Encrypted Email Provider Lavabit Shuts Down, Blames US Gov't

clorkster writes to note the following explanation posted to the front page of encrypted email provider Lavabit: "'I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what's going on--the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.' No doubt this has much to do with Snowden's use of the provider."

Comments

Re:Great country you have over there

[kheldan]

Good luck with that, it's actually worse everywhere else from what I can see.

Re:Applause

[Anonymous Coward]

The core problem is that there is an Anglosaxon company. They can bully ANY anglosaxon company into submission. As soon as they say "national security", this is akin to displaying a KGB ID card signed by Felix Dshershinsky personally in the Soviet Union.

Yeah, my dear Anglos, your freedoms have been destroyed on the alter of "money can buy muslim immigration" and "multi-culturalism". Now feel the warm fingers of your local KGB variant roaming in your little innocent asses. These warm fingers will examine you until you organize mass protests that walk up to your Anglo-KGB headquarters and demand to inspect the records. East Germans could do it, why can't you ?

Are you more obedient and scared than the east German citizens of the GDR tyranny ? It seems so.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Great country you have over there

[unassimilatible]

The amount of poverty (or near-poverty) here compared to my home country (Australia) astounds me. Huge portions of the population barely getting by...the run-down infrastructure etc. Not to say there's not nice areas too ... but it's really inconsistent. You don't see that at home (due no doubt in part to a more progressive tax structure and universal medical/housing safety-nets)

In a word, bullshit. The US has one of the most progressive tax systems in the world, even more so than most of Western Europe, more so than Australia. Hell, half the country doesn't even pay taxes.

Unfortunately, the main function of government in the US has become the opposite of the original Lockean purpose of the social contract - i.e., separating citizens from their wealth and giving it to others, while taking a huge cut. We have 45 million fucking people on food stamps! TWICE the population of Australia!

And what have we gotten for it? One of our Founding Fathers, Ben Franklin, said the worst thing you could do for the poor is to make them comfortable, lest they not want to escape it. Our "poor" in the US have cable TV and cellphones and are suffering from diabetes due to their obesity. Just enough to keep them voting for the Party of Handouts, exactly as planned...