
Monsanto 'compiled dossier' on political opponents - microwavecamera
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48253577
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alwayseasy
This is basic lobbying work. They used publicly available data (like Twitter
posts or news articles) to annotate an excel file of public figures with
mentions such as "Potentially an ally" or "Detractor".

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DivestTrump
...which is against the law in France.

Edit:

> Le Monde reported that the list was "problematic" under French law which
> prohibits the construction of a database "revealing the political and
> philosophical opinions of a person without their consent".

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chuckgreenman
Honestly, why wouldn't you. We're in a call out culture period of time. If
you're running a business it makes sense to research the people most likely to
become a problem for you in the future.

Not personal, just business.

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alexkavon
> Not personal, just business.

Ah yes, the oldest way to get out of responsibility for actions. "It's not
personal, I just personally want my business to succeed even if it comes at a
cost to you."

~~~
chuckgreenman
People's definition of what is right is different. Why not give your vision a
bit more force behind it.

That's not immoral, it's just the way to get ahead of the detractors.

~~~
alexkavon
Specifically why I left morality out of it. If one brings morals into it, you
end up using phrases like “it’s not personal, it’s business” to justify morals
or disregard responsibility from actions.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with adding “force”, or “force majeure”
in some cases, behind ideas. Just don’t pretend that it doesn’t cost anything
or that doing so is not having an effect by slinging around meaningless
apologies like “sorry, it’s not personal, it’s business.”

~~~
RandomInteger4
If you're playing chess against someone, it would be absurd to ignore the
positions of their pieces when deciding your next moves, especially given that
the positions of the pieces are open knowledge. Stop trying to make strategic
decision making into an illegal or unethical thing. That's absurd.

~~~
alexkavon
> Stop trying to make strategic decision making into an illegal or unethical
> thing. That's absurd.

What? Could you please explain this and point out when it happened?

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CompanionCuuube
The dog whistle of "get out of responsibility".

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cjensen
The First Amendment is so fundamental to my American understanding of liberty,
that I'm dumfounded to learn that a developed country like France has a law
that says it is illegal to write a paper summarizing someone's publicly
expressed political views.

How different is their concept of liberty that they would even consider a law
against compiling public facts?

~~~
DivestTrump
Perhaps they too should create blacklists of suspected communists to be
reported to the government for extrajudicial consequences. Then France can
enjoy freedom like America.

~~~
toasterlovin
FWIW, everybody pretty much agrees that McCarthyism was bad. And, more
importantly, it's a thing of the past. To be honest, litigating present issues
by citing the past positions of people who are now mostly dead is kind of odd
and nonsensical.

