it does.
All the News that’s fit to Click which came out last year places great emphasis on the the idea of judgment as to whether something is newsworthy. That it is hard to explain but that it is an instinct that one can feel.
But is it to some extent also about learning not to upset powerful people? Self censorship, taboo, omerta?
The guardian has been accused of this and other papers are obviously even worse – but it is interesting to see who they do choose to target and when.
Here is a video about Pegasus.
Click here to watch it
