Peter Thiel was reportedly an FBI informant
(www.theverge.com)
from nave@lemmy.zip to technology@lemmy.ml on 21 Oct 2023 03:17
https://lemmy.zip/post/4404748
from nave@lemmy.zip to technology@lemmy.ml on 21 Oct 2023 03:17
https://lemmy.zip/post/4404748
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/7041599
Peter Thiel was reportedly an FBI informant::Far-right blogger Charles Johnson and others allegedly outed venture capitalist and Republican megadonor Peter Thiel as an FBI informant.
#technology
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
PayPal co-founder, venture capitalist, Republican megadonor, and disputed vampire Peter Thiel may also have been an FBI informant — at least according to a new report from Insider.
Insider spoke to multiple people who claim Thiel became a “confidential human source” for a Los Angeles-based agent named Johnathan Buma — a term that indicates a long-running relationship with the FBI, allegedly beginning in 2021.
Holding longtime informant status would put Thiel at odds with parts of the Republican party, which has grown hostile to the FBI amid its investigations of Trump.
But Thiel has stepped back from politics during the 2024 US presidential election, reportedly because he felt that Republicans were focused on domestic culture wars instead of American economic competitiveness.
As Insider notes, Thiel has urged the FBI to investigate Google for Chinese government infiltration.
Passing the agency tips about foreign contacts would align neatly with his concerns about foreign influence in tech — and until he can hole up full time in a bunker in New Zealand, his deep Silicon Valley connections are likely worth cultivating by the FBI.
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More likely a double agent.
He’ll inform only when it suits his own ends, and never out of a sense of justice or patriotism, or a want of walking around money.
Absolutely. Just like the guy who reported him being an informant, who did it because Thiel didn’t invest in his startups.
Don’t romanticize him choosing to be a snitch… He wasn’t even a single agent working for the FBI!
I wasn’t trying to romanticise him, rather I was suggesting that he’d be trying to play the FBI in some way or another.
I get what you’re saying, but he can’t “play” the FBI because he was never an agent. Information flows one way: he informs them, and they pay him. I just want to make that clear for others…
Because of course this kinda guy is
HBO’s Silicon Valley ended too soon. There is still too much material being written everyday in the tech industry.