Her blog post: https://bitowl.online/about Link to the post in the screenshot: https://social.coop/@cwebber/116249815879392312
Kind and cherished FOSS and computing freedom advocate @sleepyowl (Joyce Ng) has gone missing
Her blog post: https://bitowl.online/about Link to the post in the screenshot: https://social.coop/@cwebber/116249815879392312
31 Comments
NGC2346@sh.itjust.works · 106 pts · 157d
We are starting to attract evil attention that sees FOSS as an obstacle to their desired surveillance state worldwide. This is why they're infiltrating open source projects and kidnapping others.
ageedizzle@piefed.ca · 17 pts · 157d
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 27 pts · 157d
Ever since the invention of open source. Even industry standards such as the original RSA were intentionally ratfucked by malicious state actors.
rbos@lemmy.ca · 24 pts · 157d
The XZ thing was almost certainly some nation state actor, imo.
ageedizzle@piefed.ca · 5 pts · 157d
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 17 pts · 157d
bilb@lemmy.ml · 16 pts · 157d
If you have an hour, this video from Veritasium about it is pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoag03mSuXQ
NGC2346@sh.itjust.works · 18 pts · 157d
Yes check the XZ Utils situation from like 2024
degen@midwest.social · 11 pts · 157d
The Nix project has some unfortunate support that made it's way to some level of influence if I'm not mistaken. Its sort of like enshitification 2.0 but with fascism instead of money.
Inb4 WhAtStHeDiFfErEnCe
pastermil@sh.itjust.works · 88 pts · 158d
Dafuq man, that's some hairy shit
partofthevoice@lemmy.zip · 43 pts · 158d
Yeah, that’s a lot to take in. Did she live in Singapore and is the assumption that Singaporean authorities carried out the abduction? Singapore isn’t a member of Five Eyes, though, but could this work like extradition treaties do? And why the hell is Five Eyes looking at FOSS devs?
ViatorOmnium@piefed.social · 57 pts · 158d
The US has done kidnappings in other countries before.
joelfromaus@aussie.zone · 24 pts · 157d
There was a pretty famous Venezuelan one recently.
Crozekiel@lemmy.zip · 80 pts · 158d
Unfortunately not the first time either. Reminded me of Naomi Wu.
Telorand@reddthat.com · 81 pts · 158d
Who, for anyone unaware, is mostly safe at this time.
She was visited by government goons and basically had her entire activism and tech business confiscated, and she said that anyone who wants to support her should purchase the tourist tech-buying guide she's produced over the years. She also said that any further content on her YouTube should be considered suspect, as she's not going to be making more videos for the foreseeable future.
ETA: she has also said that she has the ability to leave China, but because her partner can't, she's opted to stay, because she's also a cool human being.
Crozekiel@lemmy.zip · 35 pts · 157d
While I hope that is true, the only thing we know is she hasn't been active online since July 2023, and that was a text post to Twitter. It's terrifying to think that we will never really know if she is safe or not. I recall several people in the 3d printing space that had previously regularly spoken to her that also mentioned she went radio silent in private as well.
Telorand@reddthat.com · 8 pts · 157d
I wish I had saved those comments' sources, but it took some digging to find them. Apologies to anyone who wants or expects those, but I'm not going to spend time looking again.
Nevertheless, they are out there, and anyone with the drive should be able to find them. I don't imagine she's made much other public commentary, since that would put both her and her partner in danger, so I'm not surprised she's been radio silent since then.
Crozekiel@lemmy.zip · 15 pts · 157d
Most everything in your comment is from her "last" tweet, which oddly doesn't show up if you look at her profile on twitter.
https://x.com/RealSexyCyborg/status/1677480809450835969
DeadDigger@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 157d
Hmm big Clive on YouTube reviewed some uv products from her last year if I remember correcty so she is building up different businesses and is still known by other members of the community
Crozekiel@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 157d
That's good to know, thank you for mentioning it!
xnx@piefed.social · 1 pts · 155d
She posts on another account. Shes safe
bad1080@piefed.social · 12 pts · 157d
do you have a link for that?
xnx@piefed.social · 3 pts · 155d
https://www.crowdsupply.com/machinery-enchantress/the-new-essential-guide-to-electronics-in-shenzhen#products
bad1080@piefed.social · 2 pts · 155d
thank you!
Telorand@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 156d
I don't, and I didn't think to save it, because it wasn't a book I was planning to buy (even though I'd like to). What I can tell you is that its a guide to help English speakers know what to look for when buying directly in China (and what to avoid). It's kind of like a specialized translation guidebook. She was a co-author.
Eldritch@piefed.world · 16 pts · 157d
She was a great ambassador in the tech space. Her last couple of videos were some of the most personal ones she did. And her criticisms were very mild. But the government can't acknowledge their failures or tolerate any criticism. Considering the vulnerable situations of her and her partner. Both being members of minority groups groups the CCP oppresses and targets. Her stepping back was necessary for their safety. Though fortunately there have been a few that have visited the region and spoken to her since the government threats. She's getting by with her maker skills etc. But considering the active cultural genocide. I don't look to see her making content for sometime if ever again. Unless there's a massive change in government.
She could have been a wonderful representative for her country and done a lot to dismiss a lot of the criticisms they receive. Instead, their treatment of her confirmed many of the criticism they receive.
goodboyjojo@lemmy.world · 51 pts · 157d
I like Foss software. This sounds like something that would happen in a cyberpunk thriller movie
hash@slrpnk.net · 86 pts · 157d
wereg@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 157d
carrylex@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 157d
Ok not sure how such a post got so many upvotes...
She has not really much to do with open source or at least that's not verifiable anywhere:
Also she was active on Mastodon 3 days ago.
This person most likely is spontaneously disconnected from the net. Maybe the internet is down at her location because lightning fried the router, maybe she fell down the stairs and is in hospital, maybe she's on vacation or - after having read through the about site - got some mental help, because not blocking and posting about people that send you creepy text messages to give them a wider platform is itself weird...
Who knows?
But starting a search on all social media will likely not bring them back either.
Maybe contact their family or other friends or visit them, I think that would be a lot more productive.
prenatal_confusion@feddit.org · 2 pts · 155d
Thanks for this
southernwolf@pawb.social · 1 pts · 157d
It's unfortunate this is the second lowest upvoted comment on the post (currently), as this is almost certainly the correct answer.
rottenmummy@lemmy.ml · 28 pts · 158d
WTF
TrippinMallard@lemmy.ml · 22 pts · 157d
Sounds like a scare tactic. This will only embolden the community.
francois@jlai.lu · 4 pts · 155d
It wasn't a false alarm but she's back https://chaos.social/@sleepyowl/116257348164580770