Hacks/Hackers Helsinki: Researchgruppen & Telecomix

We are honored to get the very best of Swedish hacks and activists to join our next meetup as speakers. This event will be in English and is organised by Hacks/Hackers Helsinki together with the book project Verkko suljettu (Into, 2014).

Researchgruppen – investigative journalists hacking anonymous commenters

Speakers: Martin Fredriksson & Mathias Wåg / Researchgruppen

Synopsis: The members of Researchgruppen disclose how they managed to gather information about thousands of anonymous accounts on the Disqus Comment Systems by using a public API, and eventually identify politicians writing hate speech on the comment threads of a number of xenophobic blogs. The disclosures led to dozens politicians leaving their posts, several laymen had to step down and at least one court case has been started.

About: Mathias Wåg and Martin Fredriksson are members of Researchgruppen, a collective of investigative journalists and activists, with roots in the autonomous and antifascists milieus of Sweden. In the autumn of 2013 Researchgruppen revealed the e-mail- and IP-addresses of thousands of users of the racist and islamophobic website Avpixlat and followed up the leak with extensive reporting that has so far contributed to more than a dozen members of the Sweden democrats resigning. In 2014 the reporting of Researchgruppen was rewarded with the prestigious Guldspaden prize for investigative journalism.

http://research.nu/ (http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fresearch.nu%2F&h=rAQHEEZCI&enc=AZNLIonbA0NLbxPz1AU7ZdgosyUswDtHI0RVdaXog0gPhit_t4RdRIs0k7vzTkZDaVA&s=1)

Telecomix – helping Egyptians communicate during broadband blackout

Christopher Kullenberg is a lecturer of sociology who has specialized in the philosophy of science and a member of Telecomix, a decentralized cluster of net activists, committed to the freedom of expression. During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 Telecomix circulated the ways of using landlines to circumvent state blockages of broadband networks. Later the group released a large amount of Blue Coat surveillance log files, revealing vast government interception in Syria.

http://telecomix.org/

This will be the last meetup of Hacks/Hackers Helsinki at Pressiklubi. We are looking for a new venue, so let us know if you think of good ones!