Palantir Is Going on Defense

WIRED

2 days ago

Jun 5, 2025 3:22 PM Palantir threatened to call police on a WIRED reporter and kicked out other journalists from a recent conference following reports of the data analytics firm's work with the Trump administration. Palantir headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Photograph: DavidPalantir, facing mounting public scrutiny for its work with the Trump administration, took an increasingly defensive stance toward journalists and perceived critics this week, both at a defense conference in Washington DC and on social media.
On Tuesday, a Palantir employee threatened to call the police on a WIRED journalist who was watching software demonstrations at its booth at AI+ Expo. The conference, which is hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project, a think tank founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, is free and open to the public, including journalists.
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. The reporters were later able to re-enter the hall, Poulson adds.
The move came after Palantir spokespeople began publicly condemning a recent New York Times report titled 'Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans' published on May 30. WIRED previously reported that Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was building a master database to surveil and track immigrants. WIRED has also reported that the company was helping DOGE with an IRS data project, collaborating to build a 'mega-API.'
The public criticism from Palantir is unusual, as the company does not typically issue statements pushing back on individual news stories.
Prior to being kicked out of Palantir's booth, the WIRED journalist, who is also the author of this article, was taking photos, videos, and written notes during software demos of Palantir FedStart partners, which use the company's cloud systems to get certified for government work. The booth's walls had phrases like 'REAWAKEN THE GIANT' and 'DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP!' printed on the outside. When the reporter briefly stepped away from the booth and attempted to re-enter, she was stopped by Eliano Younes, Palantir's head of strategic engagement, who said that WIRED was not allowed to be there. The reporter asked why, and Younes repeated himself, adding that if WIRED tried to return, he would call the police.
After the conference ended, Younes responded to a photo from the conference that the reporter posted on X. 'hey caroline, great seeing you at the expo yesterday,' he wrote. 'can't wait to read your coverage of the event.' Palantir did not respond to WIRED's request for comment.
Poulson tells WIRED that he, Blumenthal, and Le Masurier were also watching demos at Palantir's booth prior to being kicked out. After a Tuesday panel with Younes and Palantir engineer Ryan Fox, Poulson says Le Masurier approached Younes near Palantir's booth and asked about the company's work for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. A Palantir employee stepped between them and claimed that Palantir had asked her to leave 'multiple times,' according to a video of the interaction viewed by WIRED, and she was escorted out of the conference hall shortly after.
'Apparently, Palantir was so annoyed that they not only kicked her out, but demanded that Max and I be kicked out as well,' Poulson says. "So the security guards came and got us."
The group was allowed back inside the conference hall after explaining their situation to friendly security guards, Poulson says. The guards asked them to respect any requests from attendees to stop filming.
Some conference organizers appeared to be on high alert after a pro-Palestine demonstrator interrupted a panel with Palantir's head of defense, Mike Gallagher, on Monday. The demonstrator was subsequently ejected from the conference, Poulson reported. A handful of pro-Palestine activists were also thrown out on Tuesday after disrupting a panel with Eric Schmidt and Thom Shanker, a former Pentagon reporter at the New York Times. (Palantir formed a partnership with the Israeli military in January 2024, and Google is part of a $1.2 billion cloud contract with the Israeli government.) Poulson tells WIRED that on Wednesday, the conference began mandatory bag-checks for every attendee.
During Younes' Tuesday panel with fellow Palantir employee Fox, which was focused on what the two men do at Palantir and why they like working there, Younes made passing references to perceived critics of the company. When talking about the reasons he joined Palantir, he said, 'I was sick and tired of people with bad intentions,' Younes said, 'many of them who are actually here.' He later added that he's a 'big believer' in the views of Palantir's cofounders, particularly those of CEO Alex Karp. (Karp is known for his nonapologetic stance toward Palantir's work with military and defense agencies and immigration authorities.) 'Playing a role in helping them, to prove the doubters and the haters wrong, that just feels really good,' Younes said.
On Tuesday, Palantir posted on X claiming the Times article was 'blatantly untrue' and said that the company 'never collects data to unlawfully surveil Americans.' The Times article did not claim that Palantir buys or collects its own data, though it's a common misconception that the company does so.
The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment by WIRED.
On Wednesday, Palantir's official X account continued posting about the Times article on X. 'Want to meet Dr. Karp?' the post read. 'In 90 seconds, identify the technical errors in this article. DM us a video in the next 24 hours - whoever finds the most inaccuracies gets an interview with him.'