---
title: Police 2.0
subtitle: Peaceful activism is terrorism & fakenews are facts
date: 2024-12-27
speakers: Datarights, Frank van der Linde.
tags: 38c3, datarights, fakenews
---

*These are notes taken during and after the 38C3 conference in Hambourg. Notes might be a bit sketchy at times*

<iframe width="100%" height="576" src="https://media.ccc.de/v/38c3-police-2-0-peaceful-activism-is-terrorism-and-fakenews-are-facts/oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Datarights](https://www.datarights.ngo/) is a new NGO in Europe, coming from LQDN in France. It's goal is to have a broader look at what's going on in Europe. See the [Defend the defenders](https://www.datarights.ngo/targeted-communities) section on their website.

The talk was greatly about and by [Frank van der Linde](https://www.frankvanderlinde.net/blog), a Netherlands activist, telling us his story.

At some point, his personal address has been leaked, and he has been put away from his home because it was "threatening for the neighbors".

After which the dutch police started to write fake news about him. He asked for rectifications to the police but didn't ended up being accepted. He ended up as a CTER 04 subject, which is what they use for terrorism.

SIENA system is how europol is organised. At some point he got a digital forensic IT expert to look for his files, that have been removed from the police hard drive, but of course the Police refused to cooperate.

## What the police does

- Infrared camera is used by Bellingham police (in the US, I think)
- The presumption of innocence is not really used in some cases
- Populism is used to legitimise brutality (e.g. opponents are tagged as "ecoterrorists", we have also seen this in France with the so called "Water wars")
- Fake data is sometimes used, and amplification of anecdotal facts
- There is a disproportion of resources, and criminal charges are used against people to do investigation on them.
- There have been reported cases of undercover officers infiltrating groups of activists (having children with them, even)

See the ["police have crossed the line" campaign by Privacy international](https://privacyinternational.org/campaigns/unmasking-policing-inc)

## The united nations

A rapporteur of the united nation, [in a 2024 report on the state repression](https://web.archive.org/web/20240804193748/https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/UNSR_EnvDefenders_Aarhus_Position_Paper_Civil_Disobedience_EN.pdf) mentioned:

> State response to peaceful environmental protest is increasingly to repress rather than to enable and protect.

States started to include env activism in the terrorism report (or is it in Europe all together?).

Civil disobetience is:

1. Deliberate law-breaking
2. Public interest topic
3. Non violence

EU rapporteur says that symoblic violence should be accepted (!!)

## Questions

Q: What should we do?
R: 

- Organise.
- Never end up in a database of the police.
- Protect yourself.
- Know your rights.


Q: Why governments are doing this?
R: Framing you as an extermist allows them to do some stuff. They don't care if they're doing something illegal. At some point they tried to recruit somebody in his friends, and that wouldn't be possible if he wasn't marked as a "terrorist"

Q: How much of your life is impacted?
R: It became his life now. 60h/week. 

Q: What's the name of the case in the french criminal court

Q: Is it possible to go against individuals in the organisations rather than organisations? Would that work?
R: Good point, they're worried about this and want to give a lot of money in exchange of withdrawing charges. (So, yes it works)

Q: With our world turning more chaotic, do you see 
R: Putting themselves as reports; Having people documenting in reports is really useful.
