Church and State blog: Email interception: Immediately after this complaint to our local MP a test email to two close colleagues has been blocked. A 2010 parliamentary letter to now Prime Minister Theresa May revealed in this post (WITH UPDATE 27/6/2019)

Monday, April 22, 2019

Email interception: Immediately after this complaint to our local MP a test email to two close colleagues has been blocked. A 2010 parliamentary letter to now Prime Minister Theresa May revealed in this post (WITH UPDATE 27/6/2019)

Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population". Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).

Declan's unread test email yesterday.

Declan and I have had a problem with email blockage since last December the likes of which we have never known, and it's across board. We can no longer tell when, if at all, anyone will receive an email from either one of us. Declan has actually lost track of all the unread emails and unread resends to one close colleague in particular, but has been meticulously keeping up with his emails to Nobel laureates (see update). Yesterday we received an email from this colleague in America. He wrote: "I am shocked to learn about this blockage! I have not gotten an email from you for weeks until today. Please keep us informed about your progress in fixing the problem. Concerned." We were then amazed that neither he nor another colleague received a test email requested from Declan following this complaint to our local Member of Parliament Lyn Brown (Labour) yesterday afternoon:

Rt Hon Lyn Brown MP
Member of Parliament for West Ham

Address removed for email

21 April 2019

Dear Ms. Brown,

As my local MP, I am forwarding to you an email I have received this afternoon from a close colleague about his concern that my and my wife's emails are being blocked. I would be most grateful if you could please let me know if you can be of any assistance in correcting the outrageous manipulation of my and my wife's email in undermining our part-time jobs as employees of Network for Church Monitoring.

In April 2010, an American professor wrote to then Minister Lynne Featherstone: "I am truly appalled by the unlawful violation of the Heavey's basic right to send and receive email without interference." An (unsuccessful) application I subsequently made to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal in 2011 has had absolutely no effect, and if anything the situation has gotten substantially worse. For some details, please see my wife's updated blog post here.

I would be most grateful for anything you may be able to do by way of taking measures to correct this gross abuse.

Yours sincerely,

Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring

(Contact details withheld)

Click to enlarge

UPDATE 27 June (11.15am): Our MP acknowledged by autoreply Declan's email last April (above), but hasn't responded to it. I recorded on 21 February that according to Mailtrack, 68 Nobel laureates out of those Declan has emailed since 3 January had not seen their email. Before 31 March, only 24 out of his 187 resends had been read (see below). Since that date, Declan has been trying to email Nobel laureates a second time (28 unread emails) as well as those who have not heard from him previously (126 unread emails). We still can't tell when, if at all, anyone will receive an email (this link has been updated this morning to reveal that so far this month 154 of our emails have gone unread). And we are currently experiencing Facebook's 59th block (57 days) against Church and State since 1 December 2015, and, as usual, without an explanation. On this occasion, they are blocking the page listing all the groups I belong to. Despite opposition from Facebook, Church and State topped more than 3 million hits in 11 months from January to November 2017. Subsequently, Facebook's blocks against the site have gone from 47 days in 2017 to 179 days in 2018 plus 94 days this year. Nonetheless, we get hundreds of thousands of hits - 2.3 million hits in 2018 despite the equivalent of six months of these blocks; and 3 million hits this year despite over three months of blocks. These Facebook blocks are in addition to over 2,000 blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, plus full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks lasting from as long as 24 hours. (SiteGround is paid $1,000 per year to host Church and State and manage the server.) About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

On 21 February 68 Nobel Laureates out of those Declan has emailed since 3 January had not seen their email.

Emails resent to Nobel Laureates

21 February: 25 emails resent, 21 unread (4 read)
22 February: 27 emails resent, 23 unread (4 read)
25 February: 46 emails resent, 43 unread (3 read)
26 February: 2 emails resent, 2 phone calls, 1 unread (1 read)
1 March: 5 emails resent, 5 unread (0 read)
2 March: 5 emails resent, 4 unread (1 read)
3 March: 8 emails resent, 5 unread (3 read)
4 March: 8 emails resent, 6 unread (2 read)
5 March: 11 emails resent, 10 unread (1 read)
6 March: 8 emails resent, 7 unread (1 read)
7 March: 10 emails resent, 10 unread (0 read)
8 March: 10 emails resent, 9 unread (1 read)
30 March: 22 emails resent, 19 unread (3 read)

Totals: 187 emails resent, 2 phone calls, 163 unread (24 read)

The above statistics apply to the 68 Nobel laureates recorded on 21 February as not having read Declan's email. Since 31 March, Declan has been trying to email Nobel laureates a second time (28 unread emails) as well as those who have not heard from him previously (126 unread emails).

Not included in the figures above is an email to a Nobel laureate on 4 March confirming his listing as an Honorary Associate that went unread. This has happened four times this year with Nobel laureates, most recently on 1 April.

30 December 2018: Our emails now are getting through to no one, not to Nobel laureates or even our closest colleagues. Declan will keep trying to get through to Nobel laureates with the use of his mobile phone (WITH UPDATE 22/4/2019)

Last April every category page in our Church and State website was reduced to zero Facebook likes/shares. Our 5 Most Popular articles have 4.8 million (the first 1.8m) Facebook likes/shares between them, not zero.

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Monday, April 22, 2019

Email interception: Immediately after this complaint to our local MP a test email to two close colleagues has been blocked. A 2010 parliamentary letter to now Prime Minister Theresa May revealed in this post (WITH UPDATE 27/6/2019)

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