The Soros network and the business of big data

The meeting point of Soros George and Alexander, Gerald Knaus their paid lobbyist, and numerous Hungarian left-wing politicians is the European Council on Foreign Relations— our paper reveals in its final part of this series. Among the Hungarians in the ECFR, numerous appear in the left-wing data-collection network which is tied to the state-funded ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences. Keep reading for the details.

A milliárdos NGO-kat használ ideológiája terjesztésére Fotó: REUTERS/Charles Platiau

The former head of cabinet for Prime Ministers, Gordon Bajnai and Ferenc Gyurcsány, is helping the left with significant databases and the newest campaigning techniques-- reported our paper back on January 8, 2020. The database company, DatAdat Professional Kft. was created before the 2018 elections; Ádám Ficsor is one of the company’s owners and Viktor Szigetvári is employed there as a manager. Their common employment history serves as guarantee of mutual trust: while Szigetvári was a confidential employee of both Prime Ministers, Ficsor lead PM Gyurcsány’s cabinet and later was PM Bajnai’s Minister of Intelligence Services. The importance of the project was given away by the fact that Gordon Bajnai bought in as a minority owner but through a separate company.

If a citizen “chats” with Klára Dobrev on Facebook, then the Bajnai—Gyurcsány network gets their hands on that individual’s data.

Based on our paper’s research, it’s become clear that the 2019 autumn campaign was significantly helped by this network; they are most likely behind the “Ezalényeg.hu” smear-campaign portal.

But this isn’t the only place that their paths have crossed. Throughout our series we’ve already introduced the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) which functions partly off of George Soros’ money. ECFR became the acronym that Knaus adorned his many Tweets with. We may not know for sure why he did this, but an informant familiar with such practices likened his Twitter tags to when a lobbyist submits a receipt regarding the public representation of his client.

The ECFR is also important because it is the meeting point of both George and Alexander Soros, Gerald Knaus their paid lobbyist, and numerous left-wing Hungarian politicians such as Gordon Bajnai, Ádám Ficsor, and Viktor Szigetvári-- evidenced by the public membership list.

Among the Hungarian politicians on this list, Dávid Korányi is also notable; he serves in Gergely Karácsony’s mayoral office and lived many years abroad. Additionally, Tibor Dessewffy’s membership on the ECFR list of politicians is a given. He was Ferenc Gyurcsány’s former adviser and is actually the third owner of the DatAdat Professional Kft data company. (In addition to the other owners, Ádám Ficsor and Gordon Bajnai.)

Here it is important to note that the sociologist, Dessewffy, is simultaneously a point of connection between the university-research world and the left-wing network; after all, he leads the ELTE Digital Sociology Research Center where Facebook-user habits are studied—naturally, financed with state funds.

Last year, Dessewffy published a book on this very subject titled “Digital sociology”. A review on the book states, “We live in a whirlwind: digital technologies completely revolutionize our lives, transform culture, interpersonal relationships, politics and the economy. These processes are sometimes spectacular: skyrocketing stock prices, disintegrating relationships, politicians succeeding or failing against traditionally calculated odds, unprecedented rises to fame, a plethora of crazes and gestures all signal the strength of the changes embodied by digital technology.”

These transformations are also noteworthy because aside from the international networks, a domestic network is also clearly functioning—the tentacles of which reach from the “Ez a Lényeg” smear campaign portal, to the ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences sociology clique all the way to Gyurcsány’s party.