Today, a very surprising piece of news broke: Richard Stallman has resigned from his position at MIT and also from the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The news was reported by TechCrunch, and it appears to have been Stallman's own decision due to alleged pressure stemming from some misunderstandings, according to the father of free software.
Richard Stallman held positions at MIT CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab) and on the board of the Free Software Foundation since its founding in 1985. Now, he is leaving MIT and also stepping down as president of the FSF. This seems unusual, but there is an explanation, although those of us in the free software community were completely unaware of certain things that were happening…
It all stems from an MIT graduate who published an article on Medium last week titled " Remove Richard Stallman ." In it, she quoted an email from Stallman himself commenting on the case of Marvin Minsky, an MIT professor accused of sexual assault. The alleged victim said she was forced to have sex with the professor at Epstein's compound. Furthermore, a network of minors operated there, and Stallman was convicted of involvement in that network.
These actions are truly reprehensible on the part of the professor. But I want to make it clear that Richard Stallman has not been accused or convicted of anything (let there be no confusion), since all he did was comment on this case via email, as I've already mentioned. But his comments have been used against him. Stallman said that " the term 'sexual assault' is vague and slippery " and that the victim " came to Minsky fully willing ." In addition, MIT received funding from Epstein in amounts that appear to exceed what they publicly acknowledged. The head of MIT and Stallman himself have decided to resign for these reasons.
Richard has commented that his words have led to " a series of misunderstandings and mischaracterizations ," but due to pressure, he ended up resigning. I believe that's the best decision when you make a mistake, big or small, to step aside so it doesn't harm the projects. Some try to cling to their positions despite everything, and that ends up creating a bigger problem…