California City Apologizes for Wrongly Accusing Bloggers of Criminal Hacking

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    To settle a lawsuit, the city of Fullerton California “has agreed to pay $350,000 and take back its accusations of criminal computer hacking” against two local bloggers, reports the Orange County Register. The settlement ends what the newspaper calls “a contentious fight over censorship and freedom of speech.”The lawsuit accused Joshua Ferguson and David Curlee of stealing computerized personnel files from a Dropbox account to which the city had mistakenly given them access. Some of the files were later published online… Attorney Kelly Aviles, representing the bloggers, said she was pleased with the settlement, but the litigation could have been avoided. “The city shouldn’t have tried to blame their mistakes on journalists trying to cover the city,” Aviles said. “It was unbelievably wrong … those kind of people should never be in public office…” Under the terms of the deal, Aviles will be paid $230,000, while Ferguson and Curlee will receive $60,000 each. Additionally, the city must publish a public apology on the home page of its website, Aviles said. While no formal charges were brought against the bloggers, the city’s accusations of criminal conduct cost them friends and family members. She said Ferguson was fired from his job. “It was really traumatic for them,” Aviles said. In turn, the bloggers must return the remaining confidential recordswhich they don’t plan on publishing anyway, Aviles said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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    ‘The objective is to damage the West’: The information of how Russian propagandists are fighting on Europe

    A Russian-born 13-year-old lady, recognized only as Lisa F, declared in January in 2015 that she was abducted and raped by three evacuees while staying in Berlin.

    The tale provoked a big action on social networks. Russian news outlets kept up the news before the police could complete their investigation. It likewise stimulated objections in Berlin, where advocates condemned Angela Merkel’s evacuee plan.

    The tale went so far that Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, charged the German federal government of attempting to cover it up as well as of “sweeping problems under the rug.” In return, Berlin alerted Russia not to manipulate the case for publicity.

    Just days after the report, Berlin police ended their examination and claimed the girl had invested the 30 hours in which she was supposedly kidnapped with individuals she knew– which a medical checkup had shown she had actually not been raped. They did open an examination right into 2 suspects.

    This did not stop Russian media from advising repeatedly over migrants raping females as well as youngsters in Europe. The majority of worryingly, lots of German Russians still refused to believe the German authorities or federal government after the tale was refuted.

    The so-called “Lisa-case” is among countless online tales linking evacuees in Europe to criminal task, including rape, attacks, and burglaries. Gas is thrown on these cinders by groups on social media and also blog sites. Behind all of it is what politicians as well as specialists are calling an expanding Russian publicity campaign targeted at destabilising Europe.

    An EU authorities with expertise of the matter, that asked to remain confidential as a result of the sensitive nature of his job, talked with Business Insider regarding the disinformation campaign emanating from the Kremlin. The Kremlin did not promptly reply to our request for remark over email.

    The Lisa-case demonstrates how the disinformation functions from the bottom up, the EU official discussed. In this situation, a neighborhood tale gathered a lot attention on social networks, that it was gotten by Russian state media and also ultimately relayed to the top people in the Russian management, creating a diplomatic spat.