Hemos recibido este mensaje de
Alek Boyd, quizás el más acucioso de los investigadores que tiene Venezuela en
el campo de la anti-corrupción. Sus denuncias de los grupos financieros, de los
contratistas de PDVSA, de los ladrones que azotan a Venezuela han sido de
excepcional importancia para sacar a la luz pública los inmensos crímenes
cometidos en contra de la nación venezolana. Por ello está pagando un alto
precio, amenazado junto a su familia, objeto de calumnias creadas por los
cleptócratas que ha denunciado, sujeto a presiones significativas. Su cuenta en twitter acaba de ser cerrado, lo cual significa que mucha de la valiosa información que
existe allí en contra de los cleptócratas venezolanos podría perderse.
Tratemos de que ello no ocurra,
Gustavo Coronel
UPDATED: Open
Letter to Twitter
4 days
ago By Alek Boyd
*UPDATED 10/09/2019 - 17:28 GMT | **12/09/2019 - 14:47 GMT -
Further to the -now permanent- suspension of my @alekboyd verified Twitter
account, I would like to address some of the issues that have occurred thus
far.
1) Twitter verified my @alekboyd account on 27 September 2016.
The only reason I insisted in getting verification was the amount of impostor
accounts with my name and pictures that were being created regularly in
Twitter, after break into my flat in London, theft of laptops, threats
to my children and online defamation campaign that ensued.
These accounts were used to spread all kinds of baseless information about me.
When Twitter finally granted verification to my account, the impostors
basically disappeared.
2) I have had a number of temporary suspensions from Twitter in
the past. The most recent one, of which I was informed on 27 August 2019,
allegedly relates to a thread of tweets I posted with regards to a request for
information, and subsequent email exchange, that I had with Vanessa Neumann,
Juan Guaidó's Ambassador to the UK. Twitter claimed that my account was in
violation of the following rules:
- Violating our rules against posting private information;
- publishing people’s private information without consent;
- threatening to hack Twitter or other platforms in order to obtain someone's private information; and/or;
- posting intimate photos or videos taken or distributed without the subject's consent;
- Your account has been suspended and will not be restored because it was found to be violating Twitter's Terms of Service (https://twitter.com/tos), specifically the Twitter Rules (https://twitter.com/rules) against using hateful or sensitive content in your profile.
- publishing people’s private information without consent;
- threatening to hack Twitter or other platforms in order to obtain someone's private information; and/or;
- posting intimate photos or videos taken or distributed without the subject's consent;
- Your account has been suspended and will not be restored because it was found to be violating Twitter's Terms of Service (https://twitter.com/tos), specifically the Twitter Rules (https://twitter.com/rules) against using hateful or sensitive content in your profile.
A previous temporary suspension (23 April 2019) was due to my posting details
about the flamboyant wedding of Javier Alvarado's daughter in Madrid, a wedding
that was to be paid with the monies Mr Alvarado stole from Venezuela. Alvarado
was subsequently arrested, in Madrid, in connection to a massive corruption
scandal.
Going further back (24 March 2014), someone complained my posting
detailed information about Eduardo Capriles (connected to Armando
"Coco" Capriles), and how he had purchased a multimillion dollar
apartment in Miami. The address and name of Capriles could be found in the
public domain in Miami property records, and it was the source of my tweet.
3) Since I did not agree with Twitter's interpretation of the
alleged violation to their Terms of Service (ToS), I did not delete the tweet
about meetings in Madrid between Gustavo Guaidó and Alejandro Betancourt that
had caused the current suspension. I was never given the chance to argue why I
was in disagreement. The first notification I received from Twitter that my
account was suspended is dated 27 August 2019 at 20:33. On 29 August 2019, I
got a reply from Twitter (03:13) that said:
"Your account has been suspended and will not be restored
because it was found to be violating the Twitter Terms of Service, specifically
the Twitter Rules against posting another person’s private information."
That is, it took Twitter less than 48 hours to move from locking
my account to permanent suspension, without even allowing me to argue my case.
4) Since 29 August 2019 I have sent numerous requests to
Twitter, via its suspended account platform. These have been data requests,
i.e. asking Twitter to allow me to download my account's content and data.
Every single one has been replied with a template, which states reasons
mentioned in previous point. It has been impossible, as of this writing, to
establish any form of meaningful communication with Twitter. I can not reply to
emails received from support@twitter.com, with case number/s
generated by suspended accounts appeals platform, for that inbox is not
monitored. This has resulted in various different case numbers, all related to
same data requests, all equally disregarded by template reply as pointed above.
5) I have also filed requests for account information via
another platform. These have been replied with yet more requests from Twitter
for further information, i.e. my government-issued photo ID, what data I am
requesting specifically, and details associated to my account. I am yet
to receive anything in this respect. *I have already received
the first reply (Case# 0125798664 with same template as in point 3), which does
not even address my account information request. Is this even legal, under
existing European GDPR directive?
6) I have also sent, via recorded delivery to Twitter's HQs in
Dublin (Twitter International Company, c/o Trust & Safety - Legal Policy,
One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, D02 AX07, Dublin, Ireland) two GDPR data requests
(at least one was received). What I have been able to learn is
that under GDPR rules, Twitter has got to send a reply within 30 days of
receiving such requests.
A GDPR request letter, via recorded and signed for delivery, was
sent to V. Gadde, Twitter Uk Ltd, 1st Floor, 20 Air Street, London, W1B 5AN. It
was received as per Royal Mail records.
Two requests were sent via fax, to Twitter's Trust & Safety
- Legal Policy at 1-415-222-9958. Both were successfully delivered.
No reply, either in hard copy or in writing has been received as
of this writing.
** A data
preservation request was sent 11/09/2019 at about 14:00 GMT to Twitter's Data
Protection Officer, via its online platform. No acknowledgement or
reply has been received.
7) I have also sent emails (asking to be allowed to download my
data) to jack@twitter.com, rhianna@twitter.com, noc@twitter.com, brucedaisley@twitter.com and vijaya@twitter.com.
No reply has been received as of this writing.
8) As soon as my verified account was suspended, a new impostor
account (Alek_Boyd_) appeared. This impostor was using my name, pictures, and
copied text from my profile, only this time no one was "complaining"
about a "breach of ToS" and my selfie and picture with the Dalai Lama
had become acceptable. This impostor included an email address very similar to
mine at protonmail, to try and dupe my readers / followers, and Twitter, to
communicate with him pretending to be me. I reached out, via Twitter DM from
the Twitter account I am currently using and seen in the left of this site
(@infodi0), and asked whether he was a real person or a bot. The reply was
chilling: "I am Alek Boyd, and you?".
9) I take that the reason behind the impostor's attempt to
impersonate me is to get to my sources / informants. Considering what the thugs
I have been exposing over the years did to my family and me, here in London, I
really dread the thought of what my sources in Venezuela could suffer, if the
thugs that are behind this attempt get to know who they are. Lives can be at
risk here.
10) Another great concern is that the huge catalogue of evidence
of corruption that I have posted on my Twitter account, since I registered at
end of 2008, could be lost forever. I can imagine the glee of the subjects of
my investigations at this prospect. Someone informed me yesterday that once
Twitter decides to permanently suspend an account, its content could get purged
from its servers in 30 days. I am desperately trying to either get
my account's data before the 30 day period, or get Twitter to preserve its
content, alas as of this writing I do not know whether I will be able to, given
the sheer impossibility of establishing meaningful communications with Twitter.
11) I understand that Twitter has every right to disregard due
process and suspend my account. Their house, their rules. What I don't get is:
- almost immediate escalation from temporary lock to permanent
suspension;
- absolute disregard to even acknowledge my legitimate requests to be allowed to download my data, which, as per Twitter's own ToS, belongs to me;
- changing reasons for permanent suspension, including completely baseless allegations that I have threatened to "hack Twitter", or that my background picture with the Dalai Lama, selfie and text could be described as "hateful or sensitive content in your profile."
- failure to inform that refusal to delete allegedly offending tweet would result in immediate permanent suspension, without possibility of recovering / downloading data.
- absolute disregard to even acknowledge my legitimate requests to be allowed to download my data, which, as per Twitter's own ToS, belongs to me;
- changing reasons for permanent suspension, including completely baseless allegations that I have threatened to "hack Twitter", or that my background picture with the Dalai Lama, selfie and text could be described as "hateful or sensitive content in your profile."
- failure to inform that refusal to delete allegedly offending tweet would result in immediate permanent suspension, without possibility of recovering / downloading data.
12) Twitter has abandoned all manner of impartiality by taking
political positions in different parts of the world. That is also a prerogative
that Twitter is entitled to have. But how about suspending an account that
deals almost exclusively with reporting corruption in Venezuela and beyond, and
refusing to hand over evidence of such corruption?
My account has a
phenomenal track record in exposing thugs that end up indicted, charged, and
arrested in different jurisdictions. Within the Venezuelan context it is unique
in that regard. If I lose my data, not only Venezuela's corrupt will benefit,
those in America -that Twitter seems to oppose- will benefit too. Just why
would Twitter do this?
