Palantir is facing mounting This week, under increasing scrutiny from the public for its involvement with Trump’s administration, it took a more defensive approach toward journalists and critics, at both a Washington defense conference and social media.
Palantir’s employee, who worked at the AI+ Expo booth on Tuesday threatened to report a WIRED Journalist for watching software demos. The Special Competitive Studies Project is a think tank that was founded by Eric Schmidt when he served as CEO of Google.
Later that day, Palantir had conference security remove at least three other journalists—Jack Poulson, writer of the All-Source Intelligence Substack; Max Blumenthal, who writes and publishes The Grayzone; and Jessica Le Masurier, a reporter at France 24—from the conference hall, Poulson says. Poulson says that the reporters later were able to enter the conference hall.
Palantir spokespersons began to publicly criticize a recent New York Times report titled “Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans” Published on 30 May. The May 30th edition of WIRED previously reported Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE as it is called in the US, was creating a database that would be used to track and monitor immigrants. WIRED published a similar article. reported The company collaborated with DOGE to create a database of IRS tax data. “mega-API.”
Palantir’s public critique is rare, since the company doesn’t usually issue statements in response to individual news articles.
Before being ejected from Palantir, WIRED’s journalist and author, took pictures, recorded videos, made notes, during the software demos for Palantir FedStart, which uses the cloud system to be certified by the federal government. Walls in the booth had slogans like “REAWAKEN THE GIANT” The following are some examples of how to get started: “DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP!” Outside, the card is printed. Eliano Younes said WIRED wasn’t allowed in the booth when the reporter tried to enter after stepping out. Younes explained why and repeated that, should WIRED try to return, the police would be called.
Younes posted a comment on the picture of the conference the reporter had shared. X. “hey caroline, great seeing you at the expo yesterday,” He has written. “can’t wait to read your coverage of the event.” Palantir didn’t respond to WIRED after requesting a comment.
Poulson, Blumenthal, & Le Masurier watched the demos as well at Palantir before they were kicked out. Poulson tells WIRED that after a panel on Tuesday with Palantir engineer Ryan Fox and Younes, Le Masurier asked Younes about Palantir. work for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. They were separated by a Palantir employee who claimed to have been asked to leave Palantir. “multiple times,” A video of her interaction was seen by WIRED and shortly thereafter, she left the conference room.
