1/ The first and most important point to make is that we don’t in any way condone this and I personally find the content in the archive deplorable and unacceptable. It is not representative of the beliefs of our foundation or the people who are a part of it.

2/ Our foundation strongly opposes sexism, racism, and other hateful views. Advice was not given to Jeff to help him dissociate his work from his ‘dark humour’.

3/ It was instead explained to Jeff that what he was posting wasn’t humorous, but instead extremely harmful, offensive, and (regardless of intention) reinforced—or worse, cultivated— others’ bigotry.

4/ While we were appalled by the Pleroma account, we also understood Jeff isn’t neurotypical and that he struggled to understand why his posts were harmful. It had to change, and we took effort to explain to him why his behaviour was harmful.

5/ Because of our history with Jeff, we believed he had the capacity to understand and change his behavior. It’s only because of a demonstrable change that we’re still working with him, and I think that’s the best outcome possible.

6/ Regarding the paradox of tolerance, I understand and agree — I assure you we do not tolerate it. Instead, we worked with Jeff to change his online conduct. The OPTF’s team policies also reflect this and we are committed to building inclusive technology.