Barrister Clive Elliott told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking about the next steps to expect from the Kim Dotcom saga. Video / NewstalkZB
Kim Dotcom has teased a return to national politics at the next election
If it happens, expect to see the Dotcom name on a ballot paper
It comes as Dotcom faces extradition to the US
Kim Dotcom has forecast a return to New Zealand politics with a promise to bring “direct democracy” to the next election even as he faces extradition to the United States.
Dotcom posted on social media yesterday: “The Dotcoms are bringing direct democracy to New Zealand for the next election. People power is the only way forward. Let’s change the game.”
He said there would be more information made public “soon”.
And when one follower posted “Vote for Dotcom”, Dotcom responded saying: “Literally.”
When asked by the Herald if he would be standing himself, he replied: “I’m not the only Dotcom in New Zealand.”
While Dotcom’s eldest child would be old enough by 2026 to contest a seat, it is more likely he is referring to his wife Liz Dotcom, a qualified lawyer.
It followed an earlier post in which he said: “I (have) had enough of the corruption. I’m developing a new, easy-to-use and transparently secure direct democracy platform. Make politicians the executors of our will. Don’t allow them to collect money from wealthy elites in exchange for policies that only favour them.”
Dotcom helped set up the Internet Party which contested the 2014 election in a partnership with the Mana Party. It did not succeed and saw Dotcom withdrawing from public life.
Kim Dotcom near his home at Glenorchy, outside Queenstown.
The signing of the extradition warrant signalled the start of the next phase of a process that started in 2012 when Dotcom and three others were arrested in New Zealand as part of a global FBI operation targeting Megaupload.
Megaupload was a file-hosting service which - at its peak - claimed to be responsible for 4% of the world’s internet traffic. The FBI has alleged it was set up to allow massive copyright violations worth US$500 million ($808m).
Dotcom says the world is running out of ‘conspiracy theories’
Dotcom’s political tease comes as he uses the social media platform X to highlight various world views.
In recent years, Dotcom has used the platform to variously allege Israel’s involvement in the September 11 attacks, coverups over the origins of Covid-19, and claims the CIA plotted to assassinate US President John F. Kennedy.
Dotcom told the Herald: “The world seems to be running out of ‘conspiracy theories’. So many have become true. I’m simply asking questions. Should people believe what Allen Dulles said about ‘the protocols’ or should we ignore the evidence about the ‘5 dancing Israelis’?”
In a lengthy X post on August 19 - which Dotcom said “may be the most important post you’ll ever read” - the internet entrepreneur quoted from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are a denounced fabrication that claims to be a record of a 19th-century meeting of Jewish elders conspiring to control the world.
In posting it, Dotcom said: “I’m not antisemitic or a Nazi. I’m simply a former hacker with great analytical skills who understands what’s happening in the world.”
Dotcom said those who researched The Protocols would find it had been “discredited”. However, he said this was done “with the involvement of Allen Dulles, a World War II spy and later director of the Central Intelligence Agency”.
The Megaupload Four in 2012 - Bram van der Kolk, Kim Dotcom, Mathias Ortmann and Finn Batato. Batato has since died while ver der Kolk and Ortmann were sentenced to prison after pleading guilty in a New Zealand court.
Dotcom alleged Dulles helped support the Nazi regime before World War II then later led the Warren Commission into Kennedy’s death. In other posts, he has said the CIA was behind Kennedy’s death - a finding discounted by the Warren Commission.
While Dotcom said it had been associated with early uses of the term “conspiracy theory”, he asked: “Why do Zionists have a massive overrepresentation in the media, politics, banking and world affairs? How did such a small community get to dominate all the centres of power and information?
“Why can Israel ignore UN resolutions, international law and commit a genocide in Gaza to standing ovations in the US Congress? Why is Israel acting like it is above the law seemingly without any fear of consequences.”
He later said on X: “My recommendation is that you do your own research. Keep in mind that we have been lied to about major historic events like the Kennedy assassination, WMDs in Iraq and most recently the ‘unprovoked’ war in Ukraine and the origin of Covid-19.”
Dotcom and his John Key claims
In another post, made after tech billionaire Peter Thiel said in May that the Israel Defence Force was “broadly in the right”, Dotcom called him a “deep state creep” who was friends with former Prime Minister John Key.
Dotcom claimed that Key “made millions” as a banker for Merrill Lynch and was identified by the CIA as a candidate to run New Zealand. His view is contrary to the accepted position that former National Party president Michelle Boag identified Key as a strong candidate, not the CIA.
On a podcast last week, speaking with academic and journalist Sulaiman Ahmed, Dotcom again referred to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
“One of the first quotes is ‘Our power will be more invincible than any other because it will remain invisible until the moment when it has gained such strength that no cunning can any longer undermine it’.
Kim Dotcom has claimed then-Prime Minister John Key knew more than he claimed about his arrest. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“They are so openly doing the things that they are doing now because there are no consequences for their actions. There is no ‘cunning’ that can any longer undermine what they want to do because they control the media, they have bought the US politicians, they can commit genocide to standing ovations in the US congress.”
Dotcom was asked about the “targeted attack” he had suffered - the arrest in 2012. “I’m of course very inconvenient for the US government and for evil forces in the world because I speak out and I always have.”
He also referred to a debunked conspiracy theory that claimed Israeli spies knew the September 11 attacks were going to happen.
“Who of you has ever heard of the five dancing Jews? The five Jewish people that were arrested on 9/11 filming the planes flying into the Twin Towers and high-fiving each other and cheering like this was something to celebrate. And then turns out after they were arrested two of them were Mossad agents. Why were they there? Why were they filming that? Why were they celebrating it?”
On the podcast, he asked how many people in the CDC and in the health system in the US were Jewish, and dual US and Israel citizens, “and were in charge of the entire Covid 19 response”.
“And when you see that, it’s mind blowing stuff. You really have to learn about what’s going on and how things are being manipulated to achieve a certain outcome.”
Israel Institute responds to Dotcom
The Israel Institute’s Dr David Cumin was concerned with Dotcom’s views and said he found them “repugnant”.
“The increasing mainstreaming of antisemitism is definitely very concerning, whether classic Jew-hate or the more modern form of the oldest hatred that demonises the Jewish nation with similar tropes.”
He said those ranged from “outrageous references” to the so-called protocols, which had long been shown to be false, through to calls for “intifada” on our streets and disinformation spread by academics.
Dr David Cumin, Israel Institute of NZ.
Cumin believed Dotcom’s statements showed a “cross-fertilisation of ideas” - also known as the horseshoe theory - where an apparent figure of the left, who formed a political party, is trafficking in tropes that are more commonly associated with the far-right.
Martyn Bradbury, blogger and political commentator, said the Internet Party offered a form of “direct democracy” through its open selection policies and online policy development.
Bradbury, who offered advice to Dotcom ahead of the launch of the Internet Party, said there was a voting pool of people who were angry and looking for alternatives.
“We are now in a splintered MMP spectrum where there are a lot of undercurrents that come out of the protest on Parliament lawns and have gone on to metastasize in different ways.”
While those votes alone would not be enough to reach 5%, he said that there were constituencies seeking political homes - a tactic that could be seen in Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
He said Dotcom had been a “disruptor” in every sphere in which he had engaged and expected a successful run at Parliament would have the same impact.
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He first joined the Herald in 2004.
