[Noisebridge-discuss] WikiLeaks supporter witch hunt survey

[Moxie Marlinspike]

I know that it's easy to feel like something is really happening when
the people you follow on twitter or the internet at large become an echo
chamber for a story like this.  But the cold truth is that "justin
bieber" is what's actually trending on twitter right now, not anything
with the term "wikileaks."

I don't think that anything even remotely approximating half the village
is involved here, and it's probably not at all taxing for the state to
put every conceivable person who could or would respond to this survey
on every IRS audit list, every TSA hassle list, and every DHS watch list
from now until eternity.  Eventually enough data will emerge to put some
people in court with whatever framing the state likes, and those people
will lose (juries convict).

I realize that wikileaks has an inherently liberal (in the classical
sense of the word) thesis, but I don't actually think there's much
precedent for expecting that the "rule of law" means anything to the
state, or that people in positions of power will spontaneously limit
themselves to it if they perceive any glimmer of a threat.  You can act
shocked or outraged or hurt or whatever in the press, but seriously,
what else would you expect them to be doing?

In short, I think it's probably unwise to publicly associate yourself
with a project like this, particularly given that there is no practical
reason to (short of seeing your name in the trade press).  It probably
wouldn't hurt for the computer security scene to take some queues from
security culture [1] on this one.

I think it would be much more prudent for the people involved in
wikileaks to study past "witch hunts" -- which have actually been quite
effective [2] -- in order to prepare for what is inevitably coming,
rather than betting on the state acting "responsibly" if enough people
post shocked or proud comments to the internet.

1) http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/atoz/security.php
2) http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/rollingthunder/greenscared.php

- moxie

-- 
http://www.thoughtcrime.org

On 01/08/2011 01:14 AM, Rubin Abdi wrote:
> 1. Have you supported WikiLeaks in more then just approval and reading
> leaked content (i.e. financially, technical infrastructure,
> peering/serving data, other)?
> 
> 
> 
> 2. Would you be willing to freely put your name on a list stating the above?
> 
> 
> 
> I want to know how many supporters there are that want to send a message
> that we're actually a large number of people here to push an idea that
> transparency is key. A witch hunt doesn't work if half the village is
> practicing.
> 
> And yes I'm sure many folks who do apply to the two questions will not
> respond to this.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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