Statement on Daniel Pocock

November 17th, 2021

Debian is aware of a number of public posts made about Debian and its community members on a series of websites by a Mr Daniel Pocock, who purports to be a Debian Developer.

Mr Pocock is not associated with Debian. He is neither a Debian Developer, nor a member of the Debian community. He was formerly a Debian Developer, but was expelled from the project some years ago for engaging in behaviour which was destructive to Debian's reputation and to the community itself. He has not been a member of the Debian Project since 2018. He is also banned from participating in the Debian community in any form, including through technical contributions, participating in online spaces, or attending conferences and/or events. He has no right or standing to represent Debian in any capacity, or to represent himself as a Debian Developer or member of the Debian community.

In the time since he was expelled from the project, Mr Pocock has engaged in an ongoing and extensive campaign of retaliatory harassment by making a number of inflammatory and defamatory posts online, in particular on a website which purports to be a Debian website. The contents of these posts involve not only Debian, but also a number of its Developers and volunteers. He has also continued to misrepresent himself as being a member of the Debian Community in much of his communication and public presentations. Please see this article for a list of the official Debian communication channels. Legal action is being considered for, amongst other things, defamation, malicious falsehood and harassment.

Debian stands together as a community, and against harassment. We have a code of conduct that guides our response to harmful behaviour in our community, and we will continue to act to protect our community and volunteers. Please do not hesitate to contact the Debian Community team if you have concerns or need support. In the meantime, all of Debian's and its volunteers' rights are reserved.

About Debian

The Debian Project is an association of Free Software developers who volunteer their time and effort in order to produce the completely free operating system Debian.

Contact Information

For further information, please visit the Debian web pages at https://www.debian.org/ or send mail to <press@debian.org>.