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submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by tonytins@pawb.social to c/technology@lemmy.world

A new tool searches your LinkedIn connections for people who are mentioned in the Epstein files, just in case you don’t, understandably, want anything to do with them on the already deranged social network.

404 Media tested the tool, called EpsteIn—as in, a mash up of Epstein and LinkedIn—and it appears to work.

“I found myself wondering whether anyone had mapped Epstein's network in the style of LinkedIn—how many people are 1st/2nd/3rd degree connections of Jeffrey Epstein?” Christopher Finke, the creator of the tool, told 404 Media in an email. “Smarter programmers than me have already built tools to visualize that, but I couldn't find anything that would show the overlap between my network and his.”

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[-] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 197 points 3 months ago

I don't think I know anyone remotely rich enough for this to be a concern.

[-] gustofwind@lemmy.world 106 points 3 months ago

That’s the secondary use of the tool

If you’re not on the list you clearly lack connections and power and aren’t a good fit

[-] in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social 114 points 3 months ago

This is the most LinkedInLunatic coded response ever

[-] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 months ago

Do we have LinkedInLunatics on Lemmy?

[-] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 24 points 3 months ago

Son of a bitch is so poor he's like 4 hops from knowing someone in the Epstein files.

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 15 points 3 months ago

We had six degrees of Kevin Bacon and the Erdos number, now we have the Epstein coefficient?

[-] Mac@mander.xyz 6 points 3 months ago

Yeah, I'm sure Mark Tramo, the UCLA neurology professor, is loaded. lol

[-] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 133 points 3 months ago

We need to be careful in how we view the latest batch from the files. They contain lots of names of people who were not involved in the least. Bilbo Baggins and Punxsutawney Phil are in there. Lots of celebrities are in there simply because they're referenced in an email, while they had no contact with Epstein knowledge of what was happening.

And if we're too aggressive in how we react to people's names popping up in searches, it gives cover to those who were complicit.

[-] tonytins@pawb.social 37 points 3 months ago

One of the commenters on the site did point out that it's a defamation lawsuit waiting to happen.

[-] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 17 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Though defamation requires the claim to be both a lie, and made publicly (and have caused "legally redressable injury", whatever that means, IANAL). The tool needs to be run locally, and specifically tells you that it's searching by name and that others with the same name will be found in the results, and that's why it gives the context and lists where in the files it came up.

So the tool itself most likely isn't defamatory, but anyone that uses is better be damn sure that they have the correct person if they start publicly talking or writing about what it finds.

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 24 points 3 months ago

The bash 3.1-beta1 reference manual is in the Epstein files.

https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00315849.pdf

[-] Grimy@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

From a distance, it's very hard to tell if it's two consenting hobbits or if one is a child. It's easy for them to find themselves on the list, poor Bilbo.

[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

And how old even in a child hobbit? 60?

[-] Zorque@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

I believe they reach adulthood in their mid to late thirties. Merry and Pippin are technically in the equivalent of their late teens when they head off with Frodo in FotR

[-] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 9 points 3 months ago

Not Punxsatawney Phil! Aside from his short rivalry with Murray over the starring role in Groundhog Day, he's a good guy!

[-] ecvanalog@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

HE KNOWS WHAT HE DID.

[-] biofaust@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

Slavov Zizek is named... In the How To Academy newsletter Epstein has subscribed to.

And yet I checked Slovenian media and they are writing that he "is in the files".

What a disgrace.

[-] GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 months ago

Yeah it’s clearly one thing to be a public persona and someone mentions your name in an email, and another thing altogether to be an Epstein correspondent. That line is being shamelessly blurred by some media

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Also, every single name that gets released is a name that Trump was ok with releasing. From my pov, it just turns it into a more effective blackmail tool. He's not afraid of what's in the files. If it was going to ruin him, it would have already done so.

Instead it just shows others who know they are in the files that a) he's one of them (if they didn't already know), b) that he can protect them, c) he isn't protecting everyone in the files just because of point a.

Hate to be realizing this, but I think everyone who thought the release of the Epstein files would help anything got played. Just like everyone who thought the Mueller investigation would threaten his first term or result in making a second term impossible.

[-] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 3 months ago

This release of the files always was going to be like this sure. That doesn't mean a release of the files wouldn't help. If they were released to a consortium of news organizations to do the redacting honestly to protect victims, and ongoing investigations is a moot point, it would free all of those people from the weight of blackmail.

At this point they are getting blackmailed from several directions simultaneously, not just Israel, the president's people, and whomever else. Releasing the files honestly would free them, putting the organization controlled by the chief villains in charge of redacting information about themselves was never going to work.

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

The release of the Epstein files wasn't about Trump. It was about getting closure for the victims.

[-] vogi@piefed.social 72 points 3 months ago

Be aware that not everyone in the list has to be involved. Daniel Stenberg lead dev of curl is in there multiple times. I believe as part of the provided licenses.

[-] termaxima@slrpnk.net 63 points 3 months ago

Do read WHY they are mentionned, though. Most of his critics are mentionned a lot, and in that case it's a good thing.

[-] carpelbridgesyndrome@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 months ago

John Stuart is in there for entirely nonsensical reasons

[-] 123@programming.dev 14 points 3 months ago

Surely you meant someone like John Stuart.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Excuse me it's spelt Jhon Stuart

[-] Reygle@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Jhohn Blewahrt

[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 38 points 3 months ago

I think, not as a business professional but as a human being, that if this is something that concerns you then you are also the kind of person that doesn’t even want to be on LinkedIn.

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 months ago

Right? Bill Gates is in the epstein files a lot.

[-] Beep@lemmus.org 21 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Motherfuckers....

My post about this tool got removed from the community for no reason.

[-] plyth@feddit.org 5 points 3 months ago

reason: AM: Violates Rules

Now you know. /s

[-] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

the tool, called EpsteIn—as in, a mash up of Epstein and LinkedIn

A better mashup might have been “SteptIn”.

[-] ramble81@lemmy.zip 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

For reference, everyone is 3rd degree at a minimum.

  • 1st - You’re directly connected with them
  • 2nd - The person is connected with a person you’re a 1st degree connection with
  • 3rd - People that are not connected to any 1st or 2nd degree connections (I.e. everyone else)

Edit: the description above is how linked in does it, not Kevin Bacon degrees. So if you try to find 3rd degree connections to Epstein on LI, you’re basically going to return everyone on the platform.

[-] asqapro@reddthat.com 6 points 3 months ago

Maybe I'm missing something, but 3rd degree would be the person is connected with a person you're 2nd degree connection with, right? That's why Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is a thing.

[-] philodendron@lemdro.id 3 points 3 months ago

You’re correct. 3rd-degree connections are friends of friends of your friends

[-] ramble81@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 months ago

LinkedIn only uses 3 degrees. The theory you’re talking about is that mathematically people should be connected within 6 degrees, but the number of degrees you go with is arbitrary. In LinkedIns case they use them to classify people in one of three categories as it relates to you.

this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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