Video download link | md5sum 09d93ee8d6e3a56cf52df620bcbe58dc Tor Harbouring Abuse From Within? Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Today we start a short series of posts and videos about Tor; we shall scrutinise not so much Tor (neither the software nor the project) itself but the people entrusted to manage and develop it (we reported repeated abuses; a day later no response from Tor!)

THERE are many issues that I have with Tor (as a former user), both technical and social. The issues range from security to complexity (e.g. Rust/Arti) and some are about personal issues. Ryan recently covered one privacy deficit angle (there are more, the video mentions this in passing).

What if I told you that some people are developing Tor to support their own criminal activities?

What if the sponsors of Tor, both people and organisations, decided to stop donating in light of such revelations?

"As I say repeatedly in the video above, the goal isn't to bash Tor but instead to compel key people to take seriously abuse of the project by some of its core people, who serve to stigmatise or stereotype Tor as a facilitator of crime rather than a defender of dissidents/activists."As noted in the video above, Tor is very important (in spite of its flaws; nothing is perfect), but if the core team is supporting crimes or turning a blind eye to crimes that it can prevent? What does that tell us about Tor? That it is currently run by the criminal elements, having laid off or ousted a number of people over the past decade or so?

Days ago my wife wrote a lengthy article about Matthew "gas the Jews" Garrett, the Coke Fly doing bios, "Misusing the Tor Network to Break the Law". A previous part of my own series covered the same thing. Matthew J Garrett is fast becoming a liability to the Tor project because of his spouse, who is a liability to the project and a reputational risk. Regarding the misuse of Tor, Garrett kept lying endlessly about it, only later to refute his very own lies. He's really terrible and sloppy at covering his tracks.

Just over a day ago I contacted some people I know from the Tor project and also contacted the "front desk" of the Tor project as follows:

URGENT: Your own staff misuses Tor to commit serious crimes

Hi,

Isis Agora Luvcruft (Sarah Michelle Reichwein) and the partner, Matt "Gas the Jews" Garrett (yes, he said that over Tor), are using many nodes in the Tor network to commit very serious crimes.

The crimes include

Hate crimes DDOS Doxing Death threats Defamation Impersonation

A lack of enforcement within your own ranks (Isis Agora Luvcruft) will result in prolonged and very negative publicly, potentially costing you funding.

Tor is meant to protect activists, not facilitate criminal activities, including by your own staff.

This latest escalation was due to further abuses of the Tor network to do illegal things. A day later, as of this morning, not a single reply was sent from Tor, not even an acknowledgement. I shall escalate further if necessary, even to the relevant authorities, and see where that goes. The goal here is to test the Tor project and see how it deals with abuse of Tor by its own people.

As I say repeatedly in the video above, the goal isn't to bash Tor but instead to compel key people to take seriously abuse of the project by some of its core people, who serve to stigmatise or stereotype Tor as a facilitator of crime rather than a defender of dissidents/activists. ⬆