Bonum Certa Men Certa

Renata Avila: Trying to Understand the Lynching of Stallman

Reproduced from the original here.




Renata Avila is a Human Rights and technology lawyer who serves as the Executive Director of Digital Future Society[1], an organization supported by the Government of Spain that works towards the implementation of policies for the digital age. As a feminist[2], she also identifies the threats to women's rights in a patriarchal society. Avila has stated:[3]



Technology is politics, and part of my work is explaining the political dimensions of technology decisions and their impact in society. The role those could play in shaping a better world, tackling inequalities, distributing power, strengthening democracy and opening up creative possibilities.



The perpetuation of patriarchy is another risk to society.



More about Avila's work[4].



We are reproducing Avila's article verbatim from the original[5] with her permission.



A note about the article: as Renata clearly states, her criticism is directed at some of the RMS' attackers.






Trying to Understand the Lynching of Stallman: for an Uncompromising Defense of Free/Libre Software



By Renata Avila - March 26, 2021



Some people taking part in the mob lynching RMS for sure hate his guts. Because he is “weird” and they think he is “creepy,” because he doesn't obey to any of the social conventions of our times, because he isn’t considerate towards them, etc. Anti-conformists, anarchists and neuro-divergent people often face this kind of hate.



Some take part because they want to get the social credit of being on the side of “justice.”



Maybe they fear that such lynching could happen to them as well, so they hope they are buying their place in “paradise” by encouraging and fueling the mob. (Historical examples may actually prove otherwise...) But most importantly, what many of the lynchers hate is Richard’s uncompromising way of defending Free/Libre software, therefore his way of pointing out their own contradictions.



A photo of Renata Avila
Renata Avila at Digital Future Society, September 2020.



What Richard shows by his lifestyle and speaks loudly about—without filters—is the compromises that they are making by using, nurturing and promoting technology that is actually harmful to basic human rights and basic dignity.



They hate to be shown by his way of life that one can actually live without using any of these harmful technologies, that they are not “inevitable.” They feel threatened by his way of questioning as harmful the compromises that most are making every day in the name of convenience, comfort and so-called “user-friendliness.”



Many such participants in the lynch-mob who are users of Windows, macOS, Google, Amazon, Zoom, Twitter, Reddit, Github, etc., hate RMS because they want to pretend they can do good, that they can effectively promote and defend “digital rights,” “social justice” or whatever other shallow principles, while making such everyday unethical compromises with technologies of oppression.



RMS’ principled stances cause an uncomfortable cognitive dissonance for them. They would rather kill a sacrificial Gnu than admit their own shortcomings. It is significant that the letter demanding his resignation must be signed using Microsoft’s Github platform, and that many organizations taking position are openly accepting money from Google and other predatory companies.



Some in the mob have a strategic interest in RMS and the FSF being lynched. Because they want the hyper-capitalism-compatible, surveillance-tolerant model of “open source” to prevail over the ethical, philosophical and political concept of “free/libre software.”



Like Google, they prefer MIT license over the AGPL (that prevents business based on hiding from the users what is being done with their data). They see this model as “more free” as it gives freedom to capture and control. Ironically they don’t seem to mind about MIT actually enabling, covering for and defending Jeffrey Epstein [1], while being fully in bed with the US Military and getting billions of dollars from them [2]. They do not demand the resignation of the board of MIT or the US Army or Google... They claim we “need leaders,” and volunteer for the job. They instrumentalize the herd.



This is why it is essential today more than ever to (re)focus on the core of what free/libre software is about, and how fundamental it is for any fight towards more justice and more freedom, and to combat technological oppression. Some call it “radical,” we should reclaim it as “uncompromising,” as an ethical promise against harmful, predatory technology, and as a difficult path of life implying hard choices and everyday efforts. Following such a path frequently takes us outside of the herd, and we don’t need no “leader” nor conformism for that; just shared inspiration and a strong uncompromising will of Freedom and Justice.



[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/business/mit-jeffrey-epstein-joi-ito.html
[2] http://tech.mit.edu/V109/N7/glenn.07o.html






References and Notes





  1. Digital Future Society - Board of Trustees (Archived)


  2. Feminists Leading Change: Renata Avila (Archived)


  3. Digital colonialism with human rights and technology expert, Renata Avila (Archived)


  4. Stanford PACS - Renata Avila (Archived)


  5. Avila's original article at Medium (Archived)

Recent Techrights' Posts

When Abusive Law Firms (Working for Microsofters Against Us) Assert That Someone Writing in Social Media About Himself is Confidential Information
There was no reason to throw "GDPR" into 2 SLAPPs; they know it, but the goal was to increase the cost of a Defence and lessen the incentive to challenge the SLAPPs
Throwing Money at Lawyers Can't Stop Us (It Never Did)
Even just trying to censor things can result in the opposite of the desired outcome
BetaNews Has More or Less Died After Experiments With LLM Slop, Is Linuxsecurity Next?
It doesn't seem like BetaNews knows what it's doing, let alone what it talks about
 
Gemini Links 15/06/2025: "AI Fatigue and Crappiness"
Links for the day
Microsoft Attack Dogs Against Watchdogs and Guard Dogs in Software
Last year Microsofters hired attack dogs or "guns for hire"
Slop Cannot Replace Domain Expertise
All this "AI" hype (it's not even intelligence, it's all a misnomer, as many of us have insisted all along) will fizzle and be written off as a failed experiment
IBM's Fresh 'PIPs' (Action Before Layoffs)
At times like these, even once-reputable employers resort to PIPs and other procedures/tricks for denial of workers' rights
Microsoft is a Problem Not Just for Denmark
Every country should consider what Denmark is doing, why Denmark is doing it, and then do the same
The Slopfarms' Self Detonation
If more sites like BetaNews go under, then maybe we can still salvage some of the Web
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 14, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 14, 2025
Links 14/06/2025: FDA Changes Priorities, Cassette Data Storage From The 1970s
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Steam Next Fest and Thoughts on Gemini
Links for the day
Site/Datacentre Maintenance Next Week
speed things up
Bulgaria: GNU/Linux Near 10%
The Bulgarian market seems to be changing
I Never Spoke to BetaNews. But BetaNews Wants to Ensure I Never Will, Either.
Sometimes just the reluctance to talk about it can say a great deal
Online Search or Large Search Engines Aren't Working Anymore
business models that directly compete with interests of Web users
Holidays and Breaks
I've hardly taken any long breaks since I got married
Danish OpenDocument Freedom
"year of Linux"
Links 14/06/2025: Wars and L.A. Distortion Effect
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Historic Ada Design and GeminiSpace.Club to Expire
Links for the day
Links 14/06/2025: India Plane Crash and Middle-Eastern War
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 13, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 13, 2025
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: (Not)virtues and Project Yeet Broadband
Links for the day
Links 13/06/2025: Journalists Targeted by Cracking, China-Japan and Israel-Iran Tensions Grow
Links for the day
Links 13/06/2025: US Reduces Nonessential Staff at Baghdad Embassy Ahead of Strikes in Iran, Invasion of California Debated
Links for the day
X11 is Free Software
Whether you agree (e.g. on politics) with the person/s forking it doesn't matter
The More Time Passes, the Better Our Advice on Social Control Media Seems
At the end of the day, any platform you do not control yourself is working for someone else
Twitter (X) is Dying, Now It's Just Like a Mafia-Type Operation of the Man Who Does Nazi Salutes in Public
a form of extortion
UK High Court Blasts Brett Wilson LLP for Misusing "GDPR" After Failed Efforts to Censor Critics Using 'Libel' Claims
No wonder this firm is rapidly shrinking
Recent Blunders in Microsoft GitHub (e.g. Slop-Generated Bug Reports or GPL Violations 'as a Service') Taking Their Toll?
Put bluntly, if you still use Microsoft GitHub, then you're slave to Microsoft
American Imperialism and Microsoft Plagiarism
Techrights will therefore do what Microsoft does not want it to do: it'll write even more about Microsoft
When They Have Nothing Left to Help Advance Abusive Litigation for Microsoft People... Other Than Throwing ~500 Pages of Someone Else's Work Into a PDF
Microsoft is having a very tough year
The Price of Exposing Corruption in Poland (and Elsewhere)
It's easier to participate in corruption than to merely do the right thing and oppose it
Slopwatch and Yet More Holes in 'Secure Boot' (as Usual!), Promoted Inside Linux by the Man We Are Suing
Today's Slopwatch will be short
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: People You've Left Behind, Life Update and OS Changes
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 12, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 12, 2025