On Mon, Jun 19, 2017 at 5:35 AM, Tim Starling tstarling@wikimedia.org wrote:
I think we should shut down the relay, which in my opinion is not mission-aligned, and set up the hidden service, which clearly is mission-aligned.
In some countries, sharing information with others (even info taken from Wikimedia project sites), can be illegal. Because of how the Internet is designed, Traffic analysis is an effective way for countries to find, monitor, and at times prosecute individuals who are sharing knowledge that is deemed illegal in their country. Tor helps protect people against traffic analysis attacks so that they can communicate, access, and share knowledge and information.
By WMF hosting a Tor relay, I believe they are engaging in a smart and strategic partnership with others in the Tor Network to help protect users against traffic analysis attacks.
When viewed as a strategic partnership, I think that hosting a Tor relay is mission aligned, at least so far as it seems to be aligned with the work being done by the strategic partnerships and global outreach, specifically with the goal of "Improving digital privacy", which is described as follows: "Wikimedia projects maintain a high standard for digital privacy. The Wikimedia Foundation welcomes partnerships that help further improve privacy for our readers and contributors, through both improvement to our projects and to the global digital and legal infrastructures."
It would be nice if the the partnerships and global outreach team considered whether or not they felt that hosting a Tor Relay was the kind of low-cost, low-overhead partnership that helps support digital privacy for those wanting to safely share and access knowledge.
Josh