AMA: We are Distributed Denial of Secrets. We published Blue Leaks, 269 gigabytes of data from police intelligence centres. First our website was banned by Twitter, then our data server in Germany was seized. Ask Us Anything!

AMA: We are Distributed Denial of Secrets. We published Blue Leaks, 269 gigabytes of data from police intelligence centres. First our website was banned by Twitter, then our data server in Germany was seized. Ask Us Anything!



Have mainstream media sources picked up on and reported on these leaks? What about places like The Intercept?
Yes, there have been stories in the Associated Press, Reuters, Salon, The Hill, etc. I've tried to collect the best ones:
Germany seizes server hosting pilfered US police files (Associated Press)
Facebook bans accounts linked to anti-government U.S. ‘boogaloo’ movement (Reuters)
Leaked documents show how police used social media to track George Floyd protesters (Business Insider)
Secretive police unit gathers information on Maine citizens, commissioner tells lawmakers (Press Herald)
Leaked documents: Intelligence wing of law enforcement struggled to fulfill its mission during George Floyd protests (Minnesota Reformer)
Inside “Blue Leaks,” a trove of hacked police documents released by Anonymous (Salon)
Germany seizes server hosting leaked US police files (The Hill)
The Intercept is doing great work reporting on Blue Leaks. They have put out stories about Twitter partner DataMinr and specific to the recent Minneapolis events.
I wanted to add to this to note that The Intercept now has a Blue Leaks collection, which will hopefully grow as they report on the data.
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How did the authorities seize your server? Did they ask first or did they just turn up with a warrant and take it away?
From Die Zeit: (auto-translated):
A spokesman for the public prosecutor admitted on the phone that they knew that DDoSecrets was a journalistic project, but did not want to provide any further information. Since it is an American procedure, no information is given.
The notice says the seizure is "a provisional measure." Only when the official request for legal assistance had been received would "an examination be carried out to determine whether and to what extent legal seizure of data with the purpose of being released as evidence to the US authorities would be considered". The Federal Office of Justice decides whether the server will then be delivered to the USA.
A colleague in Germany shared with us the legal authority that possibly came into play: https://www.bundesjustizamt.de/DE/Themen/Gerichte_Behoerden/IRS/Rechtshilfe_node.html https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_irg/index.html
As I understand it (and I am a lowly journalist with no legal training) the Germans have seized the server for search, but are lacking the further authority necessary to indeed hand it over to the foreign law enforcement that requested it as evidence.
Was seizing your server and getting banned from Twitter effective at keeping the findings of Blue Leaks from being seen by a lot of people?
What other ways of getting the word out did you develop in response, where does DDoSecrets publish today?
What legal justification did German police present for seizing your servers and did you appeal those grounds in court?
No it wasn't! We build redundancies into our work because we are aware of the risks involved. The information is out there and the censorship has only raised the profile of the leak. BlueLeaks is the first DDoSecrets data set that I know of to be added to the Interplanetary File System, for example... CID: QmdDzd32xYQdpw5F1USAVAfYK2WusxWZe3tCyxdcg4KVR7 h/t u/chenseanxy
Re: Germany, we are looking at our options. We know German press freedom protections are very strong.
Was seizing your server and getting banned from Twitter effective at keeping the findings of Blue Leaks from being seen by a lot of people?
Yes and no. It slowed things down, but it's also increased interest in some circles, and people are doggedly going through the files.
What other ways of getting the word out did you develop in response, where does DDoSecrets publish today?
We launched a Telegram channel as a provisional measure t.me/AntiPlumbers and publish new releases on our index at DDoSecrets.com. We'll be announcing additional channels and publication methods in the future.
What legal justification did German police present for seizing your servers and did you appeal those grounds in court?
We're still digging in to that and discussing our options with lawyers in the U.S. and Germany. As of right now, we don't have any other specific information to share. (We are not bound by any gag order or other measures, however, and should be free to speak up as things progress.)

How do you feel about the NYT recently saying that Trump's taxes won't come out unless they are leaked prior to the election?
Is that someone else's ball game?
If we receive copies of Trump's taxes, we will work very hard to verify and release them. The same applies to relevant information about other candidates and politicians.
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