For over 12 years we are providing internet infrastructure (e.g. webspace, domains, servers) for those who need protection because they are not protected by the law. We share our experience that has brought us not only a constant source of technical challanges and puzzels, time and again we also experienced juridical and logistical challenges. We were subject to arbitrary persecution by the police and intelligence agencies and harassment by lawyers and angry individuals. But for a lot of reasons we are still fighting so that internet infrastructures remain accessible to everyone independent of their origin, their ability to get a bank- or paypal account and - hear hear - their need to stay completely anonymous and without surveillance.
Our journey that began with a radical and very liberal (admittingly naïve) view on a decentralized and free internet (which we in part still hold!), has taken many turbulent turns. It gave us a probably unique perspective on the internet. The 45.000 email complaints that have accumulated in our mailbox are our witness: We really saw a wide variety of weirdness. Motivated by this years motto "legal illegal scheissegal -- whatever it takes" we want to highlight some of the bizarre cases we got involved in by constantly operating in between legality and illegality.
However, obscure and questionable, sometimes controversial content is not what motivates us. We serve infrastructure to people and have been at the side of insipring collaborators for many years. Forging those connections we observe that the group of individuals, projects and organizations that reach out for protection has changed a lot over the years. With worry we observe that the group that needs protection is getting broader and broader. If someone had told us 10 years ago that a civil society organization which organizes school walk outs on Fridays for environmental protection would be knocking on our door, we would have reacted with complete disbelief: What on earth, has happened to our society?
In our talk we share our perspective on this development. We also provide concrete criticism of new and coming legislation and their consequences which we think are often overlooked. Our ability to protect those who have already been pushed beyond the margins is getting ever more difficult and risky. The rise of fascist governments all over the world will bring arbitrary persecution into new dimensions. We are gradually losing our abilities to protect others. New cybercrime laws that supposedly aim to protect citizens, or anti money laundry laws that aim to prevent the harmful use of digital currencies like shitcoin also have drastic consequences for those who need protection. By exploring these and other topics through our perspective we invite feelings of dissonance: complex issues can be contradicting and difficult to digest: Balancing on the margins of legality to provide new legal grounds is a solidaric act that can increase our societies resilience. Grayzones need to be protected even when they are used by malicious actors. We argue that it is important that more people need to join the fight and dare to step into the grayzone in their own way, with the means they have available. Defending any freedom is best done with a diversity of tactics, direct action and in a decentralized fashion. Most importantly, through strong communities! Form gangs -- Bildet Banden!