Daniel Zuidijk
@dzuidijk.bsky.social
Journalist covering digital culture and video games.
The overwhelming right wing sentiment is that COVID was an engineered bioweapon that was also harmless. Trump overreacted to it by shutting down the country, then engineered a drive to create a vaccine that was the real bioweapon that killed millions, and it's Joe Biden's fault.
I’ve been kind of quiet on here since leaving my job at Bloomberg News earlier this summer, but another [not so] wet hot summer for the far-right means it is too hard to stay quiet
Don’t underestimate the impact of Sunday’s story about Nigel Farage planning his return to politics earlier than previously said
Nigel Farage struck Reform comeback deal long before election
Supervised by the convicted fraudster George Cottrell, the agreement undermines Farage’s claim about when he decided to return to politics
thetimes.com
[Does the mental arithmetic to Dee how many #MTGxStarTrek cards I’m going to be able to afford]
Magic: The Gathering@magic.wizards.com · last mo.Captain Picard, a master at helping you discover your full potential in the #MTGxStarTrek Welcome Deck!
Captain Picard, a master at helping you discover your full potential in the #MTGxStarTrek Welcome Deck!
In this week's The Game Business Micro, a major retail group has criticized PlayStatipn's plan to kill the disc, and we wrap up the news from Xbox's 1,600 cuts. www.thegamebusiness.com/p/retail-tra...
Retail trade body condemns PlayStation’s plan to kill the disc – The Game Business Micro
Plus, all the latest around Xbox’s brutal cuts
thegamebusiness.com
Elon Musk's family foundation funded far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon's recent trip to Russia. Lennon, more commonly known as 'Tommy Robinson', travelled to the country last month with the billionaire's father Errol
Tommy Robinson’s Musk-funded Russia trip spurs call to defend UK democracy
Ed Davey voices concern about the Musk family foundation taking the far-right activist on a visit to Moscow
theguardian.com
The ‘German Driving School’ Telegram chat used coded terms to discuss drugging and raping women
Inside the Telegram ‘drug rape’ chat group that shocked Germany
The men, who drugged and secretly filmed their victims, were members of an online gang targeting mainly women of Chinese heritage
theguardian.com
Nigel Farage's spokesman has denied fresh allegations the Reform UK leader may have broken parliamentary rules, after reports the MP failed to declare benefits provided by an ally who was once convicted of fraud in the US.
Farage denies rules broken after reports benefits from ally were not declared
The Sunday Times says the Reform UK leader failed to register the support supplied by a man who had been convicted of fraud in the US.
bbc.co.uk
Today's Sunday Times has a blockbuster read about Nigel Farage's relationship with 'convicted criminal' George Cottrell. The Reform leader's relationship with Cottrell has long been in the public domain, but the insight team has details that shocked even my cynical heart More below 👇👇👇
Revealed: Nigel Farage secretly funded by convicted criminal
The Reform UK leader did not declare benefits including staff, security and housing by crypto-gambler George Cottrell, our investigation reveals
thetimes.com
Run don’t walk to this @nytimes.com article about Polymarket’s 'messy' dispute resolution system
The Donk-ing of a Truth Machine
nytimes.com
Vandalism, taunts and hijabs torn off: Muslim leaders in UK say hate crime hitting new levels
Vandalism, taunts and hijabs torn off: Muslim leaders in UK say hate crime hitting new levels
Ministers accused of being more hesitant to respond as Reform has risen in polls, due to fear of ‘saying wrong thing’ During the May local elections in England, a canvasser was out in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham campaigning for her party. At one doorstep, the occupant asked if she was Muslim. When she said yes, he told her she should be hanged. It is one of dozens of stories that Akeela Ahmed, head of the British Muslim Trust (BMT), the government’s official partner for monitoring anti-Muslim hatred, has heard in recent weeks. Continue reading...
theguardian.com
…and THIS is why you don’t believe them when they tell you to just take their word your rights are going to be protected
Reform UK plan to target EU nationals based in Britain ‘absolutely outrageous’
Exclusive: Rights group says Nigel Farage’s party is reneging on promises made during the Brexit referendum campaign
theguardian.com
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We should stop lending X any legitimacy and Elon Musk more power by being on that cesspit of a platform.
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2mo agoThere were 1 million views on X for Tommy Robinson posting this on June 18th calling for mass public executions of "Pakistani rope gang" (Perceptions may differ on whether this is a call for the state to execute convicted criminals for grooming, or to organise public lynchings, or both).
One of the UK’s most senior police officers says that he understands where the the perception of two -tier policing has come from
Top officer says anti-racism guidance has fuelled myth of two-tier policing
Head of Greater Manchester force refutes claims of anti-white bias but says he understands where it comes from
theguardian.com
The Ukrainian man who set fire to two homes and a car linked to Keir Starmer, and a friend who assisted him, have both been jailed today The fires were commissioned by a Russian Telegram account, but a bizarre conspiracy theory that the culprits were "rent boys" persists inews.co.uk/news/starmer...
Starmer was targeted by sex worker conspiracy straight from Putin's playbook
It was a conspiracy shared by a handful of social media accounts and ultimately ended up in Russian state media
inews.co.uk
A) This a properly brilliant piece of investigative journalism by BBC & @hopenot.bsky.social Huge kudos to all involved for doing the job the UK police & CPS failed to do: naming the alleged spymaster & clearly showing Kremlin’s role. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Russia was behind arson attacks targeting PM, BBC reveals
Evidence shows Russians directing the plot and stoking tensions with fake far-right and Muslim groups.
bbc.co.uk
1/I’ve often been frustrated by the extent to which western democracies have blamed every divisive online trend on “Russian propaganda”. Often it’s felt like governments were just ignoring the fact that the call was coming from inside the house when it came to things like far-right creators…
After more than eight years, I’ve taken the decision to step down from my role at Bloomberg. I accomplished my exponentially more than I thought I would, but it is the right time for me to do something new (1/?)
Taking an extended break from social media might be great but it is nothing compared to the high you get when ten complete strangers like one of your posts
Thinking about the Russian troll factory who totally failed to have any impact on the election despite producing hundreds of fake news clips about Nikol over the last few years.
Joni Askola@joniaskola.bsky.social · 2mo agoRussia lost the election in Armenia, which is good news for the whole world
Meta’s ideological leanings were always obvious to those of us who closely watched the company, but it is still shocking to hear Clegg so openly admit to what he saw
Silicon Valley including Meta has embraced Maga politics, says Nick Clegg
Meta’s former head of global affairs says executives pivoted right in some cases for ‘rather more self-interested’ reasons
theguardian.com
