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Software engineer, Debian developer, and recognized Free/Open Source Software innovator Daniel Pocock scratches the surface on the 2016 explusion of journalist, security researcher, and hacker Jacob Appelbaum from Debian. He asserts that the leadership in Debian at the time falsified evidence and hid conflicts of interest when dealing with the allegations against Appelbaum.
In 2016, there was an enormous amount of noise about Jacob Appelbaum from the Tor Project and winner of the Henri Nannen Prize for journalism.
An anonymous web site had been set up with allegations of harassment, abuse and rape. Unlike the #MeToo movement, which came later, nobody identified themselves and nobody filed a police complaint. It appears that the site was run by people who live in another country and have no daily contact with Appelbaum. Therefore, many people feel this wasn't about justice or immediate threats to their safety.
Long discussions took place in the private mailing lists of many free software communities, including Debian. Personally, as a I focus on my employer, clients and family and as there are so many long email discussions in Debian, I don't follow most of these things. I've come to regret that as it is now clear that at least some claims may have been falsified, a serious injustice has transpired and this could have been easily detected.
I don't wish to discount the experiences of anybody who has been a victim of a crime. However, in the correspondence that was circulated within Debian, the only person who has technically been harassed is Jacob Appelbaum himself. If Appelbaum does have a case to answer then organizations muddying the waters, inventing additional victims, may undermine the stories of real victims.
He then goes on to provide supporting evidence — including what was falsified and how the falsifications were used by the press — and then, from there, used against Appelbaum.
Previously:
(2016) Jacob Appelbaum Leaves the Tor Project
(2014) Hackers Replicate NSA's Leaked Bugging Devices
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Friday August 28 2020, @02:02PM (6 children)
Many spotted that before the CoCs were rolled out, but were shouted down. There are already laws against illegal behavior so CoCs don't help there one iota. Rather they instead seem intended to form a basis for harrassing targeted developers. Remember that for the last few years before he was taken out by a CoC, Linus Torvalds made a point of never being alone at a conference for any reason and only being in areas where trusted friends and acquaintences, but especially his wife, could act as witnesses. There were rumors long before that of some group(s) aiming to frame him or nail him with a honey trap [ibiblio.org]. Probably the best discussion of the problems imposed by entangling an event or project with a CoC was done in an interview with Jeremy Sands [techrights.org] of Southeast Linuxfest (SELF) fame:
It was painfully obvious from before the beginning that the CoCs are not about helping anyone, nor even about helping the project on which they get inflicted. Now with these e-mails coming to light we can see what Zini pulled on the project and the public at large.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday August 28 2020, @02:44PM (5 children)
Thanks, I knew about Linus (that's one heck of an article by ESR) but wasn't aware of the IRS angle.
I begin to wonder how much these takeover operations (institute CoC, accuse and eject the founders, gut the operation, wear the corpse as a skin suit) are scams to get hold of the nonprofit's funding for personal gain.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by canopic jug on Friday August 28 2020, @03:28PM (1 child)
I begin to wonder how much these takeover operations (institute CoC, accuse and eject the founders, gut the operation, wear the corpse as a skin suit) are scams to get hold of the nonprofit's funding for personal gain.
Probably more than a few, but that is not a mutually exclusive situation from others just wanting to shutdown Software Freedom wherever it may be found. In fact the two agendas might cooperate from time to time to further eachother's goals.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday August 28 2020, @03:56PM
True, and it's all too easy for those looking for the ill-gotten gain to manipulate and use the true believers.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by rleigh on Friday August 28 2020, @05:36PM (2 children)
I think there's some small financial incentive. After all, project funding for diversity initiatives has to be spent on willing recipients of the cash. But mostly, I think it's about personal validation and personal power. The people who control the enforcement of the CoCs control everyone else on the project. Must make for some nice little power trip to hold judgement over people and cast out the unworthy. Everyone has to crawl before them lest the outrage mob be unleashed.
From what I've read of Debian's CoC enforcement, it's like a kangaroo court with calls for informants to dish dirt on fellow developers. Seriously, look what's public on debian-project. It's shocking. What's worse is seeing various prominent developers eagerly going along with it, happy to subjugate others. I don't want to make this sound too awful, but the impression I get is a bunch of desperate Beta males debasing themselves in front of the blue haired women who took it upon themselves to involve themselves in the project to this end (for the most part, they aren't contributing software, they are primarily non-productive and involve themselves socially).
I'm glad I got out before all that nonsense took off in a big way. Thing is, this is a volunteer project where people willingly give up their free time to package up and integrate open source software to make a free operating system. That's the primary goal. All the CoC stuff is counter to this, and why would I want my free time to be spent stressed out on toxic social justice politics when all I really wanted to do was write high quality free software that I and others could enjoy and use for productive purposes. It's a massive turn off; there's plenty of other things I can do in my spare time.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday August 28 2020, @06:46PM
No argument from me... we're enabling little tin gods with this CoC bullshit, and it always goes as you describe, until finally all the productive people leave.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 29 2020, @01:53AM
Moving outside the software world, I swear that 10 to 20% of women fit that description. Some men are guilty of the same, but the numbers have always seemed to be smaller - maybe 2 or 3%.