Bonum Certa Men Certa

Shooting the Messenger Using Bribes and Secrecy Bonds

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 06, 2023

More official link (misuse of money to alter behaviour/decision/judgement/outcome):

Harvard Gutted Initial Team Examining Facebook Files Following $500 Million Donation from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Whistleblower Aid Client Reveals

THE Sirius Open Source saga will resume rather soon, so it seems appropriate to take note of the above story at this time.

Where to begin?

This past week or so the world learned that "extremism researcher Joan Donovan" is accusing Facebook of "Pressuring Harvard to Fire" her, according to how Futurism framed it (we linked to the original, seminal page last weekend). Mark Zuckerberg is bribing, as usual, via his wife's bogus 'charity'. So much for "philanthropy". "Beginning in 2018," CNN wrote, "Donovan worked for the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government" and she says "she was pushed out of her job after college faced pressure from Facebook..."

"Joan Donovan, a leading scholar of online-disinformation campaigns, is going public about why she believes she was recently forced out," the Chronicle Of Higher Education said (we had more links about this in our bi-daily News Roundups).

Remember that the same so-called "philanthropy" sponsors some Python projects and programming-related organisations. It is a force of corrupting influence. There are strings attached, including obligatory thank-yous.

Microsoft, which fancies NDAs not just for employees and clients (to silence them, to prevent criticism), does many of the same things. In 2019, i.e. nearly half a decade ago, Bill Gates - albeit through his fake "philanthropy" - compelled my boss to sign an NDA [1, 2, 3] and apparently he does that a lot at a colossal scale.

How deep do these scandals go and who will be found culpable or held accountable? We seem to live in a world where accountability for the rich and well-connected barely exists anymore. They control (bribe) "our" politicians, who will never prosecute them.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM Stock Collapses and It's Only the Beginning
Will GAFAM soon follow and will any executives be arrested for the accounting fraud insiders have long cautioned about?
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 14, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Heshan de Silva-Weeramuni Becomes Program Manager at the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
Heshan's addition means that the FSF is growing after a solid financial year (best in years)
Michael McMahon Explains Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks on the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
The real solution is a curb on botnets. A mitigation strategy, however, would involve going static.
Matters of Public Safety
"Police say Ann Widdecombe killed in 'targeted attack' as motive investigated"
The Register MS and Its Promotional Microsoft Content
It's not too hard to see what the business model of The Register MS is
IBM: From $306 to $212 in 7 Days, IBM Won't Go Up More Than 50% to Where It Was at 'Peak Vapourware'
There's a limit to how much or how long a company can fake its performance and its potential [...] Early this morning a few insiders ("traders") cashed in on their "pump-n-dump"
Red Hat Staff Needs to Start Looking for the Next Job
Workers can conveniently lie or deny it to themselves, but waves of PIPs ("silent layoffs") will sweep over more and more units or teams as the company runs out of money to play with
IBM the Next Bear Stearns
IBM cannot recover if all it has to show is vapourware
I'll Be Extremely Difficult for Microsoft to Sell Any XBox Consoles Now
Microsoft understands this
How Software Freedom Would Benefit Everybody
A society that denies control by greedy companies would do a disservice to monopolies and improve all services to citizens
Links 14/07/2026: Harsh But Also Fair Criticism of Hey Hi (AI) Slop, 'Open' AI Shuts Down Its Own Products as Funds Run Out
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/07/2026: Old CD Binder and AWK
Links for the day
In Defence of Physical Tickets
Tickets are not some "app" and not some "code" on some "screen"
Microsoft Layoffs Not Limited to XBox (False Narrative in the Mainstream Media)
Microsoft is becoming less relevant and workforce reductions won't end any time soon
Links 14/07/2026: Plagiarism Spun as "Training", Zelensky Announces Leadership Shuffle
Links for the day
The Register MS Has Just Published "AI" Webspam That Mentions "AI" 54 Times. It Was Paid to Do This.
Who pays for all this "AI" hype or "buzz"?
Gemini Links 14/07/2026: Self-Advocacy Online; "The Internet Is Dead: How the Web Lost Its Human Soul"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 13, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, July 13, 2026
Modern Technology Harms Women More Than Men (Because the 'Tech Bros' Who Dominate STEM Have a Poor View of Women)
“Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.”
Internet Relay Chat Trolls Are Not Expressing Opinions, They Are Saboteurs
For the record
Links 14/07/2026: "The Freedom of Information Act Is in Serious Trouble"; Irish Datacenters Use Up Almost 25% of Total Energy
Links for the day
The Register MS: "AI" Puff Pieces for Sale, Not Journalism at All, Just "Webspam"
The Register MS isn't the sole culprit
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 12, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, July 12, 2026
How We Do Techrights (and What's Changing Next Week)
Many former news sites no longer yield much non-meaningless news (not anymore); there's a gap to be filled