In 2023, the then-Conservative government awarded Palantir with a £330m contract to “build a new NHS data platform”. The move proved controversial because Palantir is a US spy tech firm and its co-founder Peter Thiel is a prominent Trump donor with links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Now, a trove of leaked emails have shone further light on Thiel’s connections.

  • Deflated0ne@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    1 day ago

    It’s 100% safe to assume anyone who even leans in the direction of supporting supply-side economics is a diddler.

  • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    97
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    I assume y’all on the other side of the pond are just learning about Palantir for the first time and that’s why you’re looking for bombshell headlines. I can assure you as someone from Silicon Valley that there is literally no single headline that can possibly convey the pure evil that is Peter Thiel. He literally believes that it is morally and, from his perspective, objectively correct that a few pre-selected technocrat elites (his words) should rule city-states that “compete” with each other. He is currently miserably failing at building a libertarian “eutopia” (his words) out in the desert to the east of San Francisco. He promises it would be done by this year. It hasn’t even started.

    He founded PayPal and got mad when he immediately learned that banks exist for a reason. He was such a piece of shit that Elon Musk couldn’t work with him.

    • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      20 hours ago

      Well, Elon wouldn’t work with him because Elon had a shitty idea that Thiel said was shitty and wouldn’t let Elon do it. Elon was forced to settle for becoming filthy rich.

      That project is where the name “X” originally comes from.

    • Tweak@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      1 day ago

      Dude, the US has been lagging behind the UK for the last decade. We voted for Brexit because of Cambridge Analytica, then you voted Trump for the first time because of Cambridge Analytica. We voted for Boris in 2019, you got Trump again in 2024. We’re probably going to vote in Nigel Farage next and then the US will be like “Hold my beer!”

      Palantir is just another symptom of this wider problem.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 day ago

        Ok, but hear me out: what if we got Nigel Farage in a 10 gallon hat with Liz Truss in a 10 gallon hat for VP.

    • zeezee@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      1 day ago

      uhm idk who’s not familiar with Thiel but the blueprint of his “utopia” - “The Sovereign Individual” was literally co-written by no other than William Rees-Mogg a conservative house of lords cross-bencher who’s also the father of two other conservative MPs that have served in the UK Parliament.

      the 2014 reprint of the book has a foreword by Thiel, where he says that it’s “the most influential book he had read”

      so as usual the theoretical frameworks have been drafted in the heart of empire and implemented in the “land of the free”

    • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Wikipedia classifies him as a “thinker”. Does your wiki entry classify you as a thinker? Check and mate, lib.

      • Rose@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        2 days ago

        Being a “thinker” isn’t exactly a high bar. A fish can do it (depending on the definition). I mean I suppose I can think, but I wouldn’t brag about it.

        • lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          24 hours ago

          if you have nothing worth bragging about, resorting to basic functions of sapient life for clout is the best you can do. I’m a thinker too. I’m also a breather, an eater and plenty moee things that aren’t special.

          I’ve got some actual achievements too, such as being a former piece of shit, so I’ve actually got a leg up on him!

    • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 day ago

      The first time? Hardly, for anyone who can read and find proper news sources. I’ve been telling people for years that the most dangerous people in the fascist middle northern america are not in the white house, but in the silicon valley - and that the most evil motherfucker is Peter Thiel.

    • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 day ago

      I can assure you as someone from Silicon Valley that there is literally no single headline that can possibly convey the pure evil that is Peter Thiel. He literally believes that …

      Fuck, you spoiled my plan to drop a nuke there.

        • shads@lemy.lol
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          2 days ago

          I knew what that was going to be before I checked the link. I see you are a cultured individual.

      • Saleh@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        2 days ago

        They are both linked through their families colonizing history in South Africa, including staunch Nazi support in their families.

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    Its cofounder Peter Thiel is basically a doomsday culter who wants to be the one to herald doomsday for most of the population.

    • Doomsider@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 day ago

      Oof, can’t wait till this asshole dies off just like every other doomsday wannabe fucktard.

      • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 day ago

        Don’t worry, it’s cool, he has a great bunker and a few private islands to chill on. If he doesn’t put you on the “cull” list.

          • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 day ago

            It does seem like the muttering, scrawny weirdo would be the first to get put out on their arse post-apocalypse by… literally anyone currently in their employ.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 day ago

    Of course the UK wants to deal with palantir, they want a surveillance state. They have always wanted a surveillance state there

  • ALLGLORYTOHYPNOTOAD@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    240
    ·
    2 days ago

    Peter Thiel is pure evil. This tie is not surprising at all. The piece of shit is un-ironically giving a lecture on the antichrist in September.

    • Optional@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      40
      ·
      2 days ago

      The UK has been doing some seriously batshit things lately. Obviously we’re not ones to talk but - yeah. It’s sad.

    • paraphrand@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      48
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      3 hours ago

      It’s universally true that having more and better information can improve business and efficiency. (This of course has limits, yes.)

      I’m sure they were offering data that would help the agency.

      Now the ethics, and creepiness? I’m not commenting on that. Palantir is not ethical. They labor under twisted logic.

      And every time we mention their name online, we probally get a demerit in their database.

      • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        fuck Palantir

        fuck these bots that only just predict, regurgitate and are not intelligent

        fuck peter dick eater (he is ashamed of his own desire) thiel

        i bet he wanted that Epstein dick deeply

      • brianary@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        2 days ago

        The liability is obviously not high enough if keeping and sharing this data works out positively. Even if the parties involved weren’t obviously evil, the risk to the people is too high for them to accept the risk with only trivial, speculative improvements.

    • sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Yeah I’m not surprised about the Thiel/Epstein thing, I’m more surprised that the NHS is considering any sort of private health data handling by PALANTIR of all companies.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        Somebody is going to be getting a Non-executive board membership or millionaire consulting “gig” from one of Tiel’s companies or one from one of his friends…

        By this point in time in Britain that kind of I thing has been going on long enough to almost be tradition.

    • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      2 days ago

      NHS England has tens of millions of patients. Most patient records are undigitised and must be couriered when patients move to a new area or when specialist care is required.

      It’s also a huge, publicly funded service so big data can be crunched to improve outcomes and efficiencies.

      Palantir wanted a big system to use as the testbed for its move into healthcare data systems and offered a low bid.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        2 days ago

        Do y’all not have any software engineers domestically? I thought you invented the whole ordeal?

          • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            2 days ago

            Unless I am presented with contradictory evidence (I am not accepting feedback) I will assume nobody over there is willing to program a machine of any type out of fear that their balls will be cut off by the government like daddy Turing’s were.

            Edit: (to be clear, I’m just taking the piss. Please for the love of dog, do not touch Palantir with even the tip of any of your extremities.)

    • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 days ago

      Oh yeah they are in deep cahoots you should read the investigative journalism article they mention from earlier this summer.

    • tankplanker@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 day ago

      Does he put forward his case that he is the anti christ? As he sure comes across as someone who would want that. He has always felt like the sort of motherfucker who would read the Stand and identify with Randall Flagg

  • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    48
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 days ago

    I find this very hard to believe, he’s such a good boy and helps grannies cross the street.

    I think it’s time we send some F-16s to fire missiles at Chinese weather balloons, our real enemies.

    • OozingPositron@feddit.cl
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 days ago

      It’s worse, they sent an F-22 to shoot a 400k USD missile, I bet the balloon’s radar never saw it coming!

      • 3abas@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        It’s way worse, shooting weather balloons make them sound like angels.

        https://investigate.info/company/palantir

        They provide police state technology currently used by ICE to target immigrants and several US cities police departments use their tech for “predictive policing.” Not to mention they are actively and enthusiastically testing predictive generative AI to plan war crimes and hallucinate targets in the Gaza genocide. Technology they will bring home as “battle tested.”

        • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 days ago

          Also a lot of right-wing government are planning to use the same exact tech to “completely remove homosexuality from society” among others.

        • Zink@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          2 days ago

          I don’t know which all aircraft were involved at different points, but there was absolutely a shoot-down by an F-22.

          I don’t know anything about this website but it was one of Wikipedia’s sources. I remember seeing the pictures/videos with the F-22 clearly visible, plus the noteworthy stats like being the first f-22 kill, being the first engagement over US territory since WW2, and that it was probably the highest air to air kill.

          https://www.twz.com/f-22-shoots-down-chinese-spy-balloon-off-carolinas-with-missile

          • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            4 hours ago

            Oh I agree, I wasn’t making an exclusive statement. It’s just pretty wild that this was 2 years ago and feels like a fever dream now.