On a completely random note, the shit the US pulled on Autistici/Inventati is absolutely rippling through the networking community, and people are actively discussing what to do about it… and against it.
The US will probably be able to pull these stunts a few more times, but hopefully not too many. There's work to be done.
@equinox Honestly, it's our failure... We should have built an environment in the Darknet (a.k.a. Tor Hidden Services) for activists use two decades ago. It was clear this will happen some day.
We have to accept the clearnet is the domain of corporations, governments and criminals.
@littlealex @equinox The clearnet is where you can reach most of the population though, and where they can reach you.
It would be exruciatingly hard for e.g. activists who try to do political work to convince a sufficient amount of people who're merely interested so far to install the Tor browser. Even giving them an IPv6 address to browse to would be easier.
Not to mention that, without using Monero (which A/I refused), there wasn't any way for them to keep afloat financially…
@Natanox @equinox I see this point. Darknet means a smaller audience, but I highly doubt it would make a big difference. All hosted at services like Autistici, Systemli etc. is from a certain scene for a certain scene. It is not the medium where you reach a broader public. That's why activists are using platforms like Instagram or Facebook.
Within a certain group of people it is easy to show how to install and use the tor browser.
As you mentioned, the finances are the real problem. It's nearly impossible to manage it without being traced. Even if there are services like Monera, it will be hard to pay your rack space anywhere with it. For the foreseeing future there will be no way to circumvent using the banking system.
@littlealex @equinox At least with the banking system we know the EU has a high interest of decoupling it from the US, sanctioning the International Court of Justice as well as Nobel Peace Price Commitee was quite the argument. It just takes way, way too long…
Not like the EU (-countries) wasn't really good at illegally seizing stuff as well, but at least you can successfully fight back against that most of the time.
Hopefully A/I manages to come back eventually.
@equinox Thanks for highlighting this. For everyone else who want's to check the presentation out, it was this one: https://ripe93.ripe.net/programme/meeting-plan/sessions/134/HXFYTB/