Sorry, wasn’t saying because Jacob left that made Tor inherently less secure, but that the removal of him and lots of other VIP people leaving is odd, to say the least, and we should be worried about the security/integrity of the project with such volatile changes such as these.

I agree that rape and sex abuse is wrong and has no place, definitely not saying Jacob should stay either. If you see my other comments, I say how the ideal would have been to remove all the affected parties (accusers and Jacob) from the Tor project until it can be dealt with by the court of law. The reason I say this is because if they reward a behavior of creating an anonymous site where you make a criminal claim on someone else in the Tor project and refuse to go to court about it, then you’re not mentally sound enough to stay on a security project such as Tor. If they want justice for being abused then use the courts and don’t drag one of the most important privacy tools through the mud with you.

Tor should be politics neutral; it shouldn’t be left leaning or right leaning but just worry about digital openness and freedom. I am a minority, so when I say identity politics, I don’t mean gender. I mean the idea that if I’m some minority, I should get more say or even a job over someone who isn’t a minority. It is important not to be a bigot and discriminate, but with big projects like Tor, where every line of code counts, we need the best, not the most diverse. I say this as a minority in my country. I don’t want to be hired to Tor over someone more qualified because I would fit their diversity quota.

I also agree with you on the drama shouldn’t be part of the project, and it should be back to the work. That is part of the reason I made this post. If you check Tor project social media recently, they are making it more about identity politics than about technology, privacy, and digital freedom (what it should be about).

It was no secret that some in Tor internal and Tor community always hated Jacob. I even hated him at first too. However, he was and never was a roadblock in Tor’s way. The excuses that large donors wouldn’t donate until Jacob is gone is weak and worrisome at the same time. First off, if a donor is too powerful and too influential, then that is a danger. If the donor didn’t want to donate until Jacob was gone, then I argue they don’t give a shit about privacy and anonymity actually and instead are playing politics and drama club with the Tor project.

Finally, Jacob is only a singular part of this reason I think there is a force working to undermine Tor and is succeeding. There is the ex-CIA agent, as well as the board changes and other VIP developers leaving. This should worry all of us, and we shouldn’t blindly accept substantial changes to the teams and dynamics so easily without asking questions and demanding answers from the Tor project.