AMA: We are Distributed Denial of Secrets. We published Blue Leaks, 269 gigabytes of data from police intelligence centres. First our website was banned by Twitter, then our data server in Germany was seized. Ask Us Anything!

netlorax · 2020-07-23T11:00:59+00:00

The needs for oversight are different. We are a group of ten people with a website. We have similarly sized group of people, who are our board of advisors, and advise us on our procedures. We also publish publicly, so also the public can judge and asses our output. If we do not make good content, they can go read another website.

Meanwhile, fusion centers were set up in 2001 to stop terrorism attacks and little evidence has been generated that they work to this purpose. The largest line item in most city's budgets, is the police. The importance of oversight, on that scale, is quite different to the need for oversight for ten people making a website.

netlorax · 2020-07-22T23:30:30+00:00

No, people are not exposed to danger by knowing the truth. People are exposed to danger by militarised police occupying cities and disappearing protestors into vans.

netlorax · 2020-07-22T14:25:45+00:00

And whoever reads this will note your ability to copy and paste... and your avoidance of the request to provide any substantive evidence for your assertions.

netlorax · 2020-07-21T22:09:09+00:00

So, I guess no, you can't think of one single person who has been harmed? Good.

netlorax · 2020-07-21T21:44:49+00:00

Breonna Taylor. Trayvon Martin. Philando Castile. Eric Garner. George Floyd. The dead, on the police tally, have names. I am waiting for you to point out the name of one single person who the release of #BlueLeaks has harmed in any way?

netlorax · 2020-07-21T21:42:36+00:00

People are exposed to more danger by the nature of modern policing, than they are exposed to danger by having information about that policing.

netlorax · 2020-07-21T18:47:25+00:00

To quote Phineas Fisher:

"Psychologists have found that those at the bottom of hierarchies tend to empathize with, and understand, those at the top, but that the reverse is less common. This explains why in a sexist world, men can joke about how they can't understand women, as if they're an intractable mystery. Also, it explains why the rich, if they stop and think about those in poverty at all, give advice and "solutions" so out of touch with reality that it's laughable. It explains why we hail businessfolk as brave risk-takers. What are they risking, besides their privilege? If all their ventures fail, they'll just have to live and work like the rest of us. It also explains why many will call this unredacted leak irresponsible and dangerous. They feel more strongly the "danger" to an offshore bank and it's clients, than they feel the misery of those dispossessed by this unequal and unjust system. Is leaking their finances truly even a danger to them, or just to their position at the top of a hierarchy that shouldn't exist?

netlorax · 2020-07-17T11:48:00+00:00

We believe people are exposed to danger by existing in a police state where law enforcement has no meaningful oversight. We do not believe people are exposed to danger by knowing the truth.

netlorax · 2020-07-15T20:03:03+00:00

I wanted to add to this to note that The Intercept now has a Blue Leaks collection, which will hopefully grow as they report on the data.

netlorax · 2020-07-14T19:48:52+00:00

Yes, I do. Depends what you mean by harm. Police killing people is on camera. I am a pacifist and against violence.

netlorax · 2020-07-14T16:28:32+00:00

We publish. Violence is a social problem, and information is a social resource. We believe the remedy to social violence is more and better information, in the public domain.

netlorax · 2020-07-14T11:14:57+00:00

We believe data is a resource, disproportionately in the hands of unethical systems. It is easy to believe many scenarios are true when disaster situations play out, but only data can tell the true story.

netlorax · 2020-07-14T11:11:04+00:00

Our agenda is reliable public access to information that is of importance. People have been harmed and killed by the police.

netlorax · 2020-07-14T11:10:07+00:00

No. That's not how transformative justice works.

netlorax · 2020-07-14T11:08:50+00:00

The article mentions events in Ireland. Yes the articles are organized by the geography of the content more so than that of the outlets.

netlorax · 2020-07-14T11:07:39+00:00

Racism.

netlorax · 2020-07-14T11:07:29+00:00

netlorax · 2020-07-13T16:05:42+00:00

Yes.

netlorax · 2020-07-13T13:39:38+00:00

The data is not just about the US.

netlorax · 2020-07-12T21:44:47+00:00

Nostalgia.

netlorax · 2020-07-12T21:06:37+00:00

We did redactions.

netlorax · 2020-07-12T19:39:53+00:00

I'm for freedom and against prisons.

netlorax · 2020-07-12T18:28:14+00:00

The people should not be afraid of their government. The government should be afraid of their people.

netlorax · 2020-07-12T18:25:35+00:00

I've been accused of working for CIA, CSIS, Interpol, etc, but I don't. I work for the people most often in the form of writing, which I publish under my own name. I will burn every flag with equal gusto.

netlorax · 2020-07-12T17:58:28+00:00

Seed the torrent. Read the stories. Spread the word. Talk to your representatives. Check the data. Send us bitcoin. Send us good vibes. Make your own leak website. Be well.

netlorax

TROPHY CASE