[hulitu]

Removing US based kernel maintainers from positions in which they could conceivably help insert a backdoor into the kernel hopefully removes the incentive for the US government to threaten (or carry out) horrific violence against these individuals and their families.

cough xz cough

[Wytwwww]

It would only work if the specific government agency/actor could successfully conceal such actions from the rest of the government agencies, courts, media etc. etc. No such safety checks exist in Russia or other pseudo-fascist states.

If the Russian government is blackmailing you your are certainly screwed. In US.. well it depends but you could quite easily bring down the people doing this to you with yourself if you chose not to comply. Therefore no rational US government "actor" would engage in something like that outside of extreme circumstances.

[yeputons]

> In US.. well it depends but you could quite easily bring down the people doing this to you with yourself

I personally don't see much difference between "going down" and "going down together with other people". At least for myself and my family. I'm screwed anyway.

[Wytwwww]

It has more to do with shifting the cost/incentives for the other side which would reduce the likelihood of you ending up in such a position.

[red-iron-pine]

why would they threaten violence when they can offer money?

the Linux User Group of Northern Virginia, the suburb of DC with all of the money, used to hold their events at local Palantir office.

lotta Red Hat contracts with the FedGov. And RH commits a lot of code to the kernal and other FOSS projects.