Bonum Certa Men Certa

Operation Mole — Part VII — From 'Be Nice!' to Threats of Violence

Series parts:

  1. Operation Mole — Part I — The Person Working to Kill GNU and to Kill Linux From the Inside
  2. Operation Mole — Part II — The Evolution of Matthew J Garrett's Vast Army of Online Sockpuppets, Hiding Criminal Activities Behind the Tor Network
  3. Operation Mole — Part III — Sabotaging Communities and Defaming People, Just Like the Sabotage of Linux and Deliberate Distortion of 'Security' (Giving Control to Microsoft)
  4. Operation Mole — Part IV — Does Matthew J. Garrett's Antisemitism Tell Us Anything About His Motivation in Trying to Cancel Richard Stallman?
  5. Operation Mole — Part V — The Fall of a Man is a Woman (Matthew J Garrett Foolishly Unmasks Himself, Tying Himself to Crimes)
  6. who are (or were) connected to Microsoft
  7. YOU ARE HERE ☞ From 'Be Nice!' to Threats of Violence


Lucifer Axe: protect me from my own sockpuppets or I'll kill you



Summary: Beware the Microsoft-connected catspaw; Free/Open Source software (FOSS) projects and FOSS-oriented groups/sites are being targeted by very toxic people who are (or were) connected to Microsoft and who resort to criminal activities in an effort to undermine established, productive, and well-connected communities

TODAY we focus on the people whom we alluded to last month. It's a group of people and they are connected. This series is expected to last about 3-4 months longer and it will focus on the tactics, the targets, and how to confront this kind of online abuse. The first half dozen parts dealt with one person (primarily mentioned because he is more prominent and because he attacked BSD and GNU/Linux users, protecting Microsoft's monopoly).

"This series is expected last about 3-4 months longer and it will focus on the tactics, the targets, and how to confront this kind of online abuse."Today we take a step back and explain the broader context. Others appear to have had similar experiences and they spoke about how a Code of Conduct (CoC) was imposed on them -- or nearly imposed on them -- by actual threats of violence. In practice, those who assert they need protection often inflict abuse upon others or, in some cases, manufacture (fake) abuse as a pretext/ruse.

There will be many videos in this series and we'll try to reduce mentions of names (like the last video) though we'll use descriptive nicknames that explain the roles of people. Someone suggested that we "throw in the term 'catspaw' or equivalent, to at least imply that they are either working for and/or being exploited by Microsoft to tear into FOSS communities and sabotage FOSS leaders and celebrities. In short, they are not your average griefers."

This afternoon I started a new wiki page (additional new page, to grow over time, populated with information) that better serves as an umbrella for this series -- a long series that concerns not a single person but a malicious collective which disregards the law and misuses Tor (sometimes VPNs too) to hide the crimes.

To keep the record very unambiguous we must occasionally demonstrate what abuse we were subjected to since last year. So over the next few weeks we'll give examples of intolerance, violence and even worse things from the provocateurs and saboteurs. They cannot possibly paint themselves as victims and the harm done is vastly worse than time-wasting; they want distraction and are willing to use human sacrifices as collaterals towards their twisted goals. These aren't acts of tolerance; these are aggressive rioters. In a perfect world they will be handled by cops within days, not months, and victims will receive justice. But we don't live in a perfect world, so we must constantly present evidence to the public, relying on public opinion and online scrutiny.

"To keep the record very unambiguous we must occasionally demonstrate what abuse we were subjected to since last year."The most profound escalation began in 2022. The IRC network of Techrights (created 2021) never had chronic issues of abuse, intimidation and racism (with very rare exceptions) until self-described "social justice warriors" infiltrated it and used sockpuppets to push abuse into the network, in turn demanding censorship (of their very own sockpuppets!) while demanding a Code of Conduct and issuing violent threats to longtime regulars. Many who call themselves "social justice warriors" are aggressive extremists. There are nice people out there who don't need to use such labels (to describe themselves) and rely on personal charm and charisma, not threats, blackmail, and sabotage. Many of the self-described "social justice warriors" whom we've dealt with are clinically insane and they try to scare, even traumatise, sane people. How can we tolerate this? In the name of free speech we've refrained from banning them for nearly a year.

In the words of one reader, who prefers to remain anonymous: "if the social justice warriors and CoC-pushers' attacks can be documented and concisely as what happened with SELF (S E LinuxFest), it can be a useful case study to point to for many."

We covered this years ago.

"A big concern now would be to document who around the various FOSS communities were pushing CoCs and whether the meant it or were just following along. Neither behavior is good but the latter is less bad. The former are real trouble and will cause trouble again once they figure out how to do so," the longtime reader continued. "I would guess so but the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) has been gamed in recent decades and edited to fit political goals rather than follow medical science."

Notice that we've not named anyone this time around. There are technical issues to discuss, there are behavioural patterns to spot, and we'd rather explain things to watch out for, in order to make the series seem less personal.

As one reader notes, "CoCs have no value aside from being used to tear down development communities and active projects or to expel key technical leaders from the project under false pretences unrelated to tech. Again comparisons to SELF (S E LinuxFest) are apt. He got all kinds of threats of violence and threats of attempts to frame him all to try to push a CoC into the project."

"The CoC is a smokescreen; it's devised to divide, not to protect or incorporate stability."While it's important if not critical to name some of the principal culprits (think of it as a warning label), a lot of it can be framed as a case of psychological abuse and threats, public shaming, false accusations, impersonation, and attack on loved ones (usually family) when it's deemed insufficient to just attack a person directly. This is what those toxic people and "CoC" fanatics do to your healthy community, project etc. The CoC is a smokescreen; it's devised to divide, not to protect or incorporate stability. There are many examples to that effect.

Speaking of communities being torn apart from corporations, one contributing factor to the irrelevance of Slashdot is that there is so little news that a site like that does not make any sense in most ways, aside from the community fostered. But since the newest owners of Slashdot have done their absolute best to diminish or eradicate a sense of community, even that is not relevant.

In IRC we still have people who have been with the site since the beginning. The 'CoC brigade', however, resorted to impersonations in IRC, with the goal of us mistakenly banning our own people (e.g. nicknames that have unicode in them and thus look very similar to the real people). In addition, fake sites (blogs for fictional people) and fake social control media accounts (impersonations) were set up to defame and flame. Parody/satire isn't a crime, but these accounts/sites aren't satire; they're more like identity theft.

"We have a good picture of how they collaborated behind the scenes."Thankfully, as of this week, the signal-to-noise (s/n) ratio in IRC is good again. Many of the attackers have fled (after they got unmasked and tied to their crimes), but we've agreed not to make the series personal for now. We really need to focus on the patterns, assuming a new catspaw may be just around the corner (respawned like "drpizza" [1, 2, 3], who used the same methods in our IRC channels in the past), inheriting the same strategy against unwitting, unaware "targets".

Over the next few weeks we intend to show examples of what obscene people (who have the audacity to promote CoC provisions while breaking all the rules of a CoC) have been saying in IRC. We'll use screenshots, not text, as we don't want search engines to index really bad words.

We'll come back to the why, who and how at a later stage as we continue to receive information and leaks along the way. We have a good picture of how they collaborated behind the scenes. They have nothing to offer to collaborative Free software projects, so instead they conspire to take them down. Almost all of them are non-coders (no relevant background).

Peter Bright
Peter Bright, aka "drpizza", habitually trolled us in IRC, demanded that we censor our own people, and meanwhile he was grooming and promoting UEFI secure boot's "shim guy" in his articles (while chatting a great deal with him online); "drpizza" is now in prison for child rape. As he was a Microsoft mule (catspaw), now thrown under the bus, we still recall his role in undermining FOSS communities. He was a very disposable, yet extremely harmful, catspaw. Ars Technica and Wired still have all of his "articles" online (Wired even keeps his full name, crediting him for the Microsoft puff pieces that likely came from Microsoft itself).



Recent Techrights' Posts

Preparations for Our 19th Anniversary Have Already Begun
When we get back we'll probably sort out some balloons and venue for the next party
Pleased After 2 Years With team.blue
Moving from a Content Management System (CMS, dynamic) to a Static Site Generator (SSG) was a wise decision that made life so much easier
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is Being Attacked by Organisations Jealous of Its Principled Stance and Longevity
Nobody is perfect, but imperfection does not instantaneously imply sinister intent
Many Microsoft "Assets" Are Fabricated Baloney (to Game the Numbers)
At times it seems like what we deal with are many weak patents (on algorithms), valuations or speculations based on hype ("hey hi"), and stocks held by Microsoft and its own staff
"Internal Changes at Red Hat / IBM"
It seems like quite a few people are leaving
Confirmed in French Media: Mass Layoffs (10% Culled) in Microsoft France
Now some reports in French
Microsoft in Freefall in Finland
Can Finland eradicate Windows from all its infrastructure, including core operations that are sensitive to sabotage by cracking?
Google's Chrome Passes 70% and Web Standards Are Dying
The Web is quickly becoming devoid of any standards
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and Ponzi Scheme, Bubble About to Burst Entirely, Admits Goldman Sachs
the hype that Google News and The Register MS actively participate and profit from
 
When Your Site's Articles Are Being 'Cheapened' by Slop as Feature Images
Dr. Farnell should become an advisor to The Register MS
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Drops to Only Half a Dozen Capsules and 0.2% of the Whole in Geminispace, Self-Signed is the Way to Go
It used to have hundreds, according to Lupa
Doing to Red Hat What They Already Did (and Still Do) to IBM
there seems to be a drive to hire cheaper staff, and it may be led by somebody Red Hat hired from Microsoft
Links 03/09/2025: Salesforce's Latest Mass Layoffs, 93% in Large Poll at The Register MS Say UK Government Should Dump Microsoft
Links for the day
If You Reject the Google Verdict in the US, Then You Should Also Reject the "Modern" Web (Do Something About It)
Gemini Protocol is still open; it cannot be hijacked or subverted because it's frozen by design and by intention
Open Source Initiative IRS Filing: Almost All the Money is Corporate, Stefano Maffuli (Executive Director) Takes About a Quarter of That Money for Openwashing of "AI" Ponzi Scheme
OSI is currently little but a PR/marketing agency of Microsoft
Many People Are "Leaving" Red Hat, Even High-Level Managers
Something is definitely going on at Red Hat
Techrights Has Been Subjected to Calls of Violence (and Death Threats), It Never Condoned Violence
I have no sympathy for people who call violence "free speech" and then get in trouble
Condoning Violent Behaviour and "Free Speech"
perhaps Microsoft Lunduke lost touch with what constitutes violence
Takeaway From the Google Verdict: GAFAM Has Too Much Control (Even Over the US Government and Courts With Government Appointees)
Many people feel disappointed but hardly surprised by the verdict
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 in One Month
As noted a few days ago, several times in fact, many people now recognise the importance of the FSF's mission, even if most people don't know what the FSF is
"Voluntary" Layoffs at Microsoft (to Game the Numbers, Sugar-Coating a Crisis)
"Employees interested have until the end of October to volunteer."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 02, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 02, 2025
Links 02/09/2025: Oligarch Tech and Text Encoding Concerns in Ada
Links for the day
"People on LinkedIn Saying That They've Left Red Hat."
We already saw signs of it a month ago and named some of the people
Gone With the BRICs (or BRICS): "Linux 8" in Cuba
GAFAM must be worried
Telecompaper Reports Microsoft to Reduce the Workforce by Another 10% (in France)
Imagine what this will do to staff's morale
India is Back to Windows 8 (Market Share Down to 8%) as Android Soars to a New Record High
For Microsoft, India is a runaway market
Links 02/09/2025: SCO Summit and Russia Suspected Of Jamming GPS
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/09/2025: Mediterranean Marriage and Staying Connected at 35,000 Feet
Links for the day
The Register MS Says "AI Web Crawlers Are Destroying Websites", So Why Does The Register MS Help 'AI' Companies? (Spoiler: Money)
People need to call out The Register MS on its hypocrisy
Slopfarms Already Peaked, They Will Die When Slop Companies Run Out of Money to Borrow
slopfarms will lack an actual "engine"
Links 02/09/2025: Attacks on Unions, Microsoft TCO, and DDoSing a Growing Problem
Links for the day
Why We Publish Information About the SLAPPs (But Not About the Legal Process), an Abuse of Process by Americans Trying to Silence Critics of Their Employer, Microsoft
It doesn't take thousands of pages to explain something simple
Internet Relay Chat Didn't Fall Off a Cliff
IRC will turn 40 in less than 3 years from now
The UEFI 9/11 - Part V - This is Not a Drill (Disable "SecureBoot" Now)
A "9/11" Coming
There's No Obligation to Speak to Anybody
The very fact that "bkuhn" is till spending time in social control media says a lot about his poor judgment
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 01, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 01, 2025
Microsoft Trying to Force People to Resign (Amid Mass Layoffs) a Strategy That Takes Its Toll
Microsoft seems to be circling down the drain and the "final flush" will be the moment the "hey hi" (AI) bubble implodes completely
Google Simply Cannot Be Trusted
Only fools would trust GAFAM
Admission That a Third Party (or Parties) Funds the SLAPPs Against Techrights
This can end up costing them over a million dollars
Modifying and Writing One's Own Computer Programs is Not a Crime (or: Google Proves That Stallman Was Right)
We're generally gratified to see so many positive mentions of him
Why We Stopped Publishing Videos (for Now)
We'll probably get back to videos one day, but it's hard to say when or to what extent
What Animal Rights Activism Teaches Us About Sympathy and Focus
It's possible to believe that the planet is warming, that we must do something about it, and still eat eggs and butter
When You Turn Web Sites About Tech Into Political Sites
A lot of people fall into the trap of catering only for particular groups
Gemini Links 02/09/2025: ROOPHLOCH 2025 and Lagrange 1.19 Released
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/09/2025: News Corp. WSJ and A Month With NixOS
Links for the day
“Sideloading” Never Killed Anybody
There are many online discussions this week about the misnomer "sideloading"
Slopwatch: Google News as FUD Vector Against Linux and Plagiarism Enhancer, Serial Slopper (SS) Uses LLMs to Googlebomb "Linux"
Slop destroys the Web not just by screwing with search engines and helping plagiarists. It's also responsible for de facto DDoS attacks...
Links 01/09/2025: "Attacks on Science" and China's "Soft Power" Grows
Links for the day
Links 01/09/2025: Fresh Backlash Against Slop and "Norway’s Electricity Crisis is About to Hit Britain"
Links for the day
Writing and Coding Isn't Always Enough
Last year we had to assume a role we didn't have before: litigants
Links 01/09/2025: Catching Up (Mostly via Deutsche Welle), "Windows TCO" Effect in UK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/09/2025: Linguistic Barriers and "Web 1.0 Hosting"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 31, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 31, 2025
Autumn Has Come
Autumn should be exciting in all sorts of ways; it'll also mark our anniversary
The UEFI 9/11 - Part IV - External Interference
They all seem to be playing a role in crushing Software Freedom and self-determination for users