
Tor Project Statement on Jacob Appelbaum - tshtf
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/statement
======
mikeyouse
For those confused, several people have accused him of sexual harassment and
at least one has accused him of outright rape.

[http://jacobappelbaum.net/](http://jacobappelbaum.net/)

[https://twitter.com/VictimsOfJake](https://twitter.com/VictimsOfJake)

Before people get too conspiratorial about honeypots and whatever else, Andrea
Shepard is a core developer and had this to say:

[https://twitter.com/puellavulnerata/status/73858143289374310...](https://twitter.com/puellavulnerata/status/738581432893743104)

> Precommitment revealed: sha256("It seems one rapist is one rapist too
> many\n")

~~~
omginternets
>It seems one rapist is one rapist too many

I'm not sure I understand what this means. How am I to interpret this?

------
kkirsche
I just wish there was something more to this here. While I can't speak for
either side, I always struggle with this type of accusation as anyone can say
anything. Consensual and didn't like something after can lead to false
allegations. The flip side is these action(s) did happen and that's horrible.
for me, I always feel this shouldn't be public at all because a false
allegation does similar damage reputationally that a real one does. For this
reason, if the victim goes to social media I no longer believe them since the
risk of damage to good people outweighs the crime to my moral stance. I
respect that others may not agree with this though.

~~~
astronautjones
the volume of accusations are hard to ignore, but his silence is probably the
most damning aspect

~~~
otterley
If you were his attorney, what would you tell him to say?

------
scottlocklin
Some good advice on there: "People who believe they may have been victims of
criminal behavior are advised to contact law enforcement."

~~~
tptacek
You'd do better to continue the quote, which goes on to cite one reason (among
many) that victims might not contact law enforcement.

~~~
otterley
Those reasons, while understandable, shouldn't stop alleged victims with
contacting LE anyway. Humiliation sucks, and distrust is understandable, but
letting a rapist go unpunished for their crimes due to silence is worse.

------
gameofdrones
If someone happens to be a high-profile security researcher, they can safely
assume their behavior is under an Argus smartphone camera HPC cluster of
microscopes and therefore should take extraordinary care to avoid any
appearance of impropriety, even where none exists (just like when working at
an elite university or MBB consulting shop). With Twitter and YouTube in every
pocket, everyone is a potential journalist. If there happen to be a few
feminist crazy people actively trying to destroy and entrap folks, then extra
care with public interactions, coworkers and others is a best practice, and
being guarded about whom is let into private parties as well.

Finally, it may or may not be applicable to this scenario, but a common
failure pattern occurs when people sell themselves on the delusion of
boundary-less, untouchable privilege and then end up in hubris and legal
trouble (i.e., Jimmy Savile, Bill Cosby, etc.)

------
superkuh
Sexual misconduct claims seem to be the go-to for attacking providers of
technological solutions to censorship.

~~~
VonGuard
Vulgar as the attack site is, I am really getting quite tired of the go-to
"she lies" stuff we see all over the Internet. Proper etiquette should be to
not comment at all on such situations if you "side" with either party, but
particularly the accused. At least until whatever investigations there are
have concluded. I get so sick of how every tech site has dozens of comments
when things like this happen, all of them stating that the victims are liars,
or strongly insinuating it. How often do we find out that multiple parties
accusing a single person of sexual assault were wrong?

Let's be fair here, defending the accused inherently means you're calling the
victim(s) liars, especially this early in the event cycle. You're immediately
assuming the accusers are lying for personal gain. You're being biased.

When it's a simple "he said, she said," fine, argue over character if you
must. When it's just two parties involved, it can be quite messy and hard to
untangle. But when we have these cases where multiple people are accusing the
same person of the same thing, just keep your damn trap shut. It's disgusting
how our society treats this type of thing as a subject for public debate. This
is between the folks involved and the respective legal agencies involved, and
nothing is helped by people subtley saying "stupid ladies, they lie about
man."

Bringing this kind of accusation public takes courage. I don't see anyone
leaping to defend Nest's CEO for his alleged instances of abuse. No one on HN
has commented that people accusing Tony of being a jerk are just character
assassins. I'd imagine plenty of people have axes to grind against Tony and
Jake both, but when someone comes forward to make an accusation against the
CEO, no one even argues against it. The ladies (and some men) however, are
expected to provide evidence, pictures, videos, statements, DNA tests, rape
kits, etc.

You can defend Jake and think whatever you want, but let's refrain from
insinuating that multiple parties are lying about a single party. If this were
a consensus algorithm, Jake's data would be overwritten, folks. Cosby's the
same way: do you really think 40+ women are just lying to get attention?

That all said, yes the site with the stories is ham-fisted. That doesn't make
every accusation everywhere false. It just means some people are very upset at
Jake.

~~~
kbenson
> when someone comes forward to make an accusation against the CEO, no one
> even argues against it. The ladies (and some men) however, are expected to
> provide evidence, pictures, videos, statements, DNA tests, rape kits, etc.

While I agree with the general sentiment of your comment, I think it's very
important to consider the social and legal repercussions of the accusations
when taking into account the level of proof required. Being an asshole in
general with regard to business is not the same as sexual harassment, much
less sexual assault. One can get you labelled as someone bad to work for, but
in general many might not care because they are focused on results, while the
other can get you ostracized from friends and family or convicted of a felony,
depending on circumstance. Regardless of guilt. The burden of proof should,
necessarily, be higher when the punishment is so much greater.

This doesn't excuse the behavior of publicly stating guilt or that one party
is lying without evidence. That's horrible behavior and happens on _both_
sides.

~~~
VonGuard
> This doesn't excuse the behavior of publicly stating guilt or that one party
> is lying without evidence. That's horrible behavior and happens on both
> sides.

Agreed. It just gets my dander up that people will resort to conspiracy
theories before giving an entire group of women the benefit of the doubt.

------
herbst
I dont care about that guy, he was never a favorite of mine. But the way the
people around Tor publicised this with reusing the phrase rape again and again
really disappointed me.

They know exactly how easy it is to shout rape and destroy someones life,
still they did exactly that, even thought all we know is that he is a sexist
asshole. What does not particular make him to a rapist.

------
chx
Right now he is still on
[https://www.torproject.org/about/corepeople.html.en](https://www.torproject.org/about/corepeople.html.en)

------
hellbanner
Hm, does this have anything to do with:

[http://chronicle.su/2015/06/17/jacob-appelbaum-expelled-
from...](http://chronicle.su/2015/06/17/jacob-appelbaum-expelled-from-
wikileaks-organization-after-opm-hack-reveals-tor-is-funded-by-us-navy/)

Or this?

[https://pando.com/2015/06/22/how-aclu-helped-government-
hara...](https://pando.com/2015/06/22/how-aclu-helped-government-harass-jacob-
appelbaum/)

~~~
tptacek
I'm pretty sure that chronicle.su article is a parody. One tip-off: Tor was
_created_ at the Naval Postgraduate School.

~~~
hellbanner
Thank you, rushed for time and grabbed what I scanned off of Google.

