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When covid struck Florida, @GeoRebekah - a data scientist working for the state - created a dashboard to help people in the state follow the disease's spread as Republican Governor Ron DeSantis lifted restrictions and declared the state open for business.
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DeSantis insisted that lifting restrictions was working fine, but the data told a different story. In June, the state fired Jones after she refused to manipulate the data to maintain the pretense that DeSantis's plan wasn't slaughtering Floridians.
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/29/884551391/florida-scientist-says-she-was-fired-for-not-manipulating-covid-19-data
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https://www.npr.org/2020/06/29/884551391/florida-scientist-says-she-was-fired-for-not-manipulating-covid-19-data
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Jones was undaunted: she set up Florida Covid Action, an independent dashboard that revealed the real case-counts and mortality in counterpoint to the state's official story.
https://floridacovidaction.com/Fl
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https://floridacovidaction.com/Fl
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But yesterday morning, DeSantis turned the heat up: he sent armed police to Jones's home to seize her computers and devices, cops who entered with guns drawn, who aimed them at her small children:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201207/14591845837/florida-state-police-raid-home-covid-whistleblower-point-guns-her-her-family-seize-all-her-computer-equipment.shtml
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https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201207/14591845837/florida-state-police-raid-home-covid-whistleblower-point-guns-her-her-family-seize-all-her-computer-equipment.shtml
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They accused Jones of having used her old login credentials to send a bulk-message to state workers urging them to come forward to blow the whistle on data-manipulation by the state.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article247680010.html
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https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article247680010.html
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If you know anything about IT, you may be asking how it is that they could have fired Jones but left her with the capability to send such messages? According to the state's affidavit, "All authorized users use the same user name and password."
https://amp.tallahassee.com/amp/6482817002
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https://amp.tallahassee.com/amp/6482817002
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(Jones categorically denies sending the message.)
https://twitter.com/CuomoPrimeTime/status/1336157469622538240
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https://twitter.com/CuomoPrimeTime/status/1336157469622538240
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Jones posted videos of the police aiming firearms at her and her small children as they seized her systems.
https://twitter.com/GeoRebekah/status/1336065787900145665
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https://twitter.com/GeoRebekah/status/1336065787900145665
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She speculates that the real target of the warrant was her correspondence with former colleagues in the state who wrote to her for advice on blowing the whistle.
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One of the books I reviewed in 2020 was @timatron's "A Public Service" - a comprehensive guide to whistleblower safety. If you are part of a whistleblowing project - as a leaker, advisor or reporter - it's an essential read.
https://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/08/a-public-service-a-comprehensive-comprehensible-guide-to-leaking-documents-to-journalists-and-public-service-groups-without-getting-caught/
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https://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/08/a-public-service-a-comprehensive-comprehensible-guide-to-leaking-documents-to-journalists-and-public-service-groups-without-getting-caught/
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Read this thread on the web here: https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/08/required-reading/#rebekah-jones
