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otherkinnewsContent warnings: Discrimination against Muslims and many other groups based on national origin, ethnicity, or religion. Just for the strong language in the quotes, rated PG, safe for work.
Summary: Last month, the Swiss hacktivist maia arson crimew exposed the US government's no-fly list, proving that the list was as discriminatory as had been suspected. The hacktivist happens to be openly a kitten therian and otherkin.
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In Switzerland on January 19, 2023, hacktivist maia arson crimew (it/its, she/her) announced that it had gained access to the US government's no-fly list from 2019 on an unsecured server. crimew posted a detailed description of the process on its personal site (2023a). crimew remarked that the list was discriminatory, saying, "it's just crazy to me how big that Terrorism Screening Database is and yet there is still very clear trends towards almost exclusively Arabic and Russian sounding names throughout the million entries," as quoted by the Daily Dot, which was the first news site to report on this (Thalen and Covucci, 2023). The ages show that many of the names belong to small children or infants, meaning that many people hadn't done anything wrong to be put on the list. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had noted, "Over last 20 years, the U.S. citizens that we’ve seen targeted for watchlisting are disproportionately Muslim and people of Arab or Middle Eastern and South Asian descent [...] Sometimes it’s people who dissent or have what are seen as unpopular views. We’ve also seen journalists watchlisted." (ibid.) Finding proof of this pattern of discrimination is one of crimew's many acts of hacker activism, and not the first time that it had been investigated by the US government for doing so. As described in Bloomberg and in government documents, in 2021, a grand jury in the US had indicted crimew, and had asked Swiss police to raid its home (Turton and Gretler, 2021; US Attorney's Office, 2021).
As mentioned by Forbes, crimew's Twitter profile describes itself as "indicted hacktivist/security researcher, artist, mentally ill enby polyam trans lesbian anarchist kitten (θΔ), 23 years old" (crimew, 2023b). The two Greek letters are theta and delta. This represents the therianthrope theta-delta symbol, which is these two letters interlaced. Participants of the therian forum WereList created the symbol in 2003 (Therian Wiki). On Twitter, it has been popular for a few years for therianthropes to put the two letters in their profiles or display names (Scribner, 2022). One of crimew's Tumblr posts uses the words otherkin and therian for itself (crimew, 2023c). This possibly makes crimew the world's most famous otherkin or therian, though of course that's not what it is famous for, but rather for its heroic acts on behalf of other marginalized peoples.
crimew had announced this particular discovery by exclaiming, "holy shit, we actually have the nofly list. holy fucking bingle. what?! :3" The phrase "holy fucking bingle" then became a popular meme. See the entry on Know Your Meme for an explanation of the phrase and its attached photo, and how it spread (Hamilton, 2023). Another of crimew's remarks has also gone viral, expressing its unashamedly lighthearted and fearless attitude: "congress is investigating now :) but i stay silly :3" (tgttos, 2023). ■
About the author: Orion Scribner (they/them) administrates the collaborative Otherkin News blog, about current events in or related to the alterhuman communities. Scribner has made the alterhuman comic Theri There since 2005, and wrote a community history book, Otherkin Timeline, which has been cited in academic journals and many other sources.
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Glossary of some words used in this article
I try to avoid using jargon from within the alterhuman communities or other specialized areas of knowledge. Here are some that were necessary for this article.
Hacktivism. Activism by means of computer hacking. Infiltrating computer networks as a form of civil disobedience, with the intention of political and social change.
Otherkin. Some real people have the identity and experience of being other than human, as an intrinsic part of who they are. Each one comes to discover this on their own, and their explanations may be spiritual, psychological, or something else. It's not something they choose to do just for fun. They created the word "otherkin" for themselves in 1990. See my "Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes" article (2023).
Therianthrope. This is an old word meaning "animal person." In 1994, some people took up this word for themselves to mean that they have the intrinsic experience and identity of being animals. Usually this means animal species known to have lived on Earth, most often wolves and felines, but some are mythological beings. Similar to otherkin, each therian comes to discover this on their own, and their explanations may be spiritual, psychological, or something else. See my "Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes" article (2023).
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References
arson crimew, maia (January 19, 2023). "how to completely own an airline in 3 easy steps". maia :3 (personal site). https://maia.crimew.gay/posts/how-to-hack-an-airline/ Archived January 21, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230121181330/https://maia.crimew.gay/posts/how-to-hack-an-airline/
crimew, maia arson. "maia arson crimew _nyancrimew". Twitter (microblog). https://twitter.com/_nyancrimew Archived June 10, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20230123225535/https://twitter.com/_nyancrimew
arson crimew, maia (February 4, 2023). "Anonymous asked..." Tumblr (blog). https://www.tumblr.com/nyancrimew/708379913178218496/youre-a-fucking-scourge-on-the-name-of-otherkin Archived February 5, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230205190231/https://www.tumblr.com/nyancrimew/708379913178218496/youre-a-fucking-scourge-on-the-name-of-otherkin
DeGeurin, Mack (January 20, 2023). "Hacker Reportedly Gets Hands on Massive No-Fly List of Alleged Terrorist Suspects". Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/hacker-no-fly-list-terrorist-airlines-1850013192 Archived January 21, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230121182902/https://gizmodo.com/hacker-no-fly-list-terrorist-airlines-1850013192
Hamilton, Phillip, and Zach (January 23, 2023). "Holy Fucking Bingle." Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/holy-fucking-bingle Archived January 27, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230127063658/https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/holy-fucking-bingle
Hasbrouck, Edward. "The #NoFly list is a #MuslimBan list". PapersPlease.org. https://papersplease.org/wp/2023/01/20/the-nofly-list-is-a-muslimban-list/ Archived January 21, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230121200831/https://papersplease.org/wp/2023/01/20/the-nofly-list-is-a-muslimban-list/
Reid, Channing (January 20, 2023). "Hacker Gets Access To The FBI's No Fly List." Simple Flying. https://simpleflying.com/hacker-acess-fbi-no-fly-list/ Archived January 21, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230121060514/https://simpleflying.com/hacker-acess-fbi-no-fly-list/
Scribner, Orion (November 12, 2022). "About the symbols in my display name..." Weirder Earth (microblog). https://weirder.earth/@frameacloud/109333001851457289 Archived February 24, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230224153850/https://weirder.earth/@frameacloud/109333001851457289
Scribner, Orion (Feb. 11, 2023). "A Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes, version 2.4.6." Tumblr. https://frameacloud.tumblr.com/post/708359714734489600/simpleintro Archived February 20, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230220045625/https://frameacloud.tumblr.com/post/708359714734489600/simpleintro
Thalen, Mikael; Covucci, David (January 19, 2023). "EXCLUSIVE: U.S. airline accidentally exposes 'No Fly List' on unsecured server". The Daily Dot. https://www.dailydot.com/debug/no-fly-list-us-tsa-unprotected-server-commuteair/ Archived February 15, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230215162306/https://www.dailydot.com/debug/no-fly-list-us-tsa-unprotected-server-commuteair/
Therian Wiki. "Theta delta." Therian Wiki. https://therian.fandom.com/wiki/Theta-Delta Archived November 28, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20221128190359/https://therian.fandom.com/wiki/Theta-Delta
tgttos (Jan 22, 2023). "cat who hacksd the no fly list literally my hero..." Tumblr. https://tgttos.tumblr.com/post/707176595092324352/this-is-her-website-tht-links-to-her-wikipedia Archived January 25, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230125002347/https://tgttos.tumblr.com/post/707176595092324352/this-is-her-website-tht-links-to-her-wikipedia
Turton, William, and Gretler, Corinne (March 12, 2021). "Swiss Police Raid Apartment of Verkada Hacker, Seize Devices". Bloomberg News. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-12/swiss-police-raid-apartment-of-verkada-hacker-seize-devices Archived March 15, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210315192331/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-12/swiss-police-raid-apartment-of-verkada-hacker-seize-devices
U.S. Attorney's Office. "Swiss Hacker indicted for conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft". Justice.gov. March 18, 2021. https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/swiss-hacker-indicted-conspiracy-wire-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft Archived March 18, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210318234423/https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/swiss-hacker-indicted-conspiracy-wire-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft
Summary: Last month, the Swiss hacktivist maia arson crimew exposed the US government's no-fly list, proving that the list was as discriminatory as had been suspected. The hacktivist happens to be openly a kitten therian and otherkin.
-
In Switzerland on January 19, 2023, hacktivist maia arson crimew (it/its, she/her) announced that it had gained access to the US government's no-fly list from 2019 on an unsecured server. crimew posted a detailed description of the process on its personal site (2023a). crimew remarked that the list was discriminatory, saying, "it's just crazy to me how big that Terrorism Screening Database is and yet there is still very clear trends towards almost exclusively Arabic and Russian sounding names throughout the million entries," as quoted by the Daily Dot, which was the first news site to report on this (Thalen and Covucci, 2023). The ages show that many of the names belong to small children or infants, meaning that many people hadn't done anything wrong to be put on the list. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had noted, "Over last 20 years, the U.S. citizens that we’ve seen targeted for watchlisting are disproportionately Muslim and people of Arab or Middle Eastern and South Asian descent [...] Sometimes it’s people who dissent or have what are seen as unpopular views. We’ve also seen journalists watchlisted." (ibid.) Finding proof of this pattern of discrimination is one of crimew's many acts of hacker activism, and not the first time that it had been investigated by the US government for doing so. As described in Bloomberg and in government documents, in 2021, a grand jury in the US had indicted crimew, and had asked Swiss police to raid its home (Turton and Gretler, 2021; US Attorney's Office, 2021).
As mentioned by Forbes, crimew's Twitter profile describes itself as "indicted hacktivist/security researcher, artist, mentally ill enby polyam trans lesbian anarchist kitten (θΔ), 23 years old" (crimew, 2023b). The two Greek letters are theta and delta. This represents the therianthrope theta-delta symbol, which is these two letters interlaced. Participants of the therian forum WereList created the symbol in 2003 (Therian Wiki). On Twitter, it has been popular for a few years for therianthropes to put the two letters in their profiles or display names (Scribner, 2022). One of crimew's Tumblr posts uses the words otherkin and therian for itself (crimew, 2023c). This possibly makes crimew the world's most famous otherkin or therian, though of course that's not what it is famous for, but rather for its heroic acts on behalf of other marginalized peoples.
crimew had announced this particular discovery by exclaiming, "holy shit, we actually have the nofly list. holy fucking bingle. what?! :3" The phrase "holy fucking bingle" then became a popular meme. See the entry on Know Your Meme for an explanation of the phrase and its attached photo, and how it spread (Hamilton, 2023). Another of crimew's remarks has also gone viral, expressing its unashamedly lighthearted and fearless attitude: "congress is investigating now :) but i stay silly :3" (tgttos, 2023). ■
About the author: Orion Scribner (they/them) administrates the collaborative Otherkin News blog, about current events in or related to the alterhuman communities. Scribner has made the alterhuman comic Theri There since 2005, and wrote a community history book, Otherkin Timeline, which has been cited in academic journals and many other sources.
-
Glossary of some words used in this article
I try to avoid using jargon from within the alterhuman communities or other specialized areas of knowledge. Here are some that were necessary for this article.
Hacktivism. Activism by means of computer hacking. Infiltrating computer networks as a form of civil disobedience, with the intention of political and social change.
Otherkin. Some real people have the identity and experience of being other than human, as an intrinsic part of who they are. Each one comes to discover this on their own, and their explanations may be spiritual, psychological, or something else. It's not something they choose to do just for fun. They created the word "otherkin" for themselves in 1990. See my "Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes" article (2023).
Therianthrope. This is an old word meaning "animal person." In 1994, some people took up this word for themselves to mean that they have the intrinsic experience and identity of being animals. Usually this means animal species known to have lived on Earth, most often wolves and felines, but some are mythological beings. Similar to otherkin, each therian comes to discover this on their own, and their explanations may be spiritual, psychological, or something else. See my "Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes" article (2023).
-
References
arson crimew, maia (January 19, 2023). "how to completely own an airline in 3 easy steps". maia :3 (personal site). https://maia.crimew.gay/posts/how-to-hack-an-airline/ Archived January 21, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230121181330/https://maia.crimew.gay/posts/how-to-hack-an-airline/
crimew, maia arson. "maia arson crimew _nyancrimew". Twitter (microblog). https://twitter.com/_nyancrimew Archived June 10, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20230123225535/https://twitter.com/_nyancrimew
arson crimew, maia (February 4, 2023). "Anonymous asked..." Tumblr (blog). https://www.tumblr.com/nyancrimew/708379913178218496/youre-a-fucking-scourge-on-the-name-of-otherkin Archived February 5, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230205190231/https://www.tumblr.com/nyancrimew/708379913178218496/youre-a-fucking-scourge-on-the-name-of-otherkin
DeGeurin, Mack (January 20, 2023). "Hacker Reportedly Gets Hands on Massive No-Fly List of Alleged Terrorist Suspects". Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/hacker-no-fly-list-terrorist-airlines-1850013192 Archived January 21, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230121182902/https://gizmodo.com/hacker-no-fly-list-terrorist-airlines-1850013192
Hamilton, Phillip, and Zach (January 23, 2023). "Holy Fucking Bingle." Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/holy-fucking-bingle Archived January 27, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230127063658/https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/holy-fucking-bingle
Hasbrouck, Edward. "The #NoFly list is a #MuslimBan list". PapersPlease.org. https://papersplease.org/wp/2023/01/20/the-nofly-list-is-a-muslimban-list/ Archived January 21, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230121200831/https://papersplease.org/wp/2023/01/20/the-nofly-list-is-a-muslimban-list/
Reid, Channing (January 20, 2023). "Hacker Gets Access To The FBI's No Fly List." Simple Flying. https://simpleflying.com/hacker-acess-fbi-no-fly-list/ Archived January 21, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230121060514/https://simpleflying.com/hacker-acess-fbi-no-fly-list/
Scribner, Orion (November 12, 2022). "About the symbols in my display name..." Weirder Earth (microblog). https://weirder.earth/@frameacloud/109333001851457289 Archived February 24, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230224153850/https://weirder.earth/@frameacloud/109333001851457289
Scribner, Orion (Feb. 11, 2023). "A Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes, version 2.4.6." Tumblr. https://frameacloud.tumblr.com/post/708359714734489600/simpleintro Archived February 20, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230220045625/https://frameacloud.tumblr.com/post/708359714734489600/simpleintro
Thalen, Mikael; Covucci, David (January 19, 2023). "EXCLUSIVE: U.S. airline accidentally exposes 'No Fly List' on unsecured server". The Daily Dot. https://www.dailydot.com/debug/no-fly-list-us-tsa-unprotected-server-commuteair/ Archived February 15, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230215162306/https://www.dailydot.com/debug/no-fly-list-us-tsa-unprotected-server-commuteair/
Therian Wiki. "Theta delta." Therian Wiki. https://therian.fandom.com/wiki/Theta-Delta Archived November 28, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20221128190359/https://therian.fandom.com/wiki/Theta-Delta
tgttos (Jan 22, 2023). "cat who hacksd the no fly list literally my hero..." Tumblr. https://tgttos.tumblr.com/post/707176595092324352/this-is-her-website-tht-links-to-her-wikipedia Archived January 25, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230125002347/https://tgttos.tumblr.com/post/707176595092324352/this-is-her-website-tht-links-to-her-wikipedia
Turton, William, and Gretler, Corinne (March 12, 2021). "Swiss Police Raid Apartment of Verkada Hacker, Seize Devices". Bloomberg News. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-12/swiss-police-raid-apartment-of-verkada-hacker-seize-devices Archived March 15, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210315192331/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-12/swiss-police-raid-apartment-of-verkada-hacker-seize-devices
U.S. Attorney's Office. "Swiss Hacker indicted for conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft". Justice.gov. March 18, 2021. https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/swiss-hacker-indicted-conspiracy-wire-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft Archived March 18, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210318234423/https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/swiss-hacker-indicted-conspiracy-wire-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft
