Bonum Certa Men Certa

Using Debian-Private to Leapfrog Due Process

Reprinted with permission from Debian Community News

In criminology research, between thirty and fifty percent of women surveyed typically indicated they have experienced sexual violence or rape.



Experience of the authorities also tells us that on average, over ninety percent of crime reports are true yet between five and ten percent of accusations are proven to be false, motivated by money, vendettas and women with mental illness.



In 2016, a small group of people came to the debian-private (leaked) gossip network to tell us what they thought about Jacob Appelbaum. Why did they choose to air stories from their friends in this way instead of going to the police to make a sincere statement under oath?



Subject: Re: Expulsion of Jacob Appelbaum <error>
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 12:56:58 -0400
From: Erinn Clark <erinn@debian.org>
To: debian-private@lists.debian.org

* Erinn Clark <erinn@debian.org> [2016:06:21 12:53 -0400]: > I disagree with the decision to make a public statement [...]

Should be: I disagree with the decision *NOT* to make a public statement



Why is Erinn Clark insisting on a public statement instead of making a police report? Clark disclosed in another message that she heard the story from friends, she never stated that she is either a victim or witness. Let's try paraphrasing it:



Dear Debian

Your software has a great reputation. Please use your famous name to add credibility to rape accusations. My friend doesn't want to go to the police so we are coming to debian-private for help.



This message appears to show a deliberate and malicious intention to cause the maximum amount of harm to another volunteer. Did anybody check if false accusations of rape and harassment could violate the Code of Conduct™? Clark never explains why it is necessary to make such a statement before a credible and independent trial takes place.



If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.... Joseph Gobbels


We encourage people to read the analysis by German magazine Die Zeit and think about the fact that in the last four years, not one person was willing to make a statement that they have to sign under oath. Why?



We have heard personal stories from several genuine survivors of abuse, people we believe. These people were not talking about Jacob Appelbaum. We notice that none of these people, who we consider to be a good point of reference, acted like the people running around the free software community with a vendetta, egging on leaders to publicly shame volunteers. We do not claim to be experts on abuse but we can't help noticing this enormous inconsistency between our observations of known victims and our observations of people who grandstand on social media.



While we feel these Debian vendettas have little resemblence to the behavior of known abuse victims, we find this builds on the similarities between Debian and the NXIVM sex cult. In particular, it was the pretty actress Allison Mack who convinced cult leader Keith Raniere to brand people, just as it appears a small group of feminist/anarchist women successfuly employed social engineering techniques on Debian to hack the justice system and publicly brand an innocent man as a rapist.



If Miss Clark is so concerned about helping genuine victims of rape and abuse, why doesn't she give up computing, study law and become a prosecutor?



From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:



Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.



Article 7: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8: Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.



Why does Debian put so much effort into software licensing rights, as proclaimed in the Debian Free Software Guidelines, but ignore the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? After all, even software licenses are derived from UDHR Article 22, cultural rights.



We know for a fact that at least some of the accusations spread with Debian resources are false. The case of Dr Norbert Preining, expelled for Thought Crime™ just days before Christmas 2018, is one of the most well known.



The misuse of Debian's name and resources, denouncing people in a manner that achieves maximum damage to their reputation, is the only crime that has ever been proven by visible evidence.



Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.


Die Zeit notes a comment on the blog of Isis Agora Lovecruft



She writes in her blog that she wishes Mr. Appelbaum would go into exile, in Alaska or Siberia.


Many people feel the Debian Account Managers, Enrico Zini, Joerg Jaspert, Jonathan Wiltshire and formerly Christoph Berg have been bewitched. They set aside universal human rights that protect men and women equally. They chose one side over the other. They deceived Debian's community and the press, making misleading statements to placate a small and manipulative group of anarchist feminists.



If you have news about false accusations, vendettas and human rights violations like this, please contact the Debian Community News Team. ⬆



Editor's note: I am not claiming that Jacob Appelbaum is innocent; we just won't know until there's a trial (seeing what was done to his colleague Julian Assange for 7 years until the 'case' was thrown out). Debian-Private and Due Process aren't the same thing. The burden of proof is typically on the accuser (or: please file a report with the police, instead).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Linux Has Conquered Mobile, But Desktops and Laptops Matter More
When people say the desktop "doesn't matter" they seem to be missing the point that workplaces use desktops (or laptops) and a lot of the work gets done not on skinnerboxes but "workstations" or terminals
Brigading Against Women - Part VIII - Misogyny Embedded; Like Firm, Like Clients
It's about back doors
Microsoft Can PIP Workers (Silent Layoffs) Until Almost Nobody is Left
Microsoft is gradually vanishing
Tech Labeled "Smart" Does Not Make People Smart
People who insist on making everything digital are not advancing progress
 
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Source of Pride for Portugal?
In this part our focus returns to the main theme of this series, namely the current reappointment campaign of the EPO President, as we consider whether Campinos can still expect to enjoy the same level of support from the Portuguese political establishment as he did during the earlier stages of his career
Computers Freeze Because of UEFI Restricted Boot
damage is also done to computers running Windows
It is Very Expensive to Slow Down Techrights
Garrett's expensive hearing (costing the British taxpayers about 120,000 pounds; he doesn't live here and does not pay tax here) slowed us down for a few days, but we've picked up the pace since
Brigading Against Women - Part IX - "What Are You, a Racist?"
Because behind every strong man is a strong opinion?
Gemini Links 29/09/2026: "Digital Sabbath", Starting a GemCapsule, and Sterrenkijker 1.1.0
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 28, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, September 28, 2026
Chaos Imminent at Red Hat (This Week)
IBM is 'finishing the job' an ex-IBMer (Ron Hovsepian) did at Novell.
The Cyber Show Says Truth Always Requires a Fight, a Struggle
"Truth-tellers always face struggle and run risk"
Maladministration at the EPO as a Crisis for the EU and for Portugal's Image in Europe
Some time soon we'll publish a long article about what EPO leadership means to Portugal
3 Years of UK Hosting
We commend the webhost for standing firm in the face of misogyny
Gemini Links 28/09/2026: Truncated Sleep, Plain Text, and Slop Problem Kept Out of Geminispace
Links for the day
Links 28/09/2026: "A Growing North Korea Problem" and Independent Journalism as a Lifeline
Links for the day
Links 28/09/2026: Microsoft Chatbot "Giving Extremely Specific Advice to a School Shooter on How to Maximize Casualties", ‘Suicidal Empathy’
Links for the day
Microsoft's Attacks on Courts in the Netherlands Result in GNU/Linux Growing to About 10% There
One core issue that justified this and led to this outcome is Microsoft's interference with the administration of justice
They Create the Conditions for People to Leave, This Way They Don't Call it "Layoffs"
We keep seeing many stories like these
Gemini Links 28/09/2026: Wildfire, DOS, and Backups
Links for the day
Brigading Against Women - Part VII - 'Trolling' Courts and Legal Systems in America and in the UK (Europe) Costs a Lot to Taxpayers
They only attend hearings after being arrested
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Portuguese Talent For Bureaucratic Empire Building
Portugal’s success in securing senior executive appointments at the EUIPO and the EPO is a notable example of how countries seek to strengthen their influence within European intergovernmental institutions
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 27, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, September 27, 2026
Gemini Links 27/09/2026: Writing Well, Productivity, and a Relaunch in Geminispace
Links for the day
Making This Site More Useful to More People
Search engines (as a concept) are under attack
Exposing Crimes of Americans (From the UK)
We must ensure UK prisons are never misused to punish/silence people who expose crimes in America
Spam and Chatbot Spam in Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
Maintaining one's own IRC network requires some housekeeping, but it's simpler than outsourcing to malicious companies
Search Engine of Techrights Improved for Better Signal-to-Noise Ratio
Our growing community needs more search facilities
Microsoft: We Love Layoffs, We Do Silent Layoffs, More Microsoft Projects/Teams/Studios Confirmed to be Shutting Down
XBox is dying. Piece by piece.
Brigading Against Women - Part VI - On Garrett and Lozza, Defamation, Attempts to Crack My Wife's Accounts, Social Engineering to Try to Take Sites Offline, Subscribing Us to Mountains of SPAM
tried swatting us
Links 27/09/2026: "Provost of Dartmouth Busted Using Hey Hi (AI) Slop for His Own Writing in Newspapers and Academic Journals" and "UK Government Enforcement Reform"
Links for the day
People and Sites Wish a Happy 43th Birthday to GNU (Today)
We've collected some examples
Dejan Panovski Outs linuxize.com as a Slopfarm, Another Site That Sold Out and Became LLM Garbage
From what we can gather, both images and text are slop
A Microsoft Lunduke OS (LCOS) is Not Even in Top 100 in DistroWatch, Microsoft Lunduke Just Games the Numbers Like Linspire Did (and Got 'Banned' for It)
Linspire used to send people to 'its' DistroWatch page to make the illusion of popularity
Links 27/09/2026: Microsoft Fired People a Day After Promotion, "Fragility of Online Journalism"
Links for the day
Brigading Against Women - Part V - SWATTING, Extortion Against Webhosts, and Lawfare Under Sworn Oath (Perjury Also)
Matthew Garrett has no qualm about still collaborating with Lozza
20 Years Later
There's a strong anti-democracy movement brewing in many places
Gemini Links 27/09/2026: Telescopes/Gskyer, Writing for Writing's Sake, and Writing Tools
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 26, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, September 26, 2026