Comeback of Richard Stallman provokes protest over his views on Epstein

The return of Richard Stallman to the board of the influential Free Software Foundation (FSF) has sparked widespread outcry across the open software community. 

Mr Stallman, a prominent activist who has campaigned for the availability of free software, resigned from the board of directors of the foundation in 2019 following the publication of leaked emails in which he discussed Jeffrey Epstein and sexual consent.

Last week, however, he announced that he had returned to the foundation’s board, adding that he was “not planning to resign a second time.”

It comes after the publication of emails in 2019 in which Mr Stallman objected to the use of the word "assaulting" to describe allegations made against Epstein associate Marvin Minsky, co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, who died in 2016.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a victim of Epstein at age 17, said in a deposition that "she was directed to have sex with Minsky when he visited Epstein's compound in the US Virgin Islands.

At the time, Mr Stallman claimed it was "morally absurd to define 'rape' in a way that depends on minor details such as which country it was in or whether the victim was 18 years old or 17."

Free Software Foundation Europe, the US foundation’s sister organisation, has called for Mr Stallman to step down  stating it “unable to collaborate both with the FSF and any other organisation in which Richard Stallman has a leading position.”

An open letter calling for the removal of Mr Stallman and the entire board of the Free Software Foundation has also attracted more than 500 signatories including Wikimedia Foundation executive Faidon Liambotis and programmer Elana Hashman.

“Our communities have no space for people like Richard M. Stallman, and we will not continue suffering his behaviour, giving him a leadership role, or otherwise holding him and his hurtful and dangerous ideology as acceptable,” the open letter said.

Mr Stallman denied defending Mr Epstein shortly before his 2019 resignation from the foundation as well as MIT. 

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he wrote. “I've called him a 'serial rapist', and said he deserved to be imprisoned. But many people now believe I defended him—and other inaccurate claims—and feel a real hurt because of what they believe I said. I'm sorry for that hurt. I wish I could have prevented the misunderstanding.”

The activist has also expressed regret over comments he made in 2006 in which he wrote that he was “sceptical of the claim that voluntarily [sic] pedophilia harms children.” 

“I think adults should not do that. I am grateful for the conversations that enabled me to understand why,” he wrote online in 2019.

Mr Stallman did not respond to a request for comment.