Thread by @aprilwright

@iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight Dear John,

1) Hi ♥️ I adore you

2) We wish to correct your statements in the @LastWeekTonight ransomware ep:

Some hackers are criminals
Some criminals are hackers

Not all hackers are criminals
Not all criminals are hackers

You use the terms interchangeably/incorrectly

@iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight You literally demonstrate this by talking about how people do not need any skill to implement ransomware

Hackers have skill. Hackers have creativity and curiosity. Hackers are not all bad people. Many/most of us want to make the world BETTER

You are using ‘hackers’ as a slur

@iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight And further, phrases like “white hat hackers” and “black hat hackers” are rooted in racism, inaccurate, and out of date

The media uses phrases mistakenly as interchangeable far too often, and we are trying to fix that.

We are not criminals. We are not attackers. We are hackers.

@iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight We are here to find flaws before the attackers do! Invent! Reinvent! Repurpose! Optimize! And make things do stuff they were never never meant to do

@iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight We push the limits of healthcare systems to prove they need improvement

We report vulnerabilities about industrial control systems because we want to be safer

We plug USB cables into things like planes to see what happens (please do do not do this)

@iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight We are curious

We are helpful

We are not malicious

THERE IS A DISTINCTION

@iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight holy shit I just realized hackers are the fucking mythical fairy-like “brownies” except we get way more push-back on fixing things

@iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight Dear John you sexy British crumpet,

If you publicly explain how hackers and criminals are mutually exclusive, I‘ll donate $5,000 to @InnocentOrg, a charity using legal & ethical skills to help unmask child predators and bring them to justice!

(ok ok i’ll do it anyway, but pls?)

@iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight @InnocentOrg Insurrectionists on Jan/6 aren't called “black hat citizens” - I hope this all makes sense?

@iamjohnoliver @LastWeekTonight @InnocentOrg @threadreaderapp unroll