Two days ago, the Ladybird Web Browser made quite a bit of news -- with a major investment and the establishment of a new Non-Profit organization to build a "from scratch" web browser.
Positive, non-controversial, non-political, very nerdy news.
Unfortunately, within hours of the spotlight being directed at Ladybird, a group of activists launched an all-out-assault on the open source web browser -- by smearing it as "Transphobic", "Mysoginistic", and (this is absolutely not a joke) suggesting that the Ladybird developers actively support and promote human slavery.
Hundreds of posts repeating such smears (among others) -- with one Tech publication declaring a total boycott of Ladybird because of it.
What vile deed were the developers of Ladybird guilty of, which necessitated such an intense response, you ask?
Well, I'll tell you.
The Ladybird team stated... wait for it...
... that they were a "purely technical project".
Seriously. That was their crime. Being "technical".
Here's the details.
No politics in Ladybird
When the Ladybird Browser Initiative was launched, earlier this week, their team included a very small statement on "ideologically motivated changes".
That statement reads, in full, "This is a purely technical project. As such, it is not an appropriate arena to advertise your personal politics or religious beliefs. Any changes that appear ideologically motivated will be rejected."
Seems incredibly reasonable for a software engineering project to remain focused on... software endingeering.
However...
A number of activists decided to do a little digging and found a 3 year old suggested documentation change -- in a different, but related, software project -- where the word "he" was suggested to be changed to the word "they".
The person who created this suggested change -- who had never contributed to that project before and was completely unkown to the existing developers -- considered it a "minor nitpick" to change one word that wasn't, in his view, "exactly the best".
The change was rejected with the statement, "This project is not an appropriate arena to advertise your personal politics."
And that was that. No controversy. No conflict.
Until this week... when the news spotlight was directed at Ladybird.
The Attacks Begin
Now, ask yourself, what would be the appropriate response to this?
A denied, 3 year old request -- by one person who did not have any involvement in a project -- to change one word that was a "minor nitpick"?
Well, for the writer of OSNews.com, the only reasonable response would be a complete ban on reporting anything about Ladybird (and deleting exisiting articles).
And, if you ask a variety of activists on Mastodon, the Ladybird lead developer should be smeared as "Transphobe."
You'll note that, at no point, has the Ladybird team ever mentioned anything regarding "Trans" issues. At all. Not one statement. The Lunduke Journal looked high and low and found absolutely nothing.
And, yet, the label of "Transphobe" is liberally applied.
As is "Misogynist". Often accompanied by swear words.
Attack after attack after attack.
Just to kick it up a notch, some activists even began suggesting that the Ladybird project was -- through their use of software version control systems -- advocating for human slavery.
Not a joke.
You can't make this stuff up.
At one point, responding to one of the various attacks, the lead developer of Ladybird, Andreas Kling, made a short statement on X.
"I have absolutely nothing against gender neutral language," stated Kling. "I am however against outsiders doing drive-by [code changes] with ideological motivations. If a regular contributor [had] made these edits, I wouldn't have thought anything of it."
This statement did not stop the attacks -- which continue to be posted across social media.
The Source of the Hate
Transphobe. Misogynist. Slave Owner. That is just a sampling of the insults, accusations, and hate being hurled at the Ladybird team.
And, as is plainly evident from the evidence above, these attacks are not based in reality. None of the quoted statements or actions, from the Ladybird developers, could even come close to justifying the accusations being thrown around.
Which begs the question... where, exactly, is this hate coming from?
Well, it turns out... we've seen these tactics before. And, interestingly, we've seen some of these people before, as well.
The Trans Political Activists
Just 24 hours ago, The Lunduke Journal published a story detailing how a group of Political Activists had conducted a "purge" -- of people whom they believed were not sufficiently "Pro Trans" -- from within the NixOS project.
And some of the individuals who conducted (or supported) that "purge" within NixOS... are also at work here... attacking the Ladybird Web Browser.
One activist ("cafkafk") seen below, within the GitHub repository for the developer being attacked, celebrating the fact that other activists -- organized on "The Fediverse" -- had arrived to harass the Ladybird developer.
That same activist ("cafkafk") had spent time within the NixOS project -- both leading up to and during the "purge" of political undesirables -- pushing for bans of people who were deemed insufficiently "pro-Trans".
In fact, multiple key players in the "NixOS Purge" have been actively posting and sharing the anti-Ladybird attacks.
Attacks Across Open Source
Time after time. We see many of the same tactics -- with many of the same people involved.
So many projects:
SUSE & openSUSE. Hyprland. Asahi Linux. Elementary OS. NixOS.
And, most of the time, with a consistent pattern.
- People who are not actively, vocally supportive of Trans activities... are attacked. Smeared. Vilified. Typically with dishonest, libelous statements.
- No matter what sort of apology, justification, or attempt at appeasement is made -- by those being attacked -- the attacks continue. Always.
- Eventually (typically quickly) the attacks escalate into calls for people to "step down" or be "banned" in some way.
While there are some minor variations, from case to case, the overall patterns remain strikingly similar. And, seemingly, escalating in frequency -- with three significant attacks in the last few months.
In fact, if recent history is any indication, we're likely to see additional attacks involving Open Source Software projects and companies -- by the Trans Political Activists -- in the near future.
As long as their tactics continue to have even the smallest amount of success...
As long as those being attacked fail to fight back...
The Trans Political Activists will not stop. They will continue to attack and hurt people.
