Kim Dotcom, the internet entrepreneur fighting deportation from New Zealand to the United States on charges relating to his file-sharing website Megaupload, has suffered a “serious stroke”, a post on his X account said Monday.

“I have the best health professionals helping me to make a recovery. I will be back as soon as I can. Please be patient and pray for my family and I,” the post said.

Dotcom’s lawyer, Ira Rothken, confirmed to The Associated Press that the contents of the statement were accurate. Rothken would not say whether Dotcom or someone else wrote the post and did not provide further details.

  • ouch@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    179
    arrow-down
    14
    ·
    21 hours ago

    I would suffer a stroke and more, too, if my country wanted to deport my ass to a third world country like the USA.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      105
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      19 hours ago

      The legal process in USA is not trustworthy, it’s been shown time and again that USA punish people with extreme sentences to make an example of them. USA even tried to kidnap Kim Dotcom bypassing normal New Zealand procedure.

      I have no particular sympathies for Kim Dotcom, but the way USA behaves in cases of “national interest” is scary.
      Never forget Aaron Swartz! Who was driven to suicide, for copying data he had legal access to.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz

      • NeoToasty@kbin.melroy.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        51
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        15 hours ago

        Another great example - Edward Snowden.

        Does anyone really believe that the USA will ever…ever give him a fair trial for what he did? The guy was smart to flee the country. Ah yes, let’s give a fair trial to a guy that just jerked the curtain back to prove that yes, Americans are being spied on by the government. That’ll go nicely! /s

        • tekato@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          37
          ·
          10 hours ago

          Do you think government employees should be able to break NDAs and publish state secrets without consequences? I support what Snowden did, but he is now a criminal and must be prosecuted as such.

          • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            4 hours ago

            According to the US, torture is legal when it’s done by the US, which is a single example of how the federal US law does not reflect what is right, what is good, what is just.

          • CityPop
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            12
            ·
            6 hours ago

            Do you think government employees should be able to break NDAs and publish state secrets without consequences?

            When it comes to government transparency? Yes, undoubtedly.

            The criminals are those in government, but they own the system and will never go after themselves.

            • tekato@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              7
              ·
              6 hours ago

              When it comes to government transparency? Yes, undoubtedly.

              Yes, that’s why there are avenues for whistleblowers. Publicly sharing classified information is not one of them.

              The criminals are those in government, but they own the system and will never go after themselves.

              What’s the point of this statement? So because we can’t prosecute some criminals we shouldn’t prosecute anybody?

              • Buffalox@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                1 hour ago

                avenues for whistleblowers.

                He tried those first, and only after nothing happened doing that, did he go public.
                To stay silent about illegal activities is actually complicity. So in principle it would also have been illegal to stay silent!

          • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            edit-2
            6 hours ago

            As a veteran, and former/ kinda current Captain, of the USN, yes. Provided that they fall under the protections for whistleblowers, which both Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning fell into rather neatly, according to US federal laws.

            Illegal orders are illegal. Even the UCMJ agrees with that stance.

            • tekato@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              9
              ·
              6 hours ago

              As a veteran, and former Captain, of the USN, yes.

              Yeah I’m sure you believe that. How many documents did you leak? You obviously didn’t use your security clearance to leak classified documents, which makes you a hypocrite. “Do as I say, not as I do”. Also, being a former captain doesn’t really make your opinion more valuable than anybody else’s.

              Provided that they fall under the protections for whistleblowers, which both Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning fell into rather neatly, according to US federal laws.

              Then you should know that publicly revealing classified information is not considered whistleblowing under the law. So I guess that changes your “Yes” to a “No”, since it was a “Yes” provided the statement that followed.

              Illegal orders are illegal. Even the UCMJ agrees with that stance.

              It looks like you’re not well informed on the subject. Snowden didn’t just say bad things were happening and that the US was spying on citizens (which would’ve still been illegal anyways). He stole 1.5 million classified documents, although he says that he hasn’t shared them.

              The truth is that whether you like it or not, Snowden is a criminal who knew what he was doing.

              • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                6
                ·
                edit-2
                5 hours ago

                I was a Navy Nuclear Power Program Electronics Technician Instructor. All the documents that I had access to were well known in the civilian zeitgeist before I was born.

                Snowden may have done something illegal, though my interpretation of both the UCMJ and Federal Whistleblower laws, as well as my recollection of what he released, says that you are a corporatist that is just salty that your favorite MIC corporation got outed for breaking federal laws.

                Manning didn’t break the law and still served an illegal sentence, so I will give Snowden and Asange the benefit of the doubt.

                I’m sick and tired of US propaganda, much less the international versions.

                Trump stole far more classified documents and that is just fine according to the law

          • NeoToasty@kbin.melroy.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            15
            ·
            9 hours ago

            The American People deserve the knowledge of what their government is doing. For too long has the government operate in crooked practices that only have made the people grow contempt and distrustful towards.

            If the government is going to take, give back, take again and give back our rights while allowing itself to be influenced by corporate interests. It’s fair game.

            • tekato@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              15
              ·
              8 hours ago

              The American People deserve the knowledge of what their government is doing. For too long has the government operate in crooked practices that only have made the people grow contempt and distrustful towards.

              That is true, but unfortunately that’s not the law. It’s like smoking marihuana when it was illegal. Everyone knew it was harmless, but the law said to not smoke it so you shouldn’t. If you allow Snowden to break his confidentiality without consequences, you’re giving green light to everyone who wants to give classified information to foreign nations.

              If the government is going to take, give back, take again and give back our rights while allowing itself to be influenced by corporate interests. It’s fair game.

              But it’s not fair game. The fact that it’s the right thing to do is not related to the fact that it’s illegal. You can say that Snowden did the right thing and that he’s a criminal that deserves prosecution. Both of those things can be true at the same time, and they are.

              If you want to look for unjust prosecution, you look at Julian Assange’s case, not Snowden.

              • NeoToasty@kbin.melroy.org
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                12
                ·
                8 hours ago

                I’d like for you to try and justify all of the times that the U.S Government has broken the law. Laws that they’ve made and international law, unapologetically. Also, you’re making some very weak comparisons. Snowden isn’t like Trump.

                • tekato@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  10
                  ·
                  8 hours ago

                  I’d like for you to try and justify all of the times that the U.S Government has broken the law. Laws that they’ve made and international law, unapologetically.

                  I never justify breaking the law. Everyone who breaks the law must be prosecuted and I never said otherwise. Unfortunately it’s hard to prosecute governments, specially from superpowers like the US.

                  Also, you’re making some very weak comparisons. Snowden isn’t like Trump.

                  At this point I believe you responded to the wrong person, because I also haven’t even mentioned Trump.

        • Buffalox@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          55 minutes ago

          Absolutely, why wasn’t she ever prosecuted? Why is it legal for a prosecutor to threaten to ruin peoples lives and put them to jail indefinitely?
          Basically all they had on him, was trespassing at the most!!

    • daddy32@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      17 hours ago

      Oh come on. There are definitely some people that ruined many lives and - from a certain point of view - would deserve death, but he is not one of them.

      • ClusterBomb@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        12 hours ago

        He did ruin many lives tho. + he his a fascist crap 😬

        He litteraly had employees he told not to move to punish them if I remember right. And that is one of the most soft bad thing he did.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          6 hours ago

          I have no love for KdC.

          I would like to see some sources there, as I remember him getting arrested, and as far as I remember, the worst he did was piracy, hosting of piracy, and potentially illegal dissemination of patents. Oh and possibly hosting some potentially illegal VPNs