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I don't have a huge problem with this. The site was clearly only for child porn, so signing up is equivalent to, say, willingly trying to hire a hit man or plot
by api 11y ago
I don't have a huge problem with this. The site was clearly only for child porn, so signing up is equivalent to, say, willingly trying to hire a hit man or plotting a robbery.
I actually think this is a good example of digital police work, as opposed to utterly indiscriminate dragnets and trying to ban or backdoor crypto. This targeted a specific criminal activity and people clearly linking themselves to it. It was not indiscriminate.
It also shows that police work is absolutely possible in a world with crypto, proving the anti-crypto doomsday rhetoric wrong.
- Nutmog 11y agoIn another story a while ago, somebody ran a fake child porn site to see who would sign up. I think they found that some of their applicants were law enforcement and researchers. So no, signing up isn't already committing a crime.
- api 11y agoLaw enforcement officers and researchers could file for their case to be dismissed by providing evidence of their reason for accessing the material. This is an argument for privacy around criminal charges since even being charged with CP can ruin someone's reputation. Many civilized countries have this. But this is a separate issue.