This thread stands as a testament to the strong pro-Google bias in the comments section of Hacker News. The bias is hard to prove, as any cultural bias is, but it's nevertheless a tide ebbing against every discussion here.
The majority of comments, including the top rated one, were extremely dismissive, e.g., "malarky", and glossed or contorted the facts repeatedly to make it seem as though scammers could have easily been responsible for the evidence trail. It was always beyond unlikely that scammers could have access to a a Google corporate headquarters IP. Nor is, as was claimed in the BoingBoing comments, spoofing IP addresses something that can done without some vanishingly unlikely access to Internet infrastructure.
Indeed, I'm waiting for the (many) naysayers in these comment threads to apologize to the OP. While many preached not getting out the pitchforks and blaming Google until they had a chance to respond, that didn't stop them from immediately providing excuses and reasons why the OP had not done his homework or was full of 'malarky'.
I have a theory that posits that the bulk of HN's subscribership is made up of Google employees who are here to astroturf. Initial test results: inconclusive but promising.
This thread stands as a testament to the fact that HN, unlike other places, waits to see what is actually happening before sharpening the pitchforks.
The "evidence against google" here was razor thin, and we still haven't actually seen anything damning, just a sortof generic "we're looking into it and are pre-emtively sorry for what happened".
There's a difference between saying "let's wait to see what Google has to say, this could be something else." and saying "This is clearly bullshit." Is Cory Doctorow's reputation such that he should be so quickly dismissed?
The last paragraph from the report [emphasis mine]:
The conclusion is hard to escape: Google -- or people working on its behalf, with its knowledge and cooperation -- took the numbers of tens of thousands of Kenyan businesses from Mocality's database, then fraudulently solicited money from them by claiming to be in a joint venture with Mocality. This seems to me to be outright criminal activity, and Google has a lot of explaining to do.
The paragraph from a Google VP [emphasis mine]:
We were mortified to learn that a team of people working on a Google project improperly used Mocality’s data and misrepresented our relationship with Mocality to encourage customers to create new websites. We’ve already unreservedly apologised to Mocality. We’re still investigating exactly how this happened, and as soon as we have all the facts, we’ll be taking the appropriate action with the people involved.
Looks like the conclusion Cory found hard to escape was exactly the right conclusion.
Is Cory Doctorow's reputation such that he should be so quickly dismissed?
With all due respect to Doctorow, many on HN know quite a lot more about how the internet works than he does.
I know at least two ways to make arbitrary requests from a Google IP that haven't been mentioned on the comments to this story, and I don't claim any mad hackerz skillz.
I think the evidence pointed towards Google being responsible, and that's what I said. But I, and many others said to wait before drawing a final conclusion. I think that that's a reasonable approach.
If I wasn't clear in my post, I completely agree that it was reasonable to wait before drawing a final conclusion. My objection was to the outright dismissal of the claims by the top comment. And, for me, Doctorow's completely nailing the conclusion was impressive.
The majority of comments, including the top rated one, were extremely dismissive, e.g., "malarky", and glossed or contorted the facts repeatedly to make it seem as though scammers could have easily been responsible for the evidence trail. It was always beyond unlikely that scammers could have access to a a Google corporate headquarters IP. Nor is, as was claimed in the BoingBoing comments, spoofing IP addresses something that can done without some vanishingly unlikely access to Internet infrastructure.