Watch How Dictators Spy Using Cybersecurity Laws Within the EU and U.S. A chilling thread on how easily dictatorial countries can request and potentially gain access to private #EU and U.S. data of individuals and entities on fabricated charges. In my case, this time, thanks to the defense of the #Belgian judicial system, it failed 🧵 In 2022, Kazakhstani secret service operatives came up with a crafty plan: they filed a 'cyberbullying' criminal complaint as "parents of their minor children" in #Belgium to create for the second time a legal backdoor to access my and Open Dialogue Foundation's private #financial, #travel and #communications data stored not only in the EU but also in the United States and worldwide. A Belgian judge refused to comply, but we still don't know if #Kazakhstan got that data directly from the United States or potentially other countries. Their target? To force ODF and me to delete video evidence from social media about mass #torture and political #killings in Kazakhstan, where survivors of torture have given names and testified against their crimes. The Belgian judge saw through the charade, dismissing the case and noting it appeared designed "to use Belgian justice to collect the maximum amount of personal and private data on #Kozlovska for purposes other than simply revealing the truth." My case has already made headlines because of the abuse of AML/CFT laws and weaponization of my banking data during 2018-2023 by at least three authoritarian regimes. At that time these abuses led to the effective financial exclusion of myself and ODF from the traditional Belgian financial system. We survived and held accountable perpetrators thanks to #Bitcoin. This time the defense worked with court intervention, but secret agents are abusing appeal process as a classic #SLAPP case to exhaust me and ODF financially and compromise physical security in the EU and US. This isn't an isolated incident. It's a playbook: authoritarian regimes exploiting Western legal protections like AML/CFT & cybersecurity laws to spy on, intimidate, and silence critics or uncomfortable business competitors abroad. We live in a reality where the majority of countries are non-democratic, and in the last 10 years have abused the Western system of inter-state cooperation, including #INTERPOL, extraditions, AML/CFT laws and now cybersecurity cooperation for espionage, political assassination and stealing businesses. Consider this: what happens to the countless lesser-known cases that face the same tactics WITHOUT public attention? They are exposed without public and, in practice, legal protections that could safeguard them, because in the case of cybersecurity or ML/TF offenses, such requests are automatically enforced on the basis of trust/preventive measures. It is high time to review these rules and protect EU and US citizens, residents, and entities from such abuses. #TransnationalRepression #DigitalRights #Cybersecurity #HumanRights

When reading the news, the only thought that comes to mind is how horrible the coming days will be for my family and friends in #Ukraine. We live in the new reality.

Back in 2023- 2024 we were struggling to find EU bitcoiners who wanted to participate in the advocacy in defense of FreedomTech Bitcoin mining. We got support of few Czech, Italian, UK and American bitcoiners and grateful for our FreedomTech angels. The results what you see by Czech central bank head wants it to buy billions of euros in bitcoin is a result of a direct investment by bitcoiners and activists like us in defense of the industry and end-users rights/FreedomTech. It is possible to repeat in every member state of the EU if you agree to invest in your rights and join movement of FreedomTech Embassy. When you fight for your rights, you get results and rewards. On photo: one of our meetings in Czech Parliament with Mr Martin Exner, vice-chairman of the Security Committee and EU Affairs Committee. As rightly noticed Mr Martin Exner, we live at the edge and the most intense times: if we don’t defend our freedoms, history will repeat empowering dictators in the very heart of the Europe. We need to have new tools to address such attacks on democracies, including energy security. Our role was to share with Czech Parliament why and how the new technologies play important role in defense of human rights, elections , stabilization of the #grid, reducing pollution and building new energy infrastructure thanks to #freedomtech #bitcoin. So instead of the EU commission’s approach to limit innovation in the #EU, we call to learn more, support its developers, miners and end-users. @boomer_btc @Gabridome @EliNagarBrr @janbraiins @KristianCsep @BraiinsMining @BTC Prague thank you for supporting us 🧡

END ANONYMITY AND MEET DIGITAL ID TO USE INTERNET Spain's PM Pedro Sánchez wants to "end anonymity" of all users on social media. In practice it is not about social media, but also about access to #internet. Welcome to the new reality. It is more dangerous in case of abuse of power than chat control or even AML/CFT regulations. So what guys do we do? How we will use #bitcoin and #nostr privately if we have to use digital ID to be online?

Everyone knows it from birth, but forgets it because we don't use it. What is it?

TARCZYŃSKI MEP NIGHT APOLOGIES TO ME AND OPEN DIALOGUE FOUNDATION FOR DEFAMATION On 3rd of Jan 2025 a Member of the European Parliament and candidate for the Law and Justice's would-be presidential election Dominik Tarczynski has published an apology for slandering me, Lyudmyla Kozlovska, and Open Dialogue Foundation. His statement is the result of a final lost in court. However, Tarczynski wrote it overnight in the hope that no one would see it while our profiles in X have been blocked by him. Just to recall, Tarczynski in 2019 slandered us for money laundering from #Russia. He attacked us with same false slanders in while he was a Member of Parliamentary Assembley of the Council of Europe, and then in the European Parliament. This slander was also affecting our rights for banking services in the #EU, financially excluding me, my family members and different entities connected with me. The verdict in this case came down in the summer of 2022, and on 20 Dec. 2024 the Court of Appeal in #Warsaw rejected his whole application, requiring a compensation and the publication of such content: 'I, Dominik Tarczynski, apologise to Lyudmyla Kozlovska for infringement of her dignity and good name and to the Open Dialogue Foundation in Warsaw (Registration no. (KRS): 0000353754) for damage to its reputation and good name by disseminating damaging and untrue information about their participation in laundering of money coming from Russia during my appearance in the Deutsche Welle programme ‘Conflict Zone’'. Certainly 10 000 PLN as compensation isn't enough to restore the reputation and damage caused by Tarczynski for the last 5 years. We should put in place more effective accountability measures to stop these kinds of attacks, especially from state representatives in the Parliamentary Assembley of the Council of Europe and European Parliament.

New year comes not always with good news. Here's what the Open Dialogue Foundation office building in Kyiv looks like today after the Russian shelling and bombing. Bankova street, center of Kyiv. December 31, 2024 VS January 1, 2025.

Open Dialogue Foundation

How can you help? - Open Dialogue Foundation

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, ODF has been one of the leading NGOs supporting refugees arriv...

I survived and Im fighting against debanking as a weapon against critical voices used in western countries. My family, my Open Dialogue Foundation and business company experienced and are overcoming the fact that our financial data was weaponized to destroy reputation, our families, businesses, to isolate us as critics. Same happened with many still silent tech and #bitcoin businesses in the western world to destroy their competitive proposals. Im grateful that @pmarca @npub1nwhd...409r @npub1dc2n...u5hg @davidmarcus @joerogan are voicing these tremendous abuses. Being critical, competitive and effective against governments abusing power should never be claimed as “high risk”. Abuse of power through AML/CFT laws without any remedy and accountability should be classified as high risk and top priority to fight against it. Let’s join efforts to eliminate these repressive practices!

WHY WE NEED FREEDOMTECH EMBASSY IN BRUSSELS NOW With many voices at @The Bitcoin Conference in #Amsterdam expressing very correct assessments of the discriminatory policy approach in the #EU against Bitcoin and now following the proposed by the European Central Bank analysts, I want to recall two important aspects: 🔴 First, well known: the #ECB states explicitly by saying their main goal is to “disincentivise investment in Bitcoin mining”. ECB frame it as "a climate risk priced into crypto-assets", in fact attacking PoW and Bitcoin mining.

European Central Bank

Mining the environment – is climate risk priced into crypto-assets?

The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central bank of the European Union countries which have adopted the euro. Our main task is to maintain price...

🔴Now for the lesser known, but most important to assess the risks of their latest so-called analyses - the EU's drafting of a regulation to expand the European Central Bank's supervisory powers over crypto-assets, which potentially gives the ECB endless power to attack #Bitcoin and implement its discriminatory regulatory proposals. This information was re-confirmed in August 2024 by the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON). https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2024/755728/IPOL_STU(2024)755728_EN.pdf 🟡 From the ECON’s study we know that: 🔻 Since 2022, key topics discussed by the ECB with policymakers are (1) the ECB's banking supervision programme on the importance of the role of banks in the transition to a digitalised and carbon-neutral economy; (2) response for the emerging risks from the crypto sector and non-financial banking institutions; (3) the energy crisis; 🔻 ECB is increasingly consulted on future regulatory priorities, and on its stance regarding new legislation that is being negotiated with the Commission and the Council; 🔻 ECB response focusses on banks’ ESG risks which it considers a threat for banks and financial stability overall, therefore having made it a supervisory priority; 🔻 ECB mentions that it assesses, jointly with European Banking Authority (EBA), whether ESG risks should be reflected in regulatory capital requirements. And these attacks continue and in parallel echo in developing Bitcoin mining ban in Norway, Iceland, discriminative taxation in Italy and Netherlands, classification self-hosted wallets p2p transactions as high risk transactions in the AML Regulation and by the biggest political groups in German Bundestag, development AML Authority supervision with particular focus on crowdfunding companies and crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), implementation of MiCA regulation by Denmark with attempt to classify mob apps like self-hosted wallets as “interface providers”, discussion of the categorisation of lighting as a “money transmitter”... 🟢What we can do together: 🔻Join Open Dialogue Foundation to establish a #FreedomTech embassy in Brussels. Let's bring together expertise and resources to develop a safe regulatory environment in the European Single Market for Bitcoin miners, investors, developers and end-users. 🔻Let’s systematically protect our FreedomTech and educate policymakers, media, academia. Let’s say loudly about wrong approach of ECB on Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining specifically. The U.S. bitcoiners have made Bitcoin protection a reality and continue to do so. 💪🧡 We should and can do it in the EU as well.

HUNGARY PROPOSED MESSENGER PROVIDERS FOR TIGHT SURVEILLANCE Following the pressure of privacy & human rights activists the Hungarian Presidency claimed to do "a compromise". In practice the upcoming #ChatControl regulation will require from messenger providers "to do their utmost to contribute to the development of reliable and accurate technologies to detect new CSAM and grooming." It means more tight surveillance, including indiscriminate mass monitoring of private communications and the end of secure end-to-end encryption. https://emanuelkarlsten.se/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/240829-CRPII-4-september-st12319.en24.pdf In response to this proposal, over 245 scientists from 31 countries evaluated #ChatControl draft as ‘ineffective, false positives, defeats end-to-end encryption, disproportionate, violates right to privacy, new vulnerabilities’. https://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~preneel/Open_letter_CSAR_aug24_still_unacceptable.pdf 1️⃣ What you can do now: 🔻Call your goverment and deputies to reject alltogether Chat Control. Find contacts here:

EU Whoiswho

Permanent Representatives Committee - EU Whoiswho - Publications Office of the EU

Organisational charts of the EU institutions, bodies and agencies

🔻Support politicians like @echo_pbreyer who promote privacy! 🔻Explain why it won’t help in bringing security for our society. Opposite, such approach would put the future of our freedoms is just one step closer to be compromised and abused by dictators. 🔻Address your government before the next meeting on 2nd Oct.: 🔴SUPPORT Chat Control: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden 🟢AGAINST Chat Control: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovenia 🟡 UNDECIDED (we need to activate them the most!): Italy, Netherlands, Portugal 🎙Respost and call you friends to join the campaign today: If no privacy of communication, no protection for children, anyone in the EU and beyond! 2️⃣Rember and explain: 🔻No algorithm can reliably make a legal assessment. According to Meta, which is the source of the vast majority of reports, they currently only look for known CSAM in EU communications, and yet at least 50% NCMEC of reports made to German law enforcement agencies are not criminally relevant, according to the federal crime agency (BKA). 🔻EU Commissioner #Johansson admitted in late 2023 that 75% of NCMEC reports are not of a quality that the police can work with. 3️⃣ Dictators love Western spy technology: the example of the Intellexa spy company proved: dictators all over the world love Western spy technology for transnational repression of opponents and destruction of the Western world, your and your family freedoms. Urge your government to stop this!

Predator Files : Die Schweiz als Drehscheibe

Die USA verhängen erneut Sanktionen gegen das Spionageunternehmen Intellexa und damit verbundene Personen – darunter ein Schweizer Treuhänder. ...

URGENT: PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY COMMUNICATION RIGHT NOW! on 4th Sept 2024 #ChatControl regulation representatives of EU goverments will resume work based on a secret document according to Patrick #Breyer, former Member of the European Parliament. Help to mobilize everybody to defend our #privacy of communication and its developers, investors! If no preventive actions from your side now, this regulation will be endorsed on 12/13 December 2024. According to the draft regulation dated 28 May (Council document 9093/24), ChatControl deploys to do, for instance: 🔻 “upload moderation”, users of apps and services with chat functions are to be asked whether they accept the indiscriminate and error-prone scanning and possibly reporting of their privately shared images, photos and videos. 🔻Scan by “artificial intelligence” technology previously unknown images and videos; 🔻If a user refuses the scanning, they would be blocked from sending or receiving images, photos, videos and links (Article 10). 🔻End-to-end encrypted services such as Whatsapp or Signal would have to implement the automated searches “prior to transmission” of a message (so-called client-side scanning, Article 10a). During the last discussion on 24 May, the Council Legal Service made it clear that indiscriminate chat control scanning of non-suspects is still envisioned and remains a violation of fundamental rights. Nevertheless, most EU governments are determined to go ahead. https://netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2024/05/2024-05-28_Council_Presidency_LEWP_CSAR_Compromise-texts_9093.pdf 🌎 Tell your goverment and parliamentarians, that the proposal should be rejected altogether! 🔴Is your government in favour? → Ask for an explanation and for your government to revert its course. 🟡Is your government abstaining? → Ask why and demand that they take a strong stance against chat control. 🟢Is your government opposing? → Great, but take a closer look at the reasoning: Some governments like #Germany e.g. only object to the scanning of encrypted communications, but are fine with the indiscriminate scanning of other private and public communication, with the end of anonymous communication by requiring age verification, or with introducing a minimum age for “risky” communication apps. Also critical governments need to do more, exert their influence in the Council of the EU and agree on a joint list of necessary fundamental changes to the proposal. Absent such revision they should ask the European Commission to withdraw the chat control proposal as it stands. 🔴 In favour of ChatControl: France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden. 🟡Abstained: Estonia, Netherlands, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Austria 🟢 Opposed the proposal: Germany, Poland When reaching out to your government, the ministries of the interior (in the lead) of justice and of digitisation/telecommunications/economy are your best bet. You can additionally contact the permanent representation of your country with the EU:

EU Whoiswho

Permanent Representatives Committee - EU Whoiswho - Publications Office of the EU

Organisational charts of the EU institutions, bodies and agencies

I had the honour of sharing my personal experience with Melanion Capital & Jad #Comair on their podcast about how easy it is to weaponise the financial data of every resident and citizen of Western countries. The refusal to protect banking secrecy has led to a massive failure in the protection of human rights. #Bitcoin p2p transactions have become the only available tool for the financially repressed and excluded as a consequence of the abuse of AML/CFT laws. We live in a time when financial institutions have been given the right to police activities of citizens. If your rights are violated by the police, you have the possibility of defence/remedies. However, with financial institutions, there are no such mechanisms due to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. I experienced this first hand when three authoritarian regimes abused my and Open Dialogue Foundation banking data getting it from #Belgium and #Poland. Banking records obtained by three regimes became a weapon against me and anyone who worked, received our support in different countries or championed our human rights work at the time. I able to continue my human rights work and hold accountable perpetrators of violations of my rights thanks to #freedomtech Bitcoin. Ironically, AML/CFT laws were created to fight criminals, oligarchs, dictators corrupting western countries. In reality - AML/CFT laws have become the most effective tool for #TransnationalRepression, breaking down all barriers to protect the right to #privacy of #correspondence, #transactions, #movements. If you think that this only applies to dictatorial or authoritarian countries, you are sorely mistaken. Want to learn more? Listen our 🎙️ Ep32 of ‘Bitcoin Equities Talks’ with Melanion Capital

X (formerly Twitter)

Melanion Capital (@MelanionCap) on X

🎙️ Ep32 of "Bitcoin Equities Talks" is OUT! Join @LyudaKozlovska from @ODFoundation as she reveals how authoritarian regimes exploit #Bankin...

NORWAY IS GOING TO BAN BITCOIN MINING WITHOUT PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS - WE NEED TO ACT NOW Norway's Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Administration responded to @ODFoundation that it "has no plans to conduct a public consultation" on a ban on cryptocurrency mining. There is no doubt that the ban designed to target #Bitcoin mining. Unfortunately, that's a stance of the @Stortinget and the Norwegian government.

Stortinget

Innstilling fra energi- og miljøkomiteen om representantforslag om konsesjon på datasentre

Innst. 383 S (2023–2024)

🔴 Why we should protect our #freedomtech Bitcoin in #Norway NOW: (1) Norway is fully integrated in the European Single Market throught the European Economic Area (EEA) and Schengen Agreement. It means Norway can provide its legilsative approach as an input for new legislation for the EU/EEA both: - during the preparatory phase, when the @EU_Commission is developing proposals; - during work of expert groups and committees of the European Commission; - submitting proposals and comments to European Free Trade Association on upcoming legislation. (2) As a co-founder of the @OECD , Norway sets an example of regulation worldwide and provides its legislative recommedations for global standards. (3) Norway has historically been a place to meet, share experiences and educate human rights defenders and bitcoiners from around the world. Norwegian goverment will present its investigation a ban on cryptocurrency mining by the end of 2024. 🔴 What we should do together to prevent Bitcoin mining ban: (1) Repost this post and join our #BTC Coalition to educate local communities and media about social benefits of Bitcoin mining in Norway and worldwide; (2) Help us pool resources and best practices to convince Norwegian politicians and media to explore the social benefits of Bitcoin to prevent this repressive regulation; (3) If you are a Norwegian citizen: write a letter to your legislator and government asking for public consultation and providing arguments about the social benefits of Bitcoin mining for Norway. 🧡

🔴 What is the role of Chevron in #TransnationalRepression? Open Dialogue Foundation, together with human rights experts from the #ActivistNotExtremists coalition, prepared a report on the transnational political repression of Barlyk Mendygaziyev. The persecution of Barlyk, his relatives and associates has received extensive international attention as one example of: 🔻financial repression: abuse of anti-extremist/terrorist legislation; anti-money laundering laws (abuse of AML/CFT laws); 🔻taking family members and associates as political hostages, torturing them, including putting Kalyk #Mendygaziyev, Barlyk's brother, to death; and 🔻abuse of #INTERPOL 's international wanted list, etc. The Mendygaziyev case is mentioned in resolutions of the European Parliament and in the US State Department's annual reports on the human rights situation in #Kazakhstan for 2021-2023 as an example of selective justice and #TransnationalRepression by the Kazakhstani authorities. But these international documents do not pay attention on Chevron’s role as a key instrument of the above-mentioned political repression, initiated by Kazakhstani regime. 🔴 In our report we call on the US & #FATF: 🔻 Investigate and develop an effective mechanisms to counter and hold accountable Kazakhstan's regime for involvement of @Chevron in political persecution of Mendygaziyev, including financial repression for his eco-activist and human rights work; 🔻 Address and hold accountable #Kazakhstani regime for the abuse of AML/CFT laws to financialy exclude civil society, donors and opposition. 🔹 As a context: Mendygaziyev exposed numerous of environmental damages in Kazakhstan because of corruption for over decade. For instance, in March 2022 Nazar Solutions LLP, as one of the contractors of Tengizchevroil LLP, was illegally storing toxic oil waste in a massively populated area of Western Kazakhstan. That caused an explosion and fires of toxic oil waste in #Tengiz village. The largest shareholder of Tengizchevroil LLP is the US company Chevron, which holds a 50% stake.

🔴 Yes, six years of our constant struggle were needed to lift the Polish entry ban imposed on me for political reasons as an alleged ‘threat to national security’. This was done by the then-ruling Law and Justice government on the basis of the classified opinion of the Internal Security Agency. Now, I’m finally allowed to return to #Poland. 🔴 Yes, Law and Justice party definitely knows how to abuse power and drive you into financial exclusion, even if you’ve obtained several favourable court rulings. During the last 6 years, the Polish Office for Foreigners and Internal Security Agency (#ABW) kept the ban despite 6 court verdicts (!) finding it unjustified and groundless. 🔴 Yes, FATF and EU Commission have regarded these kind of cases of financial exclusion and abuse of AML/CFT laws as ‘unintended consequences’. It is not true: it was an intended, coordinated abuse of AML/CFT laws by then-ruling Law and Justice government and other authoritarian regimes for transnational repression against ODF as a human rights organisation and myself as its leader. 🔴 Yes, when the Law and Justice party was in power, ABW prepared a classified dossier based on alleged 'evidence' that my stay as a foreigner on the Polish territory 'threatens the state security'. Today ABW - freed from the political influence of PiS - officially recognises that no such evidence exists against me. I believe it is crucial to declassify dossier based on alleged 'evidence' against me to show how regimes abuse security measures enjoying the lack of accountability/remedies in the AML/CFT laws. 🔴 Yes, after the final court judgement that required the Office for Foreigners in Poland to remove me from the blacklist, we’ve eventually received an official confirmation which states that I can now enter. According to lawyers and human rights activists dealing with foreigners, this was the very first time a court in Poland issued such an explicit order when the state security issue was at play. 🔴 No, the Law and Justice party (#PiS) is no longer in power. But this doesn’t mean that the problems of the Open Dialogue Foundation, our team and family members are over. Already 7-year long politically motivated tax audits aimed at ODF and our company ruined our business, and the criminal case against Bartosz Kramek as well as many other victims of political repression are ongoing. 🔴Yes, even with the loss of power, the system built by Law and Justice Ministers Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik continues to live, poisoning the lives of the opressed for the last 7 years and requires complete dismantling. At the same time, those responsible have not yet been held accountable for attempting to destroy i.a. our foundation in retaliation for the defence of the #RuleOfLaw in Poland - an abuse previously unheard of in the EU. That is why we still need your support. 🧡

Why DMs don’t work on #nostr? Almost one week I can’t read my messages, and instead I can see just an empty screen… same problem at Damus and Primal. Any idea? Please write your messages to my email: lyudmylakozlovska@odfoundation.eu