A bit more on Operation Pandora, the Spanish government's move against anarchists.
In mid-December, 11 Spanish anarchists were arrested by Catalan police in Barcelona, and it now appears they were detained at least in part because they were using an encrypted suite of secure communication tools known as Riseup.net. At the moment, seven of them are still waiting to stand trial. No formal charges have been made public.
Early media reports suggested that those charged may have played a role in the destruction of ATMs around the city in 2012 and 2013, but that report hasn't been confirmed, because the Spanish judge presiding over the case has refused to make the official police report public. However, Judge Gomez Bermudez noted this week that the defendants "were using emails with extreme security measures, such as RISEUP.net." The defendants were also accused of having a book called Against Democracy and of having a "internal organizational and bureaucratic structures."
"what email service they use shouldn't be one of the determining factors in whether they're arrested"
