Medical campaigners John Wall and Vicky Phelan
This morning.
The Irish Examiner has seen hundreds of pages of analysis from the Department of Health and Department of Education that show the departments ‘are closely monitoring social media and keeping detailed accounts of topics that have criticised and praised them throughout the pandemic’.
Via Irish Examiner:
Despite hundreds of pages of analysis, only two are dedicated to misinformation.
Certain journalists or columnists come up repeatedly in the Department of Health’s analysis, including but not limited to staff from the Irish Examiner, RTÉ, Newstalk, Virgin Media, as well as other major newspapers and public figures.
Notable health professionals including Dr Holohan feature extensively, as does Dr Maithiú Ó Tuthuail, who later found himself at the centre of a political scandal over leaked documents.
Campaigners Dr Ilona Duffy, John Wall, and Vicky Phelan all feature in the analysis of critical tweets about cancer screenings.
Meanwhile…
My social media feed along with that of @PhelanVicky, @illonaduffy & others are being monitored by government.
This beggars belief. Whilst the #medicalcardscandal remains unresolved, it seems @merrionstreet are more concerned about what I tweet. https://t.co/HrfDNKFgMB— (@walls2) November 11, 2020
Meanwhile…
Here is a thread of documents showing how I have been monitored. The comments on my doings and sayings represent a non-negligible slice of attention of the senior management of the highest-budgeted Ministry in the country. https://t.co/X3coiM04eL
— Simon McGarr (@Tupp_Ed) November 12, 2020
Scary stuff
If the government wasn’t paying attention to the current climate it wouldn’t be doing its job and these people would still be moaning about not getting attention…its a public channel owned by a private company, grow up, if you’re that concerned about privacy stop using Twitter
.
I totally agree. I would be very worried if the government wasn’t keeping an eye on sentiment and trends. Monitoring commentators, who publicly comment, is par for the course in any organisation. Stop the handwringing and the outrage.
Yet – when the public is given the opportunity to monitor the government (this past couple of weeks being a prime example) , there’s all sorts of handwringing and outrage by…… the government.
NPHET minutes..
Simon’s doing something right. He has been a terrific advocate and resource on GDPR – Data protection Comm – EU overarching laws – and has effectively diluted Government spin to seal records – remember last year Govt proposed sealing via legislation for 75 years – more recently 30 years. Simon McG’s observations are insightful – he’s doing our state some significant service. Keep up the good work Simon. We are indebted to you.
+1 Bebe
it shouldn’t be a shocker to discover that some level of State surveillance is the norm and indeed in some regards necessary BUT it’s our job to keep it in check, avoid “feature creep” so to speak – because ever deeper observation is the natural tendency that particular animal will always want to take
I believe Simon McGarr is a critical soldier really in the citizenry’s efforts to do that job and we should listen to him and be very grateful he does what he does
Well if you’re going to push a fake pandemic with fake science in the fake news it will be important to monitor who is naive, pliable, bribe-able or fungible enough to follow your lead.
It’s how you know who is reliable when the next fake crisis comes along.
Dearie, some of us have relatives who have died from this fake pandemic. Get a grip.
+1
This has been going on for decades, government depts always listen to broadcasts on private and state broadcasters so they can send in corrections if a pundit gets something wrong. Nothing new really.
It’s the monitoring of social media aspect that’s interesting now. The internet and social media have given every individual a voice. A voice that must be heeded in the world of populist politics.
The outcry on social media is one of the reasons (I believe) that we’re in these “in and out” lockdowns now.
Let’s face it – we ALL crapped ourselves when we saw the images coming out of Italy. And the government’s listened.
In the UK for example, I believe that if Boris Johnson had of made the initial speech he made about “trying herd immunity” at the start of the pandemic, even just ten years ago, there would have been those in the public eye that would have condemned him for it, but it never would have gained the momentum of negative sentiment that it did on social media.
His “Yes, people will die” speech would have been lambasted but reluctantly accepted as reality.
People would have grumbled but there never would have been the backlash there was.
As it now has transpired he had to make a massive U-turn almost immediately, following his destruction on social media – his grand Winston Churchill-Esque moment gone from his grasp forever. Poor old Boris.
The good news is that the UK could probably get him to hump a pig now as predicted by Charlie Brooker in Black Mirror Ep1.
So, ups AND downs from the whole thing… :)
I like kittens
Firstly – the above is just my opinion. Not a conspiracy, so be chill man.
Secondly, if I’m honest. I didn’t really care about China and didn’t watch much of the coverage at the time. They had mad outbreaks all the time – it seemed miles away.
Italy got my attention though!
So what? I’d expect them to monitor what’s going on, either sensible or crackpot wingnut, on social media.
I presume they also read the newspapers and listen to the radio.
Massive conspiracy.
I suspect the issue with medical cards is if they were to grant them to those who deserve them , half the country would have them. The government does not want to funnel large amounts of cash to private interests in the health sector , but seem to think its ok for those private interests to rip individuals off..
small example, blood tests are free in hospitals. but a GP will charge you 30e for the nurse to take blood and send it off . yes I get there is a cost to transport the blood to the lab , and the GP should look at the results when they come back , and action if necessary , but in my experience they dont.
For instance my last CRP blood test the number was 360 , normal range is < 5 , Did I get a call ? No. Should I have , yes, and possible hospitalisation…