5 ms·

Raspberry Pi hired an ex-cop and people are pissed

32 points by gjvc 4y ago

hackrnusr 4y ago
Sounds like the Raspberry Pi has just become the new Raspberry Sigh.
jonty 4y ago
> Liz Upton, Raspberry Pi’s cofounder and chief marketing officer, told BuzzFeed she believes that much of the issue stems not from the hiring of the former police officer who admitted to using Raspberry Pis for covert surveillance, but instead from a picture the account posted to Mastodon a day earlier showing pigs in blankets. “We didn’t put a content warning on it, because we don’t put a content warning on meat,” Upton said. “There were quite a few people who tried to start dogpiling on that.”
- thelonelygod 4y ago
  That is so drastically out of touch with the situation it's absurd.
detaro 4y ago
Lol, did not expect the next stage would be "Raspberry Pi claims culture-war conspiracy". No folks, people can actually hold opinions and criticize you without coordinating that. And most people's primary problem is with your reaction to initial criticism anyways, not with you hiring the guy...
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  There is absolutely nothing wrong or controversial about Raspberry Pi's hiring decision. The reactions to the announcement have been so absurd and offensive (what you call 'criticism') that they could only respond the way they did or just try to ignore. IMHO taking the 'criticism' seriously would have been nothing more than feeding the trolls. At the moment the Raspberry Pi's team must be scratching their heads in disbelief.
  - detaro 4y ago
    That "He learned to love RPi while using it to build surveillance tools" doesn't go over well with a good chunk of a technical audience as the "origin story" is really not surprising? The first few responses were criticizing just that - and then they blew it up by being pissy about that and blocking people saying that. (There also seems to be some UK-specific hangups around misbehavior of surveillance cops, but my general impression is that most people who think they are handling this incredibly badly don't really mind that they hired the guy, but rather how they presented it and especially the follow-up responses to mild criticism. Even just ignoring them would've been loads better than what they did)
    - mytailorisrich 4y ago
      > doesn't go over well with a good chunk of a technical audience That's not true. You're generalising based on a minority of noisy idiots who should be ignored. Blocking them to increase the SNR is eminently sensible.
      - detaro 4y ago
        I'm sure that's why surveillance is such a popular topic on HN too then? Because a few noisy idiots conspire to give posts hundreds of upvotes to hide the fact that normal people love cop surveillance tools? And again, this is at least as much about how they choose to respond by now than about the people who dislike the original post.
        mytailorisrich 4y ago
        I am hoping that people can make the difference between large scale blanket state surveillance and police investigating organised crime...
        detaro 4y ago
        Sure there is, not like there isn't misconduct and thus negative associations with the latter too though. But regardless if you label the group that thinks so "a chunk of people" or "some noisy idiots", them turning up is still different from them conspiring to dog-pile you, which RPi are now claiming. And belittling them instead of ignoring them breaks your "we're a nice and open community brand" image you've been trying to sell even for many of those that are not in the group, and as I said I think it's primarily the consequence of that what they are seeing now. One would think that's Social Media management 101 by now... (So if you blew that up over just a "some noisy idiots" you've mishandled it even worse?)
gabrielsroka 4y ago
Actual title: "Why The Computer Company Raspberry Pi’s New Hire Caused A Social Media Firestorm"
- gjvc 4y ago
  I'll have you know the title was accurate at the time of submission.
  - gabrielsroka 4y ago
    My apologies. You're right. I posted from mobile and I couldn't see the title. Actual title: "Raspberry Pi Hired An Ex-Cop And People Are Pissed"
- DerekL 4y ago
  The submitted title is based on the page title, which is different from the headline.
  - gabrielsroka 4y ago
    My apologies. You're right.
svoncin 4y ago
> “I was a Technical Surveillance Officer for 15 years, so I built stuff to hide video, audio, and other covert gear,” Roberts is quoted as saying in the post. “You really don’t want your sensitive police equipment discovered, so I’d disguise it as something else, like a piece of street furniture or a household item. The variety of tools and equipment I used then really shaped what I do today.” People are really complaining about this? This is incredibly cool from a maker perspective. And I bet he caught a load of very dodgy people with his kit too. This guy sounds awesome, what a splendid hire.
- detaro 4y ago
  The bigger problem I think is that they acted as if > "Folks I'm not exactly a police supporter but this is a terrible way to intro Tony. You've basically written this guy specialises in surveillance and now he works with our computers, yay!" was not an acceptable response to that. Some people don't like surveillance, not that surprising, but if you end up with "oops, wrong audience for this" post you don't have to blow it up as they did.
  - svoncin 4y ago
    So I found the original thread (https://raspberrypi.social/@Raspberry_Pi/109477121398103132 https://raspberrypi.social/@Raspberry_Pi/109477121398103132), and I must say these irreverent responses from the Raspberry Pi account are raising a smile from me, it's refreshing to see someone not taking those po-faced complainer types seriously.
    - amatecha 4y ago
      It's refreshing that people respectfully voice their concerns and the company treats them like shit in response, going so far as to reply condescendingly and block them? That's not refreshing, that's just shitty behaviour and unacceptable in the context of any community.
      - svoncin 4y ago
amatecha 4y ago
I think it's worth reviewing this summary of recent event which captures it all in an easy way to understand what has happened -- without PR slant or rhetorical speculation: https://eiara.nz/posts/2022/Dec/09/a-case-study-on-raspberry-pis-incident-on-the-fediverse/ https://eiara.nz/posts/2022/Dec/09/a-case-study-on-raspberry...
- theamk 4y ago
  This piece is crazy. Is the author really claiming that (1) there is a global blocklist for mastodon and (2) one can get on that blocklist forbeing rude to users (without any actual hate speech or any of the -isms)? if so, I can see community fragmenting in million little areas soon.
  - M2Ys4U 4y ago
    No, they're not. The #FediBlock hashtag can be used by anyone - it's literally just a hashtag - and it's up to folks (mainly admins) monitoring that hashtag to investigate and (if it appears to be necessary) take action. There are no global blocklists, and even the concept of shared blocklists isn't accepted by many, although there are quite a few Known Bad instances that a lot of admins block.
- humanactu 4y ago
  > This public hashtag is a way for administrators to co-ordinate with each other in an attempt to reduce harm to their users > as administrators and moderators seeking to ensure safety for their users are able to remove tens of thousands of their users in a few clicks Is this author saying that the Raspberry Pi social media coordinator replying with things like "chill" and "bye bye" to rude commenters and then blocking is somehow harming them and threatening their safety? If so, the hyperbole here is off the charts! How fragile these people must be. Snowstorm in a teacup.
a_puppy 4y ago
I think it's interesting how many people on the Mastodon thread are saying "I think it was fine for Raspberry Pi to hire an ex-cop, but they should have been more polite to the people who are angry at them for hiring an ex-cop." I think it's essentially a disagreement about where the Overton window is. Raspberry Pi seems to think "harassing us because our new employee is an ex-cop is outside the Overton window" so they're dismissing/blocking people who are doing it. Whereas a lot of people in the Mastodon thread seem to think it's within the Overton window, so they're angry that Raspberry Pi isn't engaging with it seriously. (Another aspect is that corporate social media accounts are held to a higher standard than randos.)
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  They received abuse so they blocked the perpetrators. Well done Raspberry Pi.
trynewideas 4y ago
tangentially I thought Mastodon's first "main character" was Wil Wheaton back in 2018
phendrenad2 4y ago
It's so funny to me that people keep expecting capitalist enterprises to not act in their best interest. Police forces with million-dollar budgets buy raspberry pis too, and the company is going to do whatever it takes to get that sweet government money, no matter who it alienates.
aendruk 4y ago
The CMO’s conspiracy theorizing is comically out of touch: > I think what we’re looking at is a dogpile that’s being organized somewhere. There’s obviously a Discord or a forum somewhere. I don’t think this is organic […] I think there are people out there intent on perpetuating a culture war on Mastodon. And I’m not sure their motives are necessarily benign. They really don’t understand how bad it looks to celebrate police surveillance? Of course there’s organic backlash to that. We must live in different worlds.
villgax 4y ago
Some real tone deaf behaviour

32 points by gjvc 4y ago

Sounds like the Raspberry Pi has just become the new Raspberry Sigh.

> Liz Upton, Raspberry Pi’s cofounder and chief marketing officer, told BuzzFeed she believes that much of the issue stems not from the hiring of the former police officer who admitted to using Raspberry Pis for covert surveillance, but instead from a picture the account posted to Mastodon a day earlier showing pigs in blankets. “We didn’t put a content warning on it, because we don’t put a content warning on meat,” Upton said. “There were quite a few people who tried to start dogpiling on that.”

thelonelygod 4y ago
That is so drastically out of touch with the situation it's absurd.

detaro 4y ago

Lol, did not expect the next stage would be "Raspberry Pi claims culture-war conspiracy". No folks, people can actually hold opinions and criticize you without coordinating that. And most people's primary problem is with your reaction to initial criticism anyways, not with you hiring the guy...

mytailorisrich 4y ago
There is absolutely nothing wrong or controversial about Raspberry Pi's hiring decision. The reactions to the announcement have been so absurd and offensive (what you call 'criticism') that they could only respond the way they did or just try to ignore. IMHO taking the 'criticism' seriously would have been nothing more than feeding the trolls. At the moment the Raspberry Pi's team must be scratching their heads in disbelief.
- detaro 4y ago
  That "He learned to love RPi while using it to build surveillance tools" doesn't go over well with a good chunk of a technical audience as the "origin story" is really not surprising? The first few responses were criticizing just that - and then they blew it up by being pissy about that and blocking people saying that. (There also seems to be some UK-specific hangups around misbehavior of surveillance cops, but my general impression is that most people who think they are handling this incredibly badly don't really mind that they hired the guy, but rather how they presented it and especially the follow-up responses to mild criticism. Even just ignoring them would've been loads better than what they did)
  - mytailorisrich 4y ago
    > doesn't go over well with a good chunk of a technical audience That's not true. You're generalising based on a minority of noisy idiots who should be ignored. Blocking them to increase the SNR is eminently sensible.
    - detaro 4y ago
      I'm sure that's why surveillance is such a popular topic on HN too then? Because a few noisy idiots conspire to give posts hundreds of upvotes to hide the fact that normal people love cop surveillance tools? And again, this is at least as much about how they choose to respond by now than about the people who dislike the original post.
      - mytailorisrich 4y ago
        I am hoping that people can make the difference between large scale blanket state surveillance and police investigating organised crime...
        detaro 4y ago
        Sure there is, not like there isn't misconduct and thus negative associations with the latter too though. But regardless if you label the group that thinks so "a chunk of people" or "some noisy idiots", them turning up is still different from them conspiring to dog-pile you, which RPi are now claiming. And belittling them instead of ignoring them breaks your "we're a nice and open community brand" image you've been trying to sell even for many of those that are not in the group, and as I said I think it's primarily the consequence of that what they are seeing now. One would think that's Social Media management 101 by now... (So if you blew that up over just a "some noisy idiots" you've mishandled it even worse?)

gabrielsroka 4y ago

Actual title: "Why The Computer Company Raspberry Pi’s New Hire Caused A Social Media Firestorm"

gjvc 4y ago
I'll have you know the title was accurate at the time of submission.
- gabrielsroka 4y ago
  My apologies. You're right. I posted from mobile and I couldn't see the title. Actual title: "Raspberry Pi Hired An Ex-Cop And People Are Pissed"
DerekL 4y ago
The submitted title is based on the page title, which is different from the headline.
- gabrielsroka 4y ago
  My apologies. You're right.

svoncin 4y ago

> “I was a Technical Surveillance Officer for 15 years, so I built stuff to hide video, audio, and other covert gear,” Roberts is quoted as saying in the post. “You really don’t want your sensitive police equipment discovered, so I’d disguise it as something else, like a piece of street furniture or a household item. The variety of tools and equipment I used then really shaped what I do today.” People are really complaining about this? This is incredibly cool from a maker perspective. And I bet he caught a load of very dodgy people with his kit too. This guy sounds awesome, what a splendid hire.

detaro 4y ago
The bigger problem I think is that they acted as if > "Folks I'm not exactly a police supporter but this is a terrible way to intro Tony. You've basically written this guy specialises in surveillance and now he works with our computers, yay!" was not an acceptable response to that. Some people don't like surveillance, not that surprising, but if you end up with "oops, wrong audience for this" post you don't have to blow it up as they did.
- svoncin 4y ago
  So I found the original thread (https://raspberrypi.social/@Raspberry_Pi/109477121398103132 https://raspberrypi.social/@Raspberry_Pi/109477121398103132), and I must say these irreverent responses from the Raspberry Pi account are raising a smile from me, it's refreshing to see someone not taking those po-faced complainer types seriously.
  - amatecha 4y ago
    It's refreshing that people respectfully voice their concerns and the company treats them like shit in response, going so far as to reply condescendingly and block them? That's not refreshing, that's just shitty behaviour and unacceptable in the context of any community.
    - svoncin 4y ago

amatecha 4y ago

I think it's worth reviewing this summary of recent event which captures it all in an easy way to understand what has happened -- without PR slant or rhetorical speculation: https://eiara.nz/posts/2022/Dec/09/a-case-study-on-raspberry-pis-incident-on-the-fediverse/ https://eiara.nz/posts/2022/Dec/09/a-case-study-on-raspberry...

theamk 4y ago
This piece is crazy. Is the author really claiming that (1) there is a global blocklist for mastodon and (2) one can get on that blocklist forbeing rude to users (without any actual hate speech or any of the -isms)? if so, I can see community fragmenting in million little areas soon.
- M2Ys4U 4y ago
  No, they're not. The #FediBlock hashtag can be used by anyone - it's literally just a hashtag - and it's up to folks (mainly admins) monitoring that hashtag to investigate and (if it appears to be necessary) take action. There are no global blocklists, and even the concept of shared blocklists isn't accepted by many, although there are quite a few Known Bad instances that a lot of admins block.
humanactu 4y ago
> This public hashtag is a way for administrators to co-ordinate with each other in an attempt to reduce harm to their users > as administrators and moderators seeking to ensure safety for their users are able to remove tens of thousands of their users in a few clicks Is this author saying that the Raspberry Pi social media coordinator replying with things like "chill" and "bye bye" to rude commenters and then blocking is somehow harming them and threatening their safety? If so, the hyperbole here is off the charts! How fragile these people must be. Snowstorm in a teacup.

a_puppy 4y ago

I think it's interesting how many people on the Mastodon thread are saying "I think it was fine for Raspberry Pi to hire an ex-cop, but they should have been more polite to the people who are angry at them for hiring an ex-cop." I think it's essentially a disagreement about where the Overton window is. Raspberry Pi seems to think "harassing us because our new employee is an ex-cop is outside the Overton window" so they're dismissing/blocking people who are doing it. Whereas a lot of people in the Mastodon thread seem to think it's within the Overton window, so they're angry that Raspberry Pi isn't engaging with it seriously. (Another aspect is that corporate social media accounts are held to a higher standard than randos.)

mytailorisrich 4y ago
They received abuse so they blocked the perpetrators. Well done Raspberry Pi.

trynewideas 4y ago

tangentially I thought Mastodon's first "main character" was Wil Wheaton back in 2018

phendrenad2 4y ago

It's so funny to me that people keep expecting capitalist enterprises to not act in their best interest. Police forces with million-dollar budgets buy raspberry pis too, and the company is going to do whatever it takes to get that sweet government money, no matter who it alienates.

aendruk 4y ago

The CMO’s conspiracy theorizing is comically out of touch: > I think what we’re looking at is a dogpile that’s being organized somewhere. There’s obviously a Discord or a forum somewhere. I don’t think this is organic […] I think there are people out there intent on perpetuating a culture war on Mastodon. And I’m not sure their motives are necessarily benign. They really don’t understand how bad it looks to celebrate police surveillance? Of course there’s organic backlash to that. We must live in different worlds.

villgax 4y ago

Some real tone deaf behaviour