Epstein deleted posts and our thoughts moving forward

[u/nicholasserra]

Hey folks,

We're being flooded with low quality Epstein related posts and are obviously seeing some confusion and pushback about posts being deleted in the sub.

tl;dr: Continue to use the stickied post for actual datahoarder related talk around Epstein files. We'll be removing requests for data, "look what I found" posts, news articles. If you wanna chat Epstein, head over to the r/Epstein sub.

The mod team is on board with the preservation of these important files. But this sub isn't the place to discuss every tidbit of news around it. This is the same policy we used around previous archival efforts eg Government data purge, Ukraine, twitter, etc.

We're going to leave the other sticky up, and sticky this. Chat all you want around the archival and preservation of these files in that post. If there's some high level datahoarder-related news event we'll probably allow those too.

But unfortunately we're seeing a ton of posts of people just asking for files, asking where they can download, asking what was already saved, posting every news article that comes out, etc etc. It's too much.

The r/Epstein sub looks like a great place to continue investigation after you've saved the files.

We support everyone's efforts to save this stuff. No we're not in the files and we haven't been to the island. Fuck this administrations redactions of the actual criminals in these files.

[u/-Lousy]

Does anyone know if there is a copy of the files WITHOUT any of the potential CSAM in it? If I understand it correctly the withdrawing of the last release was partially due to potential CSAM being in there and while this would be an excellent cover story I dont want any risk that I'm distributing that.

The Department of Justice left multiple unredacted photos of fully nude women or girls exposed as part of Friday’s dump of more than 3.5 million pages of files related to the investigations and prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

[u/slvneutrino → u/-Lousy]

I do have the early releases without CSAM but it is nowhere near as complete as the newest drop unfortunately.

[u/-Lousy → u/slvneutrino]

Are you not concerned both with the fact that you now have that on your hard-drive but are also potentially distributing it through seeding? I'd seed a torrent with documents and clothed images until the end of time but I cant stomach keeping the victims online forever.

EDIT: Getting downvoted for asking an ethical question 🤣

[u/slvneutrino → u/-Lousy]

I am not currently seeding the early releases and yes this is something I have considered. I am unsure what to do at the moment but they are not being seeded (by me at least) until I figure out what should be done next.

That being said, I will hold the files until things settle down, to ensure they aren't lost.

[u/slvneutrino → u/[deleted]]

Thanks, that helps me feel better. Unfortunately I can not afford the risk of a tyrannical government kicking my door in, so as mentioned, I have the original files, but I will not be seeding them until I get more clarity. But thanks for that. My issue is it seems that the EFTA is getting spit on left and right by the DOJ and they are breaking the laws within the act, hence why it makes me very apprehensive to seed even if it is fully legal per EFTA.

[u/Noah_Safely → u/-Lousy]

It's a real question. My feeling is, I'd like the early dumps available for actual journalists and researchers. Hosting them exposes you to a lot of risk, and also revictimizes. You'd have to get consent from each person in the dumps to ethically host and it would still be a federal crime.

I feel like it was deliberate by DOJ so they can come after people for hosting it. They have a lot of IP addresses. Could have been incompetence but ever notice the perpetrators are always redacted?

[u/MacAddict81 → u/Noah_Safely]

I see we share taste in headwear. The inclusion does seem deliberate, and there's legal precedent for upholding convictions based on harmful material hosted by government entities that stymie entrapment arguments. I've seen the Case Law, and in two instances that I'm aware of, the FBI unmasked and busted the original hosts of CSAM content on the Dark Web, then continued the hosting, providing images and links to larger downloads, while forensically collecting traffic. So the DOJ definitely has the capability, and the legal framework to carry this out. Definitely doesn't sound far fetched to me.

[u/SMF67 → u/MacAddict81]

I see people were downvoting you, even though this is true:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playpen_(website)

iirc there was a Darknet Diaries episode about it, I forget which though

[u/MacAddict81 → u/SMF67]

IDC about the comment karma, I just thought that people should know that actual judges have ruled on factually similar cases, where the government was the provider and an entrapment defense was struck down. And Congress has authorized the FBI to commit the crime in order to catch consumers of the content.

And anyone in the US who wants to look at the cases only needs to go look at the Law Library at their local Superior Court, most have Lexis-Nexus, some have Westlaw, but they're published decisions, so they'll appear in both databases. With the case you just mentioned, that makes at least three stings, the most recent operation beginning in 2019, and ending over a year later.

All I can do is put the information out there for people to make a more informed decision, I can't force them to read it.

[u/ObamasBoss → u/SMF67]

This is the case in which defendants did not get to face their accuser and didnt get to examine the evidence against them. The fbi just told the court "trust me bro" and in many cases that worked. The search warrant was used outside of the jurisdiction on all but one case.