Slashdot Mirror
Tor Project Installs New Board of Directors After Jacob Appelbaum Controversy (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Tor Project announced today that is has elected an entirely new board of directors as part of a larger shake-up after accusations of misconduct by former employee Jacob Appelbaum. Appelbaum left the company in June after the nonprofit organization said it had received multiple accusations against him. The seven board members that are leaving the organization said in a statement today that it is their "duty to ensure that the Tor Project has the best possible leadership." The New York Times reports that the board agreed to step down following the controversy surrounding Appelbaum. Some of the board members who will be leaving include Tor Project co-founders Roger Dingledine and Nick Mathewson, who will continue to work on the organization's technical research and development team, according to the statement. They will be replaced with several prominent cryptographers and scholars, including University of Pennsylvania professor Matt Blaze, Electronic Frontier Foundation Executive Director Cindy Cohn, and security technologist Bruce Schneier. Meanwhile, researchers at MIT have been working on a new anonymity network that they say is more secure than Tor.
From the Wikipedia article on Applebaum:
The Tor Project and several other organizations ended their association with Appelbaum in June 2016 following several allegations of sexual abuse; Appelbaum denied the accusations.
Okay, so he's being thrown under the bus due to an accusation.
Reading further:
One woman, who has been held-up as an example of one of his victims, hotly contested allegations that Appelbaum abused her and questioned the validity of other allegations against him.
Women are generally sensitive about sexual abuse, so having a woman deny the allegations, and with insight into the situation question the other allegations, shouldn't we at least wait for charges being filed?
Various activists and others have publicly supported Appelbaum, citing that extrajudicial social reactions to the allegations were overly extreme, and had violated Appelbaum's fundamental rights, resulting in a witch-hunt.
Are we a society rules by law?
Or do we simply try things in the court of public opinion, where the loudest voice is the strongest evidence?
We have an entire board being replaced due to an accusation.
The potential for abuse is enormous.
In western societies accusations of sexual misconduct is enough to destroy just about anyone or any organization. Not so much here in Asia.
Just about anyone who is to be 'taken down' in western societies seems to be done by sexual impropriety. JFK, MLK both had allegations of misconduct. Strauss-Kahn is another prime example. Sex enters every story that is meant to destroy anyone. Guilty or not.
When I was involved with OccupyLA a few sexual misconducts came up to discredit people. Same same.
Whether the accusations are true or not, makes no difference. If the story sticks... someone is finished.
The hilarious part is that feminism, part and parcel of the Far Left, created this rape accusation monster to be let loose on conservatives. Just like The Modern Prometheus it turned on its creators. Central to the rape accusation epidemic is that women's words must never be questioned and that men are always wrong, no matter what. Even if proven innocent later (not found "not guilty", innocent is something completely different) a mere accusation is enough to destroy lives. The Left can hardly complain about its hero Assange being taken down by the very methods it pioneered.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!