the story of the no-fly list hack is a story about what happens when you care about people and its clear from the reactions of certain groups that they dont understand that.
the person who hacked the no-fly list was a swiss trans nonbinary it/she bi poly lesbian cat therian, who upon finding the list knew what it wanted to do with it. it took that list and sent it to journalists, sent it to researchers, sent it to people who cared about the data that was put onto it. then later, it does interviews about why it did it and what it thought of the list.
"Another individual, according to crimew, was listed as 8 years old based on their birth year.
Many entries on the list were names that appeared to be of Arabic or Middle Eastern descent, although Hispanic and Anglican-sounding names were also on the list. Numerous names included aliases that were common misspellings or slightly altered versions of their names.
“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,” crimew said. "
there are Arabic people on that list. Muslim people on that list. Middle Eastern people. Hispanic people. and not only that, they were varying ages. one of them not even being 10 years old. i don't have access to the list myself, but i can sure make a guess as to how many children and teens are probably on that list.
maia says in an interview that there was a hack made to accessing the 2021 no fly list, but the group who preformed it did not give the information out for anyone, not even journalists or researchers to read. and maia thought that was bullshit. it thought that the list shouldve been seen. it thought that the data in there should be known.
and now that it does know, it wants everyone to know how shit of a list it is. it wants people to know that the US government has a much bigger list than previously stated. it wants people to know that the US has a bullshit system for putting people on that list. it wants you to know that specific groups are being targeted because of their race, their religion, where they come from, what even their name sounds like theyre from. it doesnt matter how old they are, what theyve done, even if they have no criminal record. they're on there because of who they are.
maia did that because it cared. it cared about the people who were on it. it cared about the people who were being falsely targeted. it cared about the communities and groups this was hurting. it cared about people.
but it seems like no one can care about two things at once. people dont care about the thousands of children and innocents on the list, they cared it was hacked by a member of LGBT+. people dont care that it was hacked by someone who is a member of LGBT+, they cared it was hacked and that it had people who didnt deserve to be on it.
thats not what this is about. this isnt about things you dont care about. this is about what you should care about. and what you should care about are three things.
there are people out there who are being targeted all because of where theyre born and what theyre named, and that is not fair and not morally right.
maia is proud of who it is, it is proud to have the labels that it does, it is proud to be free with its gender and sexual expression, it is proud and happy.
this is a story of minority helping minority. something that should be a common human rule.
no one cares if you think maia's labels are invalid or if you think its annoying. no one cares that you dont acknowledge the innocents that are on the list. what they do care about is the kindness and caring of other humans that was used to do this. the mindfulness and determination to bring forth data that shouldve been known a very, very long time ago. the appreciation that people of similar groups and communities have for what it did and to show how theyre truly seen by the government. it wasnt just anger and stubbornness that was taken to do this. it was love. love for people who didnt get it from officials or politicians. love from people who know what its like being alienated and seen as a threat or a joke. love from and to humans who deserved it.
you should care about who maia is, because it is proud of who they are, and that pride was used to create a love for groups who deserved to be seen and treated fairly. and you should care about what is in the no-fly list, because it shows just how many people out there need to be protected from prejudice and bigotry. and you should care that although maia is happy right now, theres always the chance of it being danger for what it did. and you should care about the millions more people out there who are probably on the 2023 no-fly list who might not be old enough to even think for themselves.
you should care about people. you should protect people. you should love people.
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