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I would probably reach a similar conclusion, but many of the people speaking out against him are people that I know and respect. People who have been contributi

by woah 10y ago

I would probably reach a similar conclusion, but many of the people speaking out against him are people that I know and respect. People who have been contributing meaningful cryptography research for decades are not suddenly going to become part of some nebulous government-sponsored smear campaign. What has happened is that Jake has been, let's say, rather manipulative and self-promotional for many years. I've never had any issues with him, but I've witnessed him grandstanding and attacking people who he felt represented a threat to his influence. His elevated profile in the media and the platform that ToR gave him allowed him to do this successfully. Now that it's ok to criticize him, the floodgates have opened and all the enemies he's made over the years feel that they can speak up. Maybe this looks like some kind of "orchestrated campaign" from the outside? As for the hyperbolic sockpuppet Twitter accounts or whatever, consider that they have only served to sow doubt about the people coming forward.

Bartweiss 10y ago
I don't mean to condemn the accusations, or attribute this to a shady three letter agency (Farr's piece ought to give lie to that claim at the very least). My only intent was to say that the initial nature of the website and twitter account were fairly alarming, and seemed to show a pretty bad faith intent to misrepresent their nature and identity. That doesn't speak to who set up any given thing; it could be the victims, but it could equally well be a destructive third party, or even a false-false-flag attempt to muddy the waters to undermine the charges. All I really mean to say is that the initial misrepresentation of identity is something I'm uncomfortable with regardless of the charges, and that it's something I hope well intentioned supporters of the victims won't engage in (I can hardly ask 2nd party bad actors or 3rd party trolls to change their behavior). The situation is a mess, and I can't do much more than discourage certain tactics and offer sympathy to the victims.
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by woah 10y ago

Bartweiss 10y ago

I don't mean to condemn the accusations, or attribute this to a shady three letter agency (Farr's piece ought to give lie to that claim at the very least). My only intent was to say that the initial nature of the website and twitter account were fairly alarming, and seemed to show a pretty bad faith intent to misrepresent their nature and identity. That doesn't speak to who set up any given thing; it could be the victims, but it could equally well be a destructive third party, or even a false-false-flag attempt to muddy the waters to undermine the charges. All I really mean to say is that the initial misrepresentation of identity is something I'm uncomfortable with regardless of the charges, and that it's something I hope well intentioned supporters of the victims won't engage in (I can hardly ask 2nd party bad actors or 3rd party trolls to change their behavior). The situation is a mess, and I can't do much more than discourage certain tactics and offer sympathy to the victims.

deleted 10y ago

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