Banned recording reveals: China ambassador threatened Faroese leader at secret meeting

China's ambassador to Denmark threatened the Faroese prime minister by indicating that a trade agreement would be dropped if the autonomous Danish archipelago does not sign a 5G contract with technology giant Huawei, Berlingske can now reveal.

#China ambassador to #Denmark, Mr. Feng Tie, made overt #threats to prominent members of the #Faroese #government in order to secure a strategically important contract for the #Chinese telecoms giant #Huawei, by indicating that the Chinese government would drop a free trade agreement with the Faroe Islands if the company did not get the contract.

This appears from an #audio #recording which was subsequently banned from publication, #Berlingske can now reveal.

The recording marks the first instance where the Chinese government has linked access to China's huge market to Huawei being awarded contracts for #5G #networks in #Europe. Huawei has publicly stated that it is a private company with no ties to the Chinese state.

For the past seven days, the Faroese government has sought to keep the recording a secret by getting an injunction to prevent the Faroese TV station Kringvarp Føroya from publishing its content. Kringvarp Føroya had planned to reveal the recording in a Faroese news broadcast Monday a week ago.

But as Berlingske can now reveal, the audio clip clearly indicates how the Chinese top #diplomat used the meeting to unequivocally tie the Huawei contract to wider trade interests, which would particularly affect the Faroe Islands' large and growing exports of salmon to China.

👉🏼 Read more:
https://www.berlingske.dk/internationalt/banned-recording-reveals-china-ambassador-threatened-faroese-leader

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Press release: Google removes all Danish music from YouTube

While the negotiations on a new joint Nordic agreement are in full swing, Google have chosen to leverage their total dominance in the market in the strongest way possible. On the evening of Thursday 30 July, Google announced that they will soon remove all Danish music content on YouTube.

Under the auspices of the Nordic alliance of collecting societies, Polaris, negotiations on a joint Nordic agreement on the use of music on YouTube are currently in full swing. The agreement will replace the local agreements of the Norwegian, Finnish and Danish composers and songwriters’ societies, combining them in a single, joint agreement with Google. In the case of Koda, the national agreement for Denmark expired in April, after which it was temporarily extended – as is standard practice in the industry while negotiating a new agreement.

Now, however, Google have issued a new demand: if the agreement is to be temporarily extended, Koda must agree to reduce the payment provided to composers and songwriters for YouTube’s use of music by almost 70% – despite the fact that YouTube’s use of music has increased significantly since Koda entered into its last agreement with Google.

https://www.koda.dk/about-us/press-release-google-removes-all-danish-music-from-youtube

#europe #denmark #youtube

The head of Denmark’s spy program has been fired for snooping on citizens and lying about it

The government in Denmark has fired 3 top officials from the country’s foreign intelligence agency, the Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste (FE), following revelations from a whistleblower. The officials, including the head of the agency, Lars Finden, have been “relieved of duty for the time being” following the release of a trove of documents. The documents detailed that the FE has been illegally spying on Danish citizens in the last six years and were released by an unnamed whistleblower to the independent regulator of Danish security services which is known as Tilsynet med Efterretningstjenesterne (TET).

Whistleblower reveals Danish spying, gets Danish spy chief fired

According to a press release by the TET, Danish intelligence had maintained “operational activities in violation of Danish law, including obtaining and passing on a significant amount of information about Danish citizens.” Additionally, the TET noted that the FE had not only withheld information but actually reported back to overseers “incorrect information on matters relating to the collection of the service and disclosure of information.”

Prior to the whistleblower’s documents making their way to the TET, the FE had been stonewalling investigations on whether foreign intelligence spying capabilities had been used on domestic targets. The press release went on to note that Danish intelligence actually passed on the information to other countries. Unfortunately, due to the “extremely sensitive” nature of the information, it’s possible that we’ll ever know specifically who was spied on, for whom, or why.

👀 👉🏼 🇬🇧 https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/the-head-of-denmarks-spy-program-has-been-fired-for-snooping-on-citizens-and-lying-about-it/

#denmark #spy #spionage #thinkabout
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Google says Denmark is reviewing its taxes there

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish tax authorities have initiated a review of Google’s accounts in Denmark to determine whether the tech giant has any outstanding tax obligation, the company said on Monday.

Google’s Danish unit, Google Denmark Aps, said in its financial report for 2019 that tax authorities had “commenced a review of the open tax years concerning the company’s tax position”.

The Danish tax authority declined to comment on the review. Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is one of several European leaders who have advocated for multi-national tech companies to pay more tax in countries where they operate.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-tax-denmark/google-says-denmark-is-reviewing-its-taxes-there-idUSKBN25R12H

#Europe #Denmark #Google #taxes

'Largest illegal darknet marketplace' DarkMarket taken offline

Authorities say the darknet platform had half a million users, where drugs, counterfeit money, stolen credit card data, anonymous SIM cards and malware were traded. The suspected operator was arrested in Germany.

German prosecutors in the cities of Koblenz and Oldenburg said on Tuesday that they had shut down what was "probably the largest illegal marketplace on the Darknet" called DarkMarket and arrested the man believed to operate it near Germany's border with Denmark.

The detained man, believed to be DarkMarket's operator, is a 34-year-old Australian national.

Authorities say drugs, counterfeit money, stolen credit card data, anonymous SIM cards and malware were all traded on the site, which had a half a million users and transacted business in cryptocurrencies equivalent to a value of €140 million ($170 million).

Oldenburg police said the raid took place over the weekend. "Investigators were able to shut down the marketplace and turn off the server on Monday," prosecutors said.

International probe
DarkMarket's bust was not the first for German authorities, which have found illegal platform operators on German soil in recent years. In 2019, Koblenz prosecurots announced the discovery of darknet servers hosted from a former NATO bunker in a sleepy German town.

Authorities say the probe that uncovered DarkMarket involved a months-long international law enforcement operation.

US agencies like the #FBI, #DEA narcotics law enforcement division and #IRS tax authority all contributed to the investigation, along with police from #Australia, #Britain, #Denmark, #Switzerland, #Ukraine and #Moldova, with #Europol playing a "coordinating role."

https://www.dw.com/en/largest-illegal-darknet-marketplace-darkmarket-taken-offline/a-56200737

https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/darknet-plattform-vom-netz-101.html

#DarkMarket #cybercrime #darknet
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