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Activists Call For General Strike On the Tor Network (vice.com)

Reader derekmead writes: Some Tor users are very unhappy with the way the project has been run in recent months, and are calling for a blackout on September 1st. They are asking users to not use Tor, for developers to stop working on Tor, and for those who run parts of the network's infrastructure to shut it down. The disgruntled users feel that Tor can no longer be fully trusted after a brief hiring of an ex-CIA official and the internal sexual misconduct investigation against activist Jacob Appelbaum.

55 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Dupe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    This same soap opera was just posted 11 hours ago. Is it really necessary to repost?

    1. Re:Dupe by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Yes, this is at Vice. Everything's better if reported by Vice. You don't know that everything's been reported to death before you read about it in Vice.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Dupe by MiniMike · · Score: 5, Funny

      There's a long-running strike on checking for dupes.

  2. Again? by Ubi_NL · · Score: 2

    https://politics.slashdot.org/...

    For some reason these dupes do make me feel at home here. The world is changing rapidly, but Slashdot stays just the way it is, with 15-year old layout and editors that cant even read their own front page.

    --

    If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
    1. Re:Again? by penguinoid · · Score: 2

      Please don't mention the age of the layout, it might give them ideas...

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    2. Re:Again? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      with 15-year old layout

      That is a good thing. The layout on my browser is more than 15-years old, and I like it that way. Some of us like stability.

      As for Tor, screw them. It is not secure. If they want to shut it down, it will only serve as confirmation of its weaknesses. What we need is a system that can't be shut down.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    3. Re:Again? by Thud457 · · Score: 2

      I too find it heartening that Manish is observing time-honored slashdot tradition.

      Now the posters honor tradition by with the traditional bitching and moaning pointing out the story's a dupe.
      The circle of life continues.

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    4. Re:Again? by fafalone · · Score: 1

      Dude quiet about the layout. The last thing this site needs is "modern web design" shitting all over it.

  3. Duplicate post .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
    1. Re:Duplicate post .. by jbrown.za · · Score: 1

      Duplicate post about the duplicate post ...

  4. Re:Confused by tripleevenfall · · Score: 4, Informative

    SJWs just heard a buzzword and started a twitter campaign

  5. Re:Of COURSE its compromised by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 1

    If you're hosting a Tor node, and don't think you're on a government (probably SEVERAL governments) watch list, you're not paying attention.

  6. Dupe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I think you ran this last night, anyhow there are serious questions about the allegations given that one of the anonymous "victims" came forward, said the people involved had not even talked to her and had invented their own story that did not match what happened.

    But all this will get lost as people fight by making accusations about one another because nobody actually cares what happened, they're just here to tell others what horrible people they are to make themselves feel better. Okay, I'm done, your turn now, Slashdot.

  7. Link to First Story with all Comments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Just click and go to the first instance of this identical story...
    https://politics.slashdot.org/story/16/08/22/0319205/group-wants-to-shut-down-tor-for-a-day-on-september-1

    1. Re:Link to First Story with all Comments by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      And both are on the first page, new record in duplicate posts on Slashdot.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  8. Slashdot employment by LichtSpektren · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I was wondering where I can submit my resume to become a Slashdot editor? Because a full-time salary for the total lack of effort sounds pretty great!

    1. Re:Slashdot employment by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, you just failed the interview. Two entire sentences without grammatical or spelling errors?

      No way, dude.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:Slashdot employment by LichtSpektren · · Score: 1

      Shit. I had so many great ideas to improve the site, like a Google Translate module that automatically converts TFS into a car analogy.

    3. Re:Slashdot employment by Pseudonymous+Powers · · Score: 4, Funny

      Shit. I had so many great ideas to improve the site, like a Google Translate module that automatically converts TFS into a car analogy.

      Cease and desist. I've already written that module. As proof, I just ran your last comment through it, and here's the result:

      Fix engine light. I had so many great camshafts to improve the wheelbase, like an OnStar transmission that stickshiftally coverts the Owner's Manual into a [ERR: Stack overflow].

      See?

    4. Re:Slashdot employment by LichtSpektren · · Score: 1

      Damnit! Everything good has already been invented....

    5. Re:Slashdot employment by nuckfuts · · Score: 1

      It's not often that I literally LOL. Thank you for the endorphins :)

    6. Re:Slashdot employment by they_call_me_quag · · Score: 1

      There are at least two grammatical errors in the 27 words that LichtSpektren posted.

      You are both wrong.

    7. Re:Slashdot employment by thoromyr · · Score: 1

      I disagree with your signature. I'm going to vote for Cthulhu this year because I insist on voting for the lesser evil.

      (Okay, so its off topic. At least I posted to the duped story.)

  9. Same as always by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'll be using Tor the same amount as always on that ludicrous MRA Protest Day. I might even use it a little more, just because.

    Maybe l'll use Tor to come to Slashdot and read the next dupe...

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  10. Re: Confused by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We live in the age of buzzwords and catchphrases which can be quickly used to categorize people without actually having to give thought to what they're saying. Words like "neocon", "fascist", "SJW", and "neo-liberal" all have very little meaning, but assist the simple mind, though sadly it is often to assist them in creating a faulty model of the world around them.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  11. Re:Confused by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1

    Company has misbehaving employee. Misbehaving employee was fired.

    What am I missing here?

  12. Re:Confused by Rei · · Score: 2

    Indeed, according to their graphic they want anyone who "supported or aided the investigation" to sever all ties with Tor.

    It's the "rally around the founder no matter what" effect; I've seen it in many, many projects. That said, most people forget about it with time. Who here ever spares a second thought for Martin Eberhard these days when they think of Tesla, rather than Elon Musk? Back in the day, in the Tesla community Musk was the devil for firing Eberhard when it turned out that Eberhard had grossly understated the cost to build the Roadster, had gotten the company bogged down in contracts that were going to get it hit with penalties, and was accused of hiding negative information from the board. Martin was beloved as the founder, and thus anything negative about him was clearly just vicious smear. But since Tesla has been such a big success, who ever hears the name Martin Eberhard anymore?

    --
    "99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
  13. Shutdown Tor? by sir-gold · · Score: 2

    The argument against this "strike" is that it would shutdown TOR for a day, and would force journalists and dissidents to use a different (more risky) communication method instead.

    Do the strikers in the TOR group actually have the power to turn off TOR itself, or are they just threatening to shut down their personal nodes?

    If they really do have the power to completely turn off TOR worldwide, what is to stop that power being co-opted (or hacked) by a government?

  14. Re: Confused by harperska · · Score: 1

    "neo-liberal" has a legitimate academic definition, and most times I have seen it used it has been in that context. The equivalent over-simplified buzzword used in its place is I believe "libertard".

  15. TOR may be the only real Internet left to us by kheldan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The way the Internet has been devolving into just one big surveillance/spying/malware platform, and now with ICANN ceding control over to someone else, the TOR network may become the last bastion of a truly free and open Internet. Yes, it's the Wild West inside there to be sure, but you do have a higher degree of anonymity and a lesser degree of being spied on and surveilled. I can see a possible future where onion routing networks, with sites operating within them, are the only relatively safe places you could go. Let's not start artillery barrages against TOR, okay?

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    1. Re:TOR may be the only real Internet left to us by Princeofcups · · Score: 1

      I find it bizarre that anyone thinks that TOR was ever secure and private. Great in theory, and we need something to keep the spooks off our packets, but TOR has always been suspect.

      --
      The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
    2. Re:TOR may be the only real Internet left to us by kheldan · · Score: 1

      If you have a better suggestion then I encourage you to fill us all in on the details of it. As anything you do or say on the Internet is subject to surveillance and theft, and I don't see any end to it. Criminals and foreign governments are hacking things constantly. Our own government is spying on everyone constantly. The ISPs we get our connectivity from is sifting every single packet for any personalized information they can sell to their 'partner' companies for purposes of profiling us and putting so-called 'targeted' advertising in our faces, and by the way who knows what else they're doing with all that data they're collecting on us? You can't count on HTTPS encryption to keep private things private, and fucktarded/power-hungry politicians and law enforcement types are working like the damned to ruin ALL encryption for EVERYONE (except them I'm sure). So seriously: If you have any better alternative other than an onion-routing network to keep at least some private things private, please, do tell! Oh and by the way, if all you have to offer is "If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear", or "You're not interesting enough for them to want to watch so why worry about it", then don't bother even responding because both of those 'reasons' completely and totally ignore the priciple of the thing: nobody should be spying on us in the first place.

      --
      Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  16. Re:Confused by EvilSS · · Score: 1

    I understand the possible conflict of interest in working with ex-CIA, although the fact that they'd admit working for the CIA seems dangerous and sketchy, but I don't understand the Applebaum thing. Are folks against sexual harassment/misconduct, or are they against investigating harassment/misconduct?

    Perfectly reasonable question since the summary really doesn't make it clear. Unfortunately you seem to have trigger someone and got modded -1 troll. Welcome to the internet.

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  17. Re: Confused by mrclevesque · · Score: 1

    I think there has always been a few overly sensitive SJWs

  18. Re: Confused by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That reads like a gross oversimplification. For what it's worth, SJWs were responsible for the Magna Carta, various freedom leaning constitutions, women's suffrage, and the end of wide scale slavery, among many other things.

    Fair enough. All of that was working for freedom, more power to them.

    But at least some of modern SJWism is devoted to censorship. Rather than work for freedom, they seek to twist government power to oppress and carve out space for their favored factions.

    It is terrifying a whole generation is being raised to think offending people is damaging, and therefore government may censor. It may take another 40 years before this gets approved by a more sympathetic supreme court. But there goes freedom as protecting the people, used as justification for censorship in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, will be enshrined as a valued principle in the United States.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  19. Re:Confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So Tor project did nothing wrong. Well, they did publish alleged misconduct of an employee all over the internet and the media. Perfectly normal amiright?

  20. Re: Confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. The Democrats are the Party of Slavery.

  21. This is slashdot after all... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    and I wouldn't expect anything to change, duplicate stories are part of our DNA. The question becomes, why delete the old story?

  22. Re: Confused by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2

    Words like "neocon", "fascist", "SJW", and "neo-liberal" all have very little meaning, ...

    I'm pretty sure the people of 1939-1945 Italy and Germany understood a pretty serious meaning of the word "fascist".

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  23. Re:a general strike? by HumanWiki · · Score: 1

    Why a general?

    Can't a major or a lieutenant colonel handle this?

    That comment was in General Disarray and quite a Major Pain to follow. Corporal Punishment too follow shortly from Captain Obvious.

  24. Re: Confused by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    That's because they actually lived under Fascist governments. But the term has lost all meaning in the intervening period of time. Basically, any real or perceived government overreach is immediately declared the signs of fascism and a police state.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  25. Re:Confused by Darinbob · · Score: 1

    This was a workplace matter, not a criminal matter. You don't need proof beyond a reasonable doubt to fire someone, you also don't need proof beyond a reasonable doubt to win a lawsuit.

  26. Mission accomplished by BlackSabbath · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Fear, uncertainty and doubt sown.
    Principals divided.
    While focus and energy is diverted to the search for "truth", the real truth is that fewer people will trust their secrets to Tor as a result.
    Mission accomplished.

  27. Re: Confused by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    Words like "neocon", "fascist", "SJW", and "neo-liberal" all have very little meaning

    Well, they have a meaning but it's often too broad to be used correctly in a general context.

    "Neocon" has a fairly specific meaning but "fascist", "SJW", and "neo-liberal" often mean very different things to different people.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  28. Re:Confused by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some people are convinced that all sexual assault/rape allegations are false, unless there is a video and a signed confession.

    Yes, and some people are convinced that all sexual assault/rape allegations are true, unless there is unassailable evidence to the contrary.

    See the "rape victims have the right to be believed" idea for this whole debacle. For example, the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, the Rolling Stone rape article ("A Rape on Campus"), the Scottsboro Boys, the Tawana Brawley rape allegations, etc. All of these sensational cases turned out to be 100% bullshit. Those "victims" turned out to be perpetrators, but their stories were believed without any critical examination.

    NO ONE has the "right to be believed" about anything without some actual evidence supporting their claim.

    Yes, rape happens, there are plenty of examples of it that are absolutely genuine. BUT, there are false rape reports too, and taking the stance that "rape victims have the right to be believed" is setting the scene for a travesty of justice.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  29. Re:Confused by blackomegax · · Score: 1

    Rape is a crime and any allegations of such should be proven in court.

  30. Gee whiz... by qeveren · · Score: 2

    It doesn't sound like they're getting played by the intelligence agencies AT ALL.

    --
    Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
  31. Re:Confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Company has misbehaving employee. Misbehaving employee was fired. What am I missing here?

    Shari Steele fired and replaced Tor's entire board of directors. ioerror's accusers tried to get him fired from an academic program outside of Tor and they are trying to expel Daniel J. Bernstein (yes, that djb) from the security community. They have been going on a witch hunt against everybody who suggests they might be handling this too aggressively. Anyone who dissents is kicked out of Tor.

    I'm looking forward to seeing the developers quit en masse and start the Shallot Router. Or everyone can go to i2p.

  32. Re:Meh by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    Because Franco was just such a really great guy...

    White Terror

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  33. Re:Confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Right to be believed" means when you go to police to report a rape they actually investigate instead of dismissing the claim out of hand. It has never meant a immediate assumption of guilt as you seem to imply.

  34. Re:Confused by Darinbob · · Score: 1

    I didn't read the whole background story, but I just saw "sexual misconduct". But even with rape, people can and have been fired for it without it being proven in court. You can be fired for anything. Just a suspicion of a crime without an arrest is enough to make some companies fire someone.

    After this, I read some more. He was not just dismissed or fired, he stepped down. He was not just asked to step down immediately, Tor had a seven week investigation, which feels like far more than most corporations would have done.

  35. Re: Confused by Demena · · Score: 1

    No they have a meaning. But meanings are forgotten. If you look up fascism you will find that both presidential candidates are fascists. It is pretty inevitable that that is the case due to financing issues being so dominant

  36. Re: Confused by Rei · · Score: 1

    The community in the case of Tesla (which was just an example picked from countless) was the customers. Are you saying that customers are irrelevant for a company? You also seem to be of the view that the "rally around the founder" effect is a good thing, given your comment about the TOR project being replaced.

    I don't even know what OpenOffice thing you're talking about, by the way.

    --
    "99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
  37. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  38. Re:Confused by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

    Yes, and some people are convinced that all sexual assault/rape allegations are true, unless there is unassailable evidence to the contrary.

    A large portion of them will still demand that the accused be punished as if they were guilty.