Well, no doubt its a honeypot, but that's just the internet these days. Anything served through cloudflare is wide open to inspection by the NSA, and anything that isn't can still be seen if they're interested enough. Due to that, I see no reason for the NSA or any other feds to get directly involved with the ownership or operation. Its no doubt that the FBI and the ATF have active honeypot ops though accounts though. I've personally received PMs requesting services and advice related to illegal activities.
As for voat I see a few possibilities, but they each boil down to a coordinated effort to push the userbase onto new platforms for some reason.
The most optimistic is that the voat admins are in some way compromised, and the only legal way to fight back without violating a gag order is through inactivity and hostility towards the users, which has successfully driven many away.
Another possibility is that voat was purchased by some non-government 3rd party who hates free speech, and just wants to scatter the userbase to the wind. Reddit or one of the various soros-esque NGOs would fit.
Finally, its possible that Putt has made his money already (massive crypto stash), and the troubles on voat are just the result of true apathy, or a coordinated effort to drive traffic down to the point where he can just let the site stagnate, and therefor costing him less. This would explain the lack of fundraising and merchandising in recent months (wouldn't want people accusing him of scamming when the place shuts down).
Whatever the reason, I think its clear that the golden age of the internet is long gone. There will always be some sites around that will let you speak your mind, but they'll keep being pushed to the corners of the web until those people are ready to give up on digital communication altogether.
All that said, its still quite nice to be here on digg 4.0
Well, no doubt its a honeypot, but that's just the internet these days. Anything served through cloudflare is wide open to inspection by the NSA, and anything that isn't can still be seen if they're interested enough. Due to that, I see no reason for the NSA or any other feds to get directly involved with the ownership or operation. Its no doubt that the FBI and the ATF have active honeypot ops though accounts though. I've personally received PMs requesting services and advice related to illegal activities.
As for voat I see a few possibilities, but they each boil down to a coordinated effort to push the userbase onto new platforms for some reason.
The most optimistic is that the voat admins are in some way compromised, and the only legal way to fight back without violating a gag order is through inactivity and hostility towards the users, which has successfully driven many away.
Another possibility is that voat was purchased by some non-government 3rd party who hates free speech, and just wants to scatter the userbase to the wind. Reddit or one of the various soros-esque NGOs would fit.
Finally, its possible that Putt has made his money already (massive crypto stash), and the troubles on voat are just the result of true apathy, or a coordinated effort to drive traffic down to the point where he can just let the site stagnate, and therefor costing him less. This would explain the lack of fundraising and merchandising in recent months (wouldn't want people accusing him of scamming when the place shuts down).
Whatever the reason, I think its clear that the golden age of the internet is long gone. There will always be some sites around that will let you speak your mind, but they'll keep being pushed to the corners of the web until those people are ready to give up on digital communication altogether.
All that said, its still quite nice to be here on digg 4.0
Well, no doubt its a honeypot, but that's just the internet these days. Anything served through cloudflare is wide open to inspection by the NSA, and anything that isn't can still be seen if they're interested enough. Due to that, I see no reason for the NSA or any other feds to get directly involved with the ownership or operation. Its no doubt that the FBI and the ATF have active honeypot ops though accounts though. I've personally received PMs requesting services and advice related to illegal activities.
As for voat I see a few possibilities, but they each boil down to a coordinated effort to push the userbase onto new platforms for some reason.
The most optimistic is that the voat admins are in some way compromised, and the only legal way to fight back without violating a gag order is through inactivity and hostility towards the users, which has successfully driven many away.
Another possibility is that voat was purchased by some non-government 3rd party who hates free speech, and just wants to scatter the userbase to the wind. Reddit or one of the various soros-esque NGOs would fit.
Finally, its possible that Putt has made his money already (massive crypto stash), and the troubles on voat are just the result of true apathy, or a coordinated effort to drive traffic down to the point where he can just let the site stagnate, and therefor costing him less. This would explain the lack of fundraising and merchandising in recent months (wouldn't want people accusing him of scamming when the place shuts down).
Whatever the reason, I think its clear that the golden age of the internet is long gone. There will always be some sites around that will let you speak your mind, but they'll keep being pushed to the corners of the web until those people are ready to give up on digital communication altogether.
All that said, its still quite nice to be here on digg 4.0