Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Covid-19’s impact on Tor

blog.torproject.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 204 posts

Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor

#21

Post by projektfu »

mc32 wrote: post #12
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ACLU has largely transitioned away from civil rights absolutism towards progressive advocacy. They haven't entirely tossed it out the door, and still sometimes defend the civil rights of non-progressive groups, but the modern ACLU definitely feels it's important to contextualize liberties.

It seems you’re right and it’s a shame that in this time when a few governments are taking advantage of the situation they don’t have their ears perked and tuned to ensure governments (local, state, fed) aren’t going overboard, impinging rights, or looking to erode them. I mean this affects the whole US constituency.

I think the protestors are being stupid, but if they get arrested I would like to see the ACLU help defend them. Even though I think established law would put them in the "shouting fire in a crowded theater" camp, unless the courts are willing to reverse that precedent.

Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor

#22

Post by cbsks »

baby wrote: post #17
cbsks wrote: post #16

I’m confused by this... why are layoffs happening so suddenly? Did they recently lose some large corporate sponsors? How many donations have been cut off over the last few months? Do they not have money in the bank? From my perspective it looks like they have had ongoing financial problems, and are using this as a convenient scapegoat to cut expenses.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. Imagine if your company was going through a financially difficult time, and firing becomes the only path forward. This can greatly impact the team's moral and trust in management. Using the crisis as a scapegoat makes it easier to accept the event.

I’m not saying that it is necessarily a bad thing, just that blaming a few months of decreased donations for laying off 37% of your employees doesn’t pass my sniff test.

Why not state the real reason?

Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor

#23

Post by mc32 »

bsder wrote: post #20
mc32 wrote: post #7

This got me to think about the ACLU and what they are doing. I see some issues about accommodating justice and other issues affected by the pandemic and the intersection with liberties... it's more about looking at the compounding effect than protecting against fundamental change and fundamental threats to civil rights. But I don’t see any take on any measures governments have taken to kerb civil rights in the time o…

> But I don’t see any take on any measures governments have taken to kerb civil rights in the time of the pandemic Part of it is that I expect that the ACLU doesn't really want to take on cases that are simply going to be moot once the state of emergency ends. I expect that their ears will perk up a little more about things that don't go back to "normal" once everything is done with. And part of it is probably not wa…

I'm not saying everything ends up being like the Patriot Act, but sometimes they do and once they get enacted they like hanging on way past their due date --sometimes they don't even sunset at all.

Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor

#24

Post by 3ygun »

mc32 wrote: post #7

This got me to think about the ACLU and what they are doing. I see some issues about accommodating justice and other issues affected by the pandemic and the intersection with liberties... it's more about looking at the compounding effect than protecting against fundamental change and fundamental threats to civil rights. But I don’t see any take on any measures governments have taken to kerb civil rights in the time o…

I follow on Twitter and have seen a lot about prisoner/immigrant advocacy (probably because of my Twitter bubble/liking habbits). But re-looking seems like a good mix of voting rights and medical access mixed in https://twitter.com/ACLU/

Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor

#25

Post by yingw787 »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #13
yingw787 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that is interesting. I donate to the ACLU monthly and I haven't gotten anything related to the pandemic, just regular board of directors voting. ...are they working on the EARN IT act by any chance?

Their current efforts are focused on getting lots of people released from jails and prisons, since they might catch COVID-19 if they're in jail.

Cool. I'll keep my donations flowing.

Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor

#27

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

projektfu wrote: post #18
rootusrootus wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, they have significantly changed over even just the last few years. It makes me a little sad, because we have plenty of progressive advocacy groups, and I appreciated the ACLU trying to be more focused.

I haven't seen a test case, but I wonder if they'd still come out and support unpopular speakers? https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-history-taking-stand-free-sp... That was a classically apt appearance because no doubt a hypothetical Nazi state would ban the ACLU. I've been personally torn about this myself. I got chewed out once by a professor for advocating that people turn out to oppose David Horowitz. My opinion wa…

They defended Milo Yiannopoulos in 2017, so I'm willing to let them ride on that for a few more years.

Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor

#28

Post by mhuffman »

Renaud wrote: post #19

They are too dependent on government sponsorship. 80% of their funding comes from the US government in some shape. I would imagine that a project of that importance deserves to be able to be self-sufficient. A US$2M budget/year is not that much, (m|b)illionaires making their money from the Internet could easily sponsor the project. Better yet, having grass-root sponsorship is even more important. Maybe they need mark…

There is no tech company that is going to sponsor a browser that makes it harder for them to track customers.

Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor

#29

Post by kragen »

projektfu wrote: post #21
mc32 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems you’re right and it’s a shame that in this time when a few governments are taking advantage of the situation they don’t have their ears perked and tuned to ensure governments (local, state, fed) aren’t going overboard, impinging rights, or looking to erode them. I mean this affects the whole US constituency.

I think the protestors are being stupid, but if they get arrested I would like to see the ACLU help defend them. Even though I think established law would put them in the "shouting fire in a crowded theater" camp, unless the courts are willing to reverse that precedent.

That precedent was comprehensively reversed by the 1950s.
Post reply on HN