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.
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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This is why they’re infiltrating open source projects
Are they infiltrating open source projects too now?
Ever since the invention of open source. Even industry standards such as the original RSA were intentionally ratfucked by malicious state actors.
The XZ thing was almost certainly some nation state actor, imo.
Whats the XZ thing? Im out of the loop
some rando gained the trust of the xz maintainer and tried to sneak in a very sophisticated backdoor. luckily caught, but i wonder if we had another project compromised and don't even know about it.
If you have an hour, this video from Veritasium about it is pretty good.
Yes check the XZ Utils situation from like 2024
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
Unfortunately not the first time either. Reminded me of Naomi Wu.
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.
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.
She posts on another account. Shes safe
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
That's good to know, thank you for mentioning it!
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.
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
Ok for those of you that haven't figured it out I got my wings clipped and they weren't gentle about it- so there's not going to be much posting on social media anymore and only on very specific subjects. I can leave but Kaidi can't so we're just going to follow the new rules and that's that. Nothing personal if I don't like and reply like I used to. I'll be focusing on the store and the occasional video. Thanks for understanding, it was fun while it lasted. 7:52 PM · Jul 7, 2023
purchase the tourist tech-buying guide she’s produced over the years
do you have a link for that?
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.
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.
Dafuq man, that's some hairy shit
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?
The US has done kidnappings in other countries before.
There was a pretty famous Venezuelan one recently.
I like Foss software. This sounds like something that would happen in a cyberpunk thriller movie
It's none of the cyber, though... it's just the dystopia
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.
Thanks for this
WTF
Sounds like a scare tactic. This will only embolden the community.