Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by AlSweigart 3672 days ago
Those who have worked with Jake won't be surprised at all by this. These are accusations coming from multiple people in the tech/privacy/infosec crowd, not from the government.

For those thinking these are government-sponsored lies, do you think [Meredith Patterson](https://twitter.com/maradydd) of [Status 451 Blog](https://status451.com/) is working with the government?

https://twitter.com/maradydd/status/738801590333624320

> [blog.torproject.org/blog/jacob-appelbaum-leaves-tor-project …](https://blog.torproject.org/blog/jacob-appelbaum-leaves-tor-...) is a gross disservice to the Tor community. People deserve to know why Tor evicted its resident sociopath.

https://twitter.com/maradydd/status/738802325565755392

> Tor had the chance to nip this in the bud back when Jake was just a plagiarist. They ignored it, and he graduated to sexual assault.

https://twitter.com/maradydd/status/738802983173922817

> .@mmeijeri Jake finally raped enough people that Tor as an organisation couldn't ignore it anymore.

I worked around Jake around 2009ish in the early years of the Noisebridge hackerspace in San Francisco. I've seen his charismatic pushiness routine that he uses to get what he wants. I joked that if you ever wanted to find him in a group photo, just look front and center. As time went on, I did hear more uneasy things about him. His name came up with a person I met at PyCon last year in Montreal, who then relayed a story that didn't go as far as sexual assault, but was very troubling. He's one of those people that you step aside and warn your friends about. Keep an eye on your intoxicated friends when he's around.

The stories I read on http://jacobappelbaum.net/ fit exactly with the Jake that I knew. He is focused on his own wants and laughs off people's boundaries. Reading the stories on that site doesn't make me think of an elaborate conspiracy to discredit him but of how Cosby was able to get away with his crimes for years.

Before people start saying I'm a shill: I don't have any connection to the http://jacobappelbaum.net/ nor do I know the people who made it (or, at least, I don't know if any people I know made it). [I wrote a book on cryptography, and 100% of the proceeds go to the Tor Project, the EFF and Creative Commons.](http://inventwithpython.com/hacking/proceeds)

1 comments

Latest developments:

"Three current Tor employees—two of which agreed to be named on the record—have confirmed that they personally know the authors of the alleged victim statements on the site, JacobAppelbaum.net. Although they continue to maintain anonymity for the authors of the stories, these Tor employees are now publicly vouching for the site’s authenticity, which Appelbaum has called into question.

Andrea Shepard, a senior Tor developer, confirmed to the Daily Dot that she was in touch with at least one of the victims on the website several months ago. Alison Macrina, a Tor employee and advocate as well as the founder and director of the Library Freedom Project, also vouched for the authenticity of the anonymous victims' statements.

"It’s related to something that started happening in earnest about three or four months ago," Macrina said. "Which is simply that people stopped being afraid to talk to each other about Jake. That’s how I heard from some victims.""

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/jacob-appelbaum-tor-project...

As an outsider, I don't know what is going on at all, but since you linked to some people that are notable that are willing to go on the record, it seems appropriate to quote some of what they said,

"Andrea Shepard, a senior Tor developer, confirmed to the Daily Dot that she was in touch with at least one of the victims on the website several months ago. Alison Macrina, a Tor employee and advocate as well as the founder and director of the Library Freedom Project, also vouched for the authenticity of the anonymous victims’ statements."

I feel like a conspiracy theorist by saying there are far too many rape allegations against people associated with wikileaks. Cui bono?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cui_bono

Edit: As someone that has almost exclusively hung out with educated/privileged people, I am just not used to anyone that would tolerate any assault occurring around me. People have never even joked about it around me, and I am the most crude person IRL. I am aware that I could be wrong, this story just sounds difficult to believe.