Since then, several of those unidentified persons have identified themselves. According to Wikipedia, three of them are Honeywell, Macrina, and Lovecruft.
The piece characterizes Appelbaum's statement as "the statements from "River" were completely fabricated." Neither he nor Zeit say or imply that the accounts of Honeywell, Macrina, and Lovecruft were incorrect. In fact, the Zeit piece does not mention them at all.
Casting doubt one account does not immediately cast doubt on all accounts. Otherwise it would be easy to set up the proverbial false flag operation.
As a reminder, the reason the Tor project "released" (to quote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Appelbaum#Allegations_of... ) is because: "many people inside and outside the Tor Project have reported incidents of being humiliated, intimidated, bullied, and frightened" by Jacob Appelbaum, and that "several experienced unwanted sexually aggressive behavior from him." Steele made no mention of rape claims published on the anonymous website.
The decision, at least as publicly given, was not due to any rape allegations. One does not need to be charged by the police before a company can fire a employee who, say, steals from petty cash.
So that's at least 2 of the accusations that are somewhere between plain false and maliciously fabricated, with nothing on the veracity or lack thereof of the rest.
I don't know the guy, or what happened, but colour me suspicious, especially when you consider how the allegations were/are being made: not in any legal forum, but in a glossy PR website + campaign.
Doesn't pass the smell test.
For example, a school may prohibit a teacher from engaging in a sexual or emotional relationship with a student, even if both the teacher and the student want the relationship. Similarly, between a supervisor and employee, or between a military officer and a private.
Such behavior may be grounds for dismissal, even though a relationship between consenting adults is not illegal and therefore has no reason to be "in any legal forum".
As I pointed out, even when something is illegal, as when an employee steals from petty cash, the employer does not need to present the case in a legal forum before dismissing the thief. So your strong desire for presenting in a legal forum also does not pass the smell test.
Isn't it weird that all these data privacy/whistleblower activists are being targeted by rape allegations that are more than dubious?
