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Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part XVIII — The Story of NPM

Series parts:

  1. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part I — Inside a Den of Corruption and Misogynists
  2. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part II — The Campaign Against GPL Compliance and War on Copyleft Enforcement
  3. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part III — A Story of Plagiarism and Likely Securities Fraud
  4. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part IV — Mr. MobileCoin: From Mono to Plagiarism... and to Unprecedented GPL Violations at GitHub (Microsoft)
  5. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part V — Why Nat Friedman is Leaving GitHub


  6. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part VI — The Media Has Mischaracterised Nat Friedman's Departure (Effective Now)
  7. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part VII — Nat Friedman, as GitHub CEO, Had a Plan of Defrauding Microsoft Shareholders
  8. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part VIII — Mr. Graveley's Long Career Serving Microsoft's Agenda (Before Hiring by Microsoft to Work on GitHub's GPL Violations Machine)
  9. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part IX — Microsoft's Chief Architect of GitHub Copilot Sought to be Arrested One Day After Techrights Article About Him
  10. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part X — Connections to the Mass Surveillance Industry (and the Surveillance State)


  11. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part XI — Violence Against Women
  12. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part XII — Life of Disorderly Conduct and Lust
  13. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part XIII — Nihilistic Death Cults With Substance Abuse and Sick Kinks
  14. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part XIV — Gaslighting Victims of Sexual Abuse and Violence
  15. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part XV — Cover-Up and Defamation


  16. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part XVI — The Attack on the Autonomy of Free Software Carries on
  17. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part XVII — Backsliding Into 1990s-Style Digital Slavery by Microsoft
  18. YOU ARE HERE ☞ The Story of NPM


GitHub: Where everything comes to die



Summary: The time seems right to resume this series, more so now that the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) [1, 2] and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) [1, 2, 3] grapple with the legal chaos caused by Team Mono inside Microsoft's GitHub

A few years ago Microsoft bought NPM through its tentacle (mind the pun!) known as GitHub, in effect controlling more of the "supply chain" while hiring NSA veterans to run GitHub. This is a major security fiasco, a blunder in the making. Remember that when NPM ships malware the media rushes to blame the victims (like GNU/Linux users who receive that malware) instead of blaming the company responsible for actually sending that malware. Meanwhile, with GitHub Actions, many projects have foolishly outsourced the build process to "the clown" -- in essence losing control of the compiler, instead trusting Microsoft and the NSA to manage that for them. It's a sort of subsidy (selling CPU cycles) in exchange for control. Who by? Microsoft.

It has been months since we published the arrest record of Balabhadra (Alex) Graveley, whom we'll leave outside it for a moment. He has court hearings and it's possible he'll be behind bars for a very long time. Those who were connected to him or defended him have long regretted it, possibly left their job, or "resigned" to avoid public embarrassment. We'll come back to them later in this series and maybe we'll have some updates from the courts.

"Some sites announced that Microsoft had taken over NPM and that was it (they actually said "GitHub" to perpetuate the illusion that Microsoft and GitHub are separate entities)."As the state of journalism in general (not just on technical matters) is so appalling these days little actual investigation of the NPM takeover was conducted. Some sites announced that Microsoft had taken over NPM and that was it (they actually said "GitHub" to perpetuate the illusion that Microsoft and GitHub are separate entities).

A rather reliable source recently told us a few details about the NPM story; "I remember all that drama with TJ Holowaychuk leaving the NPM scene," our sourced recalled. "Wondering if that was related to Microsoft acquiring NPM."

What shocked me most at the time was the lack of press coverage or scrutiny. Like nothing actually happened! Or like it didn't matter...

"A bit off topic but that whole event seemed strange," our source noted. The motivation is still barely known or explored; it's shrouded in mystery as there's no actual business model other than taking control of people. NPM wasn't about making money; the same was true about GitHub. The way we see it, Microsoft is trying to swallow all the code and repos as well (NPM). It's about control.

"The way we saw it (at the time of the acquisition), NPM is a piece for Microsoft's "supply chain" plan, which also helps the NSA's objectives, especially at times of conflict."TJ's [Holowaychuk] departure "was a pretty big event," our source explained. "At that point in time TJ had written like 60% of the node.js projects that everyone uses. Mostly by himself. Some people thought he wasn't a real person for a long time. Like they thought he was a collective..."

The way we saw it (at the time of the acquisition), NPM is a piece for Microsoft's "supply chain" plan, which also helps the NSA's objectives, especially at times of conflict. They can remotely take over all sorts of things. Remember that they hired from the NSA for GitHub management. This is all very well documented. What sort of company would do this??? Heck, they can even plant back doors in downloads, custom-made or tailored to specific downloaders, never mind the above-mentioned compilation process. Why would anyone trust Microsoft after the NSA leaks? They work hand-in-glove with the NSA on back doors.

"TJ is just a legend and influenced my personal coding style," our source told us. "There was another issue with the guy who originally wrote node.js [...] He wrote it then quit [...] Joyent hired him..."

"Ryan Dahl apparently thinks writing node.js was a mistake [...] Interesting he's also from Rochester or just went to school there [as Graveley] is from there [and] they're about the same age..."

NPM was acquired by GitHub two years after the Microsoft acquisition. It was mentioned by Nat Friedman on 16 March 2020.

According to our source, TJ's "complaints about node.js mostly seemed technical, but who knows..."

As a side note, it's worth mentioning that node.js and OpenJS became a Microsoft infiltration vector inside the Linux Foundation, as noted in Techrights several times in the past.

Now that the FSF and SFC are writing a lot more about Copilot (see links in the summary above) we intend to revisit the topic, probably some time next Monday. Graveley will walk into the darkness or some prison cell while we're left to pick up and grapple with the damage he and his "best friends" the Friedmans have caused.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
 
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
Microsoft Repeats the Mistakes Made by the EPO After We Exposed a Major Microsoft/EPO Scandal 10 Years Ago
That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
Links for the day
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025
Plunder at the Second-Largest Institution in Europe
cuts, neglect, health problems, even early deaths
Links 12/07/2025: Political Developments, Attack on Opposition, Climate Actions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: Melodic Musings and Small Web July
Links for the day
Links 12/07/2025: Jail in China for Homoerotica, South Korea Discriminates Against Old Workers
Links for the day
If Only Everything Was Rewritten in Rust, We'd Have No More Security Issues?
Nope.
Links 12/07/2025: Birdwatching and Fake/Misleading Wall Street 'Valuation' Figures
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: How to Avoid Writing, Apps for Android
Links for the day
Using SLAPPs to Cover Up Sexual Abuse and Strangulation
The exact same legal team of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft and Garrett already has a history fighting against "metoo"
EPO Staff Committee on Harassment in the Workplace
slides
Adding the Voice of Writers to UK SLAPP Reform
The journey to repair antiquated (monarchy era) laws will likely be long
EPO Takes More Money From Staff for Speculation (Pensions), Actuarial Study Explains the Impact
"The key change in this year’s Actuarial Study, due to cascading the new “risk appetite” from the financial study, is a significant increase of the total pension contribution rate of 5.7 percentage points, up to a total of 37.8%. This is driven by an unprecedented decrease in the discount rate of 105 bps down to 2.2%."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 11, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 11, 2025
Microsoft - Like IBM - Does the "Relocation" Tricks (Start Over Elsewhere, Then Get Sacked by Microsoft)
It is a "low blow" or a "dick move"
After the Free Software Foundation's Campaign to Raise Money Let's See Campaigns to Finish Off Microsoft (Vista 11, GitHub etc.)
Microsoft is in effect collapsing
Your Publications Have No Major Impact Unless or Until You "Get Some Heat"
we're on the right track
Slopwatch: A Cause for Hope, the Hype is Dying
For about a month we showed that becoming a slopfarm - for several weeks - resulted in utter failure and ruin for BetaNews
Links 11/07/2025: Censorship Worsening, 3D Printing Success Stories, UK and France Unite Around Nukes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Zorin OS and Scriptonite Updates
Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Hardware, Russia, and China
Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Intel Collapsing and Microsoft Resorts to Bribery to Push Slop Via Obligatory Education
Links for the day
The EFF Sided With the Team That Strangles Women and Tells Women to Kill Themselves
They say that apathy and inaction are a form of a "stance"
"Nat [Friedman] and [the Serial Strangler From Microsoft] Were Always Exceptionally Close," Says Former Housemate and Colleague
Now Alex (hiding behind another name when that suits him) not only attacks women but also people who merely report what he did to women
Exemplary List of Things That Are Not Artificial Intelligence or Even Intelligence
The "age of AI" or "era of AI" or "AI revolution" mostly boils down to rebranding, just like "the cloud"
New Letter From the European Patent Office Explains How the Office Plots to Grant Many Illegal Patents, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of 'Growth'
Open letter to Mr Rowan (VP1) and Mr Aledo Lopez (COO)
Abuse of Process
5RB is employing people who help violent men
What Microsoft's Nat Friedman and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
"Get in da car; No time to explain, loser"
Microsoft and IBM Don't Have Much of a Future (They Mostly Pretend at This Point)
IBM and Microsoft are in some ways alike but in many ways different
It's Not Just Twitter (or X.com) That's Dying, Microsoft's Equivalent is Dying Also
Unable to find a business model
GitHub Copilot Can Cause the Bankruptcy of GitHub to Come Sooner and GitHub to be Shut Down Just Like Skype
Some publicly available information suggests that even for each paid subscriber for plagiarism (LLM 'coding') GitHub Copilot still loses more money than it makes
Wayland is Bad for the Planet
If you use Wayland, it'll take you longer to accomplish tasks and you will consume more energy (or battery life)
Legitimising Those Who Sabotage You
Microsoft is a very malicious company
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 10, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 10, 2025
On Microsoft Layoffs
we might be looking at about 60,000 Microsoft layoffs since 2023
EPO Management Already Breaks Its Own Promise (Lie) on "Bringing Teams Together"
This gut-punching move happened just 2 days ago
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Occupation of 2025 and "Old Man Yells At Soundcloud"
Links for the day
Our Lawsuits Against the 'Cancel Mob' (Ringleaders) Helped Reduce Anti-Free Software Online Abuse
That's not to say that lawsuits are the best way to handle terrible people. But that can help.