Alexander Fanta

@alexfanta.bsky.social

724 followers 427 following 64 posts

Journalist with Follow the Money. All things tech, EU, transparency. FOI curious.

Reposted by Alexander Fanta

Christof Mackinger @mcginger.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 03, 2024 at 11:49 UTC

Im @augustinzeitung.bsky.social gehen Christian Bunke & ich der bekanntesten Bauruine Wiens auf den Grund: Lamarr
#benko #signa
Was wollen Leute dort anstatt eines Luxushotels?
Ich kann nur sagen: Wirklich beachtlich, diese Intelligenzia der Straße!

augustin.or.at/zeitung/aktu...

0 replies 3 reposts 4 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 04, 2024 at 09:49 UTC

Our story about about Sanna Marin quietly becoming Ukraine's (and Moldova's) most high-profile lobbyist in Brussels made the cover of yesterday's Iltalehti and was picked up by media across Finland. In case you're wondering what all the buzz is about, check it out:
www.ftm.eu/articles/san...

0 replies 1 reposts 6 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 03, 2024 at 07:26 UTC

After being ousted as Finland’s prime minister last year, Sanna Marin is being paid to help Ukraine and Moldova on their path towards EU membership, according to documents obtained by Follow the Money.
www.ftm.eu/articles/san...

0 replies 1 reposts 2 likes

Reposted by Alexander Fanta

Jean Comte @jeancomte.bsky.social
[ View ] May 28, 2024 at 13:11 UTC

I will be this weekend at Dataharvest, the European Investigative Journalism Conference, to talk about the various threats surrounding the right of access to documents. With @alexfanta.bsky.social
dataharvest24.sched.com/event/1cAsd/...

1 replies 1 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Apr 29, 2024 at 05:34 UTC

Under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission has become more secretive. Here are the top things it’s hiding from you. Listicle alert 🚨

www.ftm.eu/articles/urs...

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Apr 12, 2024 at 06:12 UTC

Sechs Monate nach seinem Abtritt heuerte Sebastian Kurz im Stillen bei einem Wasserstoffkonzern in Abu Dhabi an. Auch seine engsten Vertrauten sind im Emirat umtriebig. Das wirft Fragen auf.
www.derstandard.at/story/300000...

3 replies 12 reposts 11 likes

Reposted by Alexander Fanta

Jean Comte @jeancomte.bsky.social
[ View ] Apr 10, 2024 at 19:04 UTC

It's here!

0 replies 2 reposts 3 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Apr 05, 2024 at 05:23 UTC

In July 2021, then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz pushed Austria into a hydrogen alliance with the United Arab Emirates. Eight months later, he quietly joined the Dutch subsidiary of an Emirati state-owned energy firm that wants to ship hydrogen to Europe.
www.ftm.eu/articles/aus...

0 replies 11 reposts 12 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Mar 20, 2024 at 08:30 UTC

How Ursula von der Leyen has ducked public scrutiny of her billion-euro emergency purchase of Covid vaccines, and what that means for the transparency and accountability of the EU institutions: very interesting documentary featuring yours truly aired on Arte last night: www.arte.tv/en/videos/11...

0 replies 1 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Mar 07, 2024 at 16:00 UTC

The EU’s anti-corruption watchdog OLAF has cleared ex-Commissioner Neelie Kroes of conflict of interest allegations. But OLAF’s final report on the Kroes probe, which Follow the Money obtained, reveals investigator’s frustration over “selective disclosures” by Uber.
www.ftm.eu/articles/ube...

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Feb 29, 2024 at 11:41 UTC

Legal scholars, is there anything in EU law that suggests that the European Commission should not suppress knowledge of violations of international law?

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Feb 29, 2024 at 05:53 UTC

The launch of the digital euro could give every European a free, universal payment account. But this grand vision is at risk of being curtailed by a well-coordinated lobbying campaign of the banking industry.
www.ftm.eu/articles/ban...

0 replies 1 reposts 3 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Feb 13, 2024 at 19:40 UTC

Journalism rap taunts "If you're having lede problems I feel bad for you son / I got 99 problems but the pitch ain't one"

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Jan 25, 2024 at 06:32 UTC

Controversial non-profit Thorn touts its software as a privacy-friendly way to detect child abuse content. The European Commission has praised Thorn. But the tech is less reliable than it purports to be, new documents obtained by Follow the Money show.

0 replies 10 reposts 8 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Jan 24, 2024 at 11:55 UTC

Warum lässt sich die EU beim Kampf gegen Kindesmissbrauch von der NGO eines Hollywoodstars helfen? Und wer verfolgt dabei welche Motive?

Darüber habe ich mit ZDF Die Spur geredet. Ist eine spannende Sendung geworden.

Stream: www.zdf.de/dokumentatio...

0 replies 1 reposts 3 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Jan 23, 2024 at 10:32 UTC

Morgen bei ZDF Die Spur 🍿

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Jan 17, 2024 at 13:05 UTC

Some to-weird-to-be-true news from the #PfizerGate lawsuit. Ironically, vaccine sceptics are delaying scrutiny of a vaccine deal.
Source: ftm.eu Newsletter

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Jan 13, 2024 at 10:12 UTC

Documents obtained by Follow the Money reveal how, a quarter of a century ago, Europe’s most powerful politicians torpedoed an initiative that could have safeguarded media pluralism across Europe.
www.ftm.eu/articles/hel...

0 replies 3 reposts 4 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Jan 13, 2024 at 09:30 UTC

Vor 25 Jahren arbeitete die EU-Kommission an einer Richtlinie zur Bekämpfung der Medienkonzentration. Doch ein Brief aus Bonn torpedierte das Vorhaben. Das hat bis heute Folgen.
www.sueddeutsche.de/medien/kohls...

0 replies 2 reposts 2 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Dec 25, 2023 at 16:09 UTC

Linz ist auch nur Workingclass-Salzburg

1 replies 1 reposts 6 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Dec 25, 2023 at 16:07 UTC

Was ist der Unterschied zwischen einem Airfryer und einem Umluft-Backofen?

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Dec 24, 2023 at 13:31 UTC

Solche Fragen sind eher was für Mastodon, dem Nerd-Heim

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Dec 12, 2023 at 09:23 UTC

The European Media Freedom Act is meant to protect the press from government overreach. But behind closed doors, a group of EU member states are threatening to block the new law over their demands for a blank check to use spyware for the purposes of “national security”.

0 replies 2 reposts 2 likes

Reposted by Alexander Fanta

Sebastian Meineck @sebmeineck.bsky.social
[ View ] Dec 04, 2023 at 12:02 UTC

Der 43. Online-Recherche Newsletter ist ein Reiseführer ins Dickicht der #EU-Websites. @alexfanta.bsky.social erklärt im Interview, wie er der EU auf die Finger schaut und wie man dabei Geschichten findet, die sonst niemand macht.

sebmeineck.substack.com/i/139166083/...

0 replies 2 reposts 3 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Nov 30, 2023 at 13:10 UTC

Nice!

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Nov 23, 2023 at 08:21 UTC

*plonk*

0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Nov 16, 2023 at 05:33 UTC

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter a year ago and re-named it "X", the platform has lost half its value, big advertisers and millions of users. Documents obtained by Follow the Money reveal how the company struggles to comply with a new EU social media law.

0 replies 14 reposts 15 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Nov 13, 2023 at 13:57 UTC

To my mind, this is good news, as it means the NYT's case will not be hijacked by vaccine sceptics. The decision for the court, ultimately, is about whether the Commission can arbitrarily exclude things from their definition of "document". It's not a ruling about vaccines per se.

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Nov 13, 2023 at 13:57 UTC

However, the court found that, just because BonSens was litigating elsewhere, it's argument was "clearly not sufficient to establish a direct and existing interest in the result of the case". Court dismissed the motion on Oct 5, together with a similar application.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Nov 13, 2023 at 13:57 UTC

BonSens apparently argued that as they had brought similar lawsuits in the EU and the US, they were entitled to join the case brought by the NYT for Von der Leyen's text messages with the CEO of Pfizer in the vaccine procurement.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Nov 13, 2023 at 13:57 UTC

According to court filings, the General Court of the EU has rejected an application by French vaccine sceptic organisation BonSens to join the #Pfizergate lawsuit of @matinastevis.bsky.social & The New York Times against the European Commission.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Nov 10, 2023 at 11:35 UTC

Was heißt kennen, ICH BIN DER ANDREAS!

0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 18, 2023 at 05:18 UTC

Today, the EU and its member states are the biggest funders of the Palestinian Authority. Experts agree that its collapse would strengthen Hamas and destabilise the region. But for how long can Europe fund a state-building project that is going nowhere?
www.ftm.eu/articles/eu-...

0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 15, 2023 at 17:39 UTC

Müsste der Ablauf eines solchen Verfahrens nicht klar gesetzlich geregelt sein?

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 15, 2023 at 12:29 UTC

If the EDPS decides to investigate the Commission over using potentially illegal microtargeting, this could certainly spice up the CSAM trilogues...

Here the the story by Danny Mekić which brought the Commission's questionable microtargeting to light:
dannymekic.com/202310/under...

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 15, 2023 at 12:28 UTC

The EU's data protection authority told me that while "this step does not constitute opening of a formal investigation, the EDPS will assess the information, once received from the Commissions, and decide on the potential next steps accordingly."

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 15, 2023 at 12:28 UTC

The EDPS requested "information related to the described use of microtargeted ads, to be provided by 20 0ctober."

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 15, 2023 at 12:27 UTC

BREAKING - After reports that the EU Commission used political microtargeting to sway key groups of their controversial CSAM proposal, the European Data Protection Supervisor has reached out under the "so-called pre-investigation procedure. What could this mean?

2 replies 13 reposts 20 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 13, 2023 at 14:59 UTC

Die nächste Wahl in Österreich ist noch ein Jahr weg, aber trotzdem schonmal der Reminder an alle, die Umfragen teilen: Es ist ganz gleich wer auf dem ersten Platz ist. Die Schlüsselfrage ist, ob schwarz und blau eine Mehrheit haben. Wenn ja, ist die nächste Regierung fix.

0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 13, 2023 at 12:58 UTC

You found our about whole roasted cauliflower only know? What were you doing through the pandemic??!

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 13, 2023 at 12:57 UTC

Wann tritt die Tagespresse dem Presserat bei??!!

1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 10, 2023 at 09:42 UTC

Der Vorschlag der schwarz-grünen Bundesregierung für ein österreichisches Informationsfreiheitsgesetz ist eine wesentliche Verbesserung zum Status Quo - und trotzdem nicht stark genug, um für Journalist*innen zum Game Changer zu werden. Warum? Hier ein Thread 🧵

1 replies 5 reposts 8 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 13:23 UTC

Ich kann Sie nur ermutigen, das zu tun. Vielleicht lässt sich das Gesetz noch in ein paar Punkten wie diesen verbessern.

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 12:24 UTC

Das ist interessant, da würde mich eine genauere Analyse interessieren.

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 11, 2023 at 07:58 UTC

Interessanter Punkt. Als juristischer Laie tue ich mir schwer zu sagen, ob die Geheimhaltung "erforderlich und verhältnismäßig" zu machen gleich schwer wiegt wie "ernsthaft unterlaufen". Meine Befürchtung ist halt, dass Behörden in der Praxis das als Catch-almost-all-Verweigerungsgrund benutzen.

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 10, 2023 at 13:31 UTC

Ich glaube, in der Praxis gibt es diese Unterscheidung nicht so stark. Wenn Bürger:innen oder NGOs Missstände anprangern wollen, dann gehen sie ja zu den Medien. Ob die Anfragen jetzt Journalisten stellen oder wer anders, die Frage ist ob es dann irgendwann sinnstiftende Antworten gibt.

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 10, 2023 at 09:47 UTC

Mehr dazu: Besprechen durfte ich das Thema im heute erschienenen Falter-Podcast mit der grünen Klubobfrau Sigi Maurer, sowie Falter-Kollegen Barbara Toth und Raimund Löw. Gibt es hier gratis zu hören: www.falter.at/falter/radio...

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 10, 2023 at 09:46 UTC

10. Gelten soll das IFG ohnehin erst ab 2025. Klar, so ein Gesetz braucht ein bisschen Vorlauf. Aber mit dieser sehr großzügigen Frist ist vielleicht doch etwas länger als nötig und enthebt diese Bundesregierung, in ihrer Amtszeit unter das Gesetz zu fallen.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 10, 2023 at 09:46 UTC

9. Der Entwurf hat immer noch einen "Querulantenparagraphen". Demnach muss die Behörde nicht antworten, wenn Anfragen "offenbar missbräuchlich" erfordern oder eine Antwort ihre Arbeit "unverhältnismäßig beeinträchtigen würde.“ Fürchte, das wird die Generalausrede kleiner Orte.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Alexander Fanta @alexfanta.bsky.social
[ View ] Oct 10, 2023 at 09:45 UTC

8. Überdies sind die langen Fristen eine Hürde. Behörden haben bis zu 2 Monate für Bescheide Zeit, danach können Anfragende vor Gericht ziehen - dieses hat nochmal 2 Monate Zeit für eine Entscheidung. In Schweden oder Estland ist die Frist hingegen nur ein paar Tage.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes