Bonum Certa Men Certa

Whistle-blowing as Public Service, Not 'Harassment'

Reprinted with permission from Debian Community News

A number of people in the Debian world have been spreading false accusations of harassment and abuse.



These accusations are never accompanied by any evidence.



Harassment and abuse have a very clear meaning to most people, for example, sexual abuse.



In Debian, these words are being used to describe any uncomfortable questions about money. For example, if a volunteer asks about the secret $300,000 donation from Google, they are accused of harassing the leader.



In any other organization, asking those questions is simply being a good citizen.



These malicious accusations are a painful symptom of the culture wars gripping the free software world today and do not represent any remotely credible claims of harassment or abuse.



The rogue developers who misuse the words harassment and abuse in these situations are guilty of character assassination and they are also stealing from the experiences of people who really have been harassed and abused, including some Debian volunteers.

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