Xnet, a wonderful Spanish activist group, has created the Anti-Corruption Complaint Box, a whistleblowing platform for the city of Barcelona that allows people to file anonymous claims in a Globalleaks repository, with their anonymity protected by Tor.
These best-of-breed tools for anonymity and accountability have often been the subject of government complaints and threatened crackdowns, but in Barcelon, the city government has endorsed the Complaint Box, advising Barcelonans who know about corruption to safely report it by using the platform. It’s the first time a municipal government has endorsed Tor.
Xnet, as part of the Citizens’ Advisory Council of the Barcelona City Office for Transparency and Best Practices, launches this Anti-Corruption Complaint Box highlighting the following features:
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What this digital device is, and how to use the new facility managed by the Barcelona City Hall, inspired by similar mechanisms already operating in civil society (for example, the XnetLeaks mailbox), and implemented with advice from members of Xnet who have also set up a working relationship with the GlobaLeaks platform.* The debate on what anonymity entails is one of the most up-to-date and relevant themes of the digital age, especially in the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations and, accordingly, we explain why Xnet has insisted on the need to guarantee true anonymity in a project like the Barcelona City Anti-Corruption Complaint Box which combats corruption and other damaging practices that threaten good governance in the city of Barcelona.
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Xnet provides for journalists and citizens a FAQ service regarding the Box, explaining how it works, describing tools (for example Tor) which guarantee anonymity, and all the details relative to the first project of this type whose use is recommended by public institutions, and explains how this can be done.