giganews blog

Giganews has always supported the Open Internet and fought for the personal freedoms that the Open Internet enables. Unfortunately, one of those freedoms is the ability for anyone to say almost anything they want, whether or not it is true or factual, and for others to believe it. Yesterday, Giganews was accused of being an FBI operation by an ex-employee through the well-known Cryptome.org. This accusation is completely false, and the accuser offers no evidence to support the claim.

Cryptome's failure to contact us to validate the allegations or respond to our concerns has lessened their credibility. It does not seem that Cryptome is in search for the truth, which leaves us to question what are their true motives. Sorry, Cryptome - Giganews is NOT an FBI operation. You've been duped.

Giganews is in the impossible position of proving a negative. If we say our list of employees does not include any FBI employees, then they must be "using false identities." If we say the named FBI operatives don't look like any of our employee photos, "the pictures must have been altered." Even the denial itself is used as further evidence of the truth of the accusation. In a court of law, such an accusation would never stand up to scrutiny, but on the Open Internet, opinions can be formed by only a few words on a popular website. Fighting the lies only emboldens those who tell them – Feeding the Troll.

What we can do is stand on our long history of supporting the Open Internet and the privacy of our customers:

• We are one of the few providers left still offering access to a full Usenet news feed
• We led the way in introducing encrypted SSL connections for Usenet access
• We worked with Golden Frog to provide the easy-to-use VyprVPN Personal VPN service with our Usenet accounts
• Giganews customers were the first to get access to Golden Frog's Dump Truck secure storage service
• Giganews and Golden Frog brought together those that fight for online privacy at our SXSW Take Back Your Internet Panel.
• Giganews spoke, just today, before the Texas State Legislature in support of proposed Texas privacy legislation.

Actions speak louder than words, and these are the actions of a company that supports customer privacy and a free and open Internet. Giganews has not and will not be controlled by any government organization, and we will continue to provide the best Usenet service to our customers.