Palantir accepts ruling in dispute with Swiss magazine Republik

Palantir says it will not appeal the judgement. Keystone

The US data firm Palantir has accepted the ruling of the Zurich Commercial Court in its dispute with the online publication Republik and has decided not to appeal.

The British Guardian has covered the story, as has the Financial Times. At the centre of it all is a small Swiss online magazine with around 36,000 subscribers: Republik, along with a small investigative collective called WAV. Together, they have reported on Palantir’s business model.

“Over the course of seven years, Palantir has repeatedly tried to win over Swiss authorities and customers, and has been rebuffed at every turn,” says Adrienne Fichter of Republik. The stance taken by the Swiss authorities is something of an exception here. Until now, reports have mostly suggested that Palantir is winning clients worldwide and making a great deal of money as a result. The company uses artificial intelligence to analyse data and describes itself as a vital tool for security agencies, but it also faces heavy criticism.

Results cannot be verified

The algorithm is a trade secret. It is not publicly known. And according to Dennis-Kenji Kipker, founder and director of the Cyber Intelligence Institute in Frankfurt am Main, this is dangerous: “For the purposes of threat prevention in the police, intelligence and law enforcement sectors, we are using an analytical tool that we do not understand, because we do not know the technical background and cannot properly verify the results it generates.”

On June 12, it emerged that the Zurich Commercial Court had largely dismissed Palantir’s lawsuit against Republik. The online magazine was required to make corrections on just one point. In response to an enquiry, Palantir has now stated: “Palantir accepts the decision of the Zurich Commercial Court and will not appeal the judgement.”

Republik is also unlikely to pursue the case further. This makes it clear that the judgement is likely to come into force once the appeal period expires in mid-July.

For Valentin Rubin of Reporters Without Borders, the judgement sends an important signal: “This is very welcome. Had Palantir succeeded with its lawsuit, it would have shown that one can take action against the media by dictating the correct tone with regard to one’s own dealings. And that would, of course, be a restriction on journalistic work that would be unacceptable.” Reporters Without Borders therefore describes it as a victory for international press freedom.

Translated from German, sub-edited by ts