Investigative journalist and author Whitney Webb has drawn sharp criticism of tech giant Palantir, claiming it has supplanted the need for traditional blackmail operations in the modern surveillance age.
In a new interview with Briahna Joy Gray on the Bad Faith podcast, Webb described Palantir as “the new Jeffrey Epstein,” alleging that the company’s vast data-mining capabilities make it a powerful instrument for manipulation, control, and predictive policing.
“They don’t really need blackmail anymore,” Webb said, referencing the shift from coercion via illicit means to data-driven profiling. “If they want to blackmail you or know something about you, they just access what Palantir sucked up… your search history, your communications, your finances, tweets you’ve liked.” She argued this shift reflects a broader transition in how surveillance and control are executed in the digital age.
Webb, author of One Nation Under Blackmail and contributing editor at Unlimited Hangout, further warned that Palantir’s predictive policing tools are not just theoretical but have been tested in minority and low-income communities, enabling pre-emptive law enforcement actions based on algorithmic forecasts.
“The disturbing thing about Palantir is that it’s really about pre-crime,” she said, referencing both U.S. and Israeli models of preventive detention. She cited past proposals—such as those floated during Donald Trump’s presidency—to preempt mass shootings through algorithmic scanning of social media posts to detect supposed signs of neuropsychiatric instability.
Webb also tied Palantir’s development to past government surveillance programmes, claiming that the company is a privatised continuation of DARPA’s controversial ‘Total Information Awareness’ initiative. “It was so scandalous it was defunded by Congress… but then they realised if they turned it into a private company, no one would complain,” she said.
The interview has sparked renewed debate about the role of private tech firms in surveillance and law enforcement, especially amid concerns over civil liberties, digital privacy, and the militarisation of data.
“They don’t…need blackmail anymore…Palantir…[is] the new Jeffrey Epstein…if they want to blackmail [you]…they…access…your finances, tweets you’ve liked…[&] the disturbing thing about Palantir is…it’s…about pre-crime. [They’re] pioneers of predictive policing”… pic.twitter.com/3Il0l3IhuR
— Sense Receptor (@SenseReceptor) August 1, 2025
“They have been tested in minority and low-income communities, enabling pre-emptive law enforcement actions based on algorithmic forecasts”. Also been testing in Gaza, the blueprint for what these synagogue of Satan psychopaths have planned for the rest of us. We are all Palestinians now, and if this “tribe” wins, humanity loses.
Tyranny and oppression, brought to you, as per usual, by the USA……
AI Governance and The Agentic State
https://gregreese.substack.com/p/ai-governance-and-the-agentic-state?
This is a REAL journalist!
Buy her books.
Exceptionally well researched and referenced, they read like page-turners.
They will change how you see the world.
Maybe not something before sleep.