There’s drama on Reddit again, with a veritable army of Redditors rising up in righteous indignation to fight off those evil man-haters who’ve challenged their ineffable right to free speech to post creepy and intrusive and possibly illegal pictures of women and girls.
I don’t have the energy to catalogue the whole murky mess so let me just point out a few of the key events here, all of which have inspired multiple mega-threads full of sound and fury and lots of misinformation.
1) Reddit user Violentacrez, the founder of r/jailbait and r/picsofdeadkids and countless other skeezy subreddits, deleted his account after learning that Adrian Chen of Gawker was working on a story about him that might include his real name.
On Reddit, where bullshit travels at the speed of light, Redditors convinced themselves that Violentacrez, who took pride in being Reddit’s “creepy uncle,” was being “blackmailed” by either Chen or ShitRedditSays, conceptualized by most Redditors as some sort of collective supervillain not unlike Star Trek’s Borg. (On the Men’s Rights subreddit, moderator Ignatiusloyola, a major purveyor of misinformation on the current controversies, even suggested that I might somehow be mixed up in all of this, which is of course not the case. ) Violentacrez has come forth to say that Chen was not in fact blackmailing him in any way.
Naturally, Redditors have risen up to defend the honor of Mr. Acrez, who despite because of his incredible skeeziness was a beloved figure amongst the Reddit masses. Indeed, the moderators of a number of popular subreddits – including r/politics and, of course, r/mensrights – have banded together to ban Gawker and Jezebel and all related sites from their alleged free-speech zones.
A few links if you want to explore this further:
Redditors Stand Up to Gawker to Protect Child Pornography (AtlanticWire)
[Mod Post] A tribute to Violentacrez, who was doxxed and was being threatened in real life, and an important message to ALL subscribers (please upvote this self post) (NSFW subreddit thread; unreliable information within)
2) The CreepShots subreddit, devoted to surreptitiously taken pictures of attractive young women (and possibly a few men), has vanished, apparently either banned by Reddit’s admins or taken down by the subreddit’s moderator after someone threatened to expose his name.
But this was not the only attempt to creep-shame the creepshotters: A tumblr blog called Predditors posted the personal information of 20 or so Redditors who were active posters in r/creephots; all the info was gleaned from other Reddit postings of theirs. (Most of this information has since been scrubbed from the site.)
Naturally all this has inspired much indignation amongst Redditors, who are seemingly unaware of the irony inherent in their indignation about the invasion of privacy of those who ran and/or enthusiastically participated in a subreddit explicitly devoted to photographic invasions of privacy. (I don’t support revealing the personal info of these people, but at the same time I’m having a little trouble working up any sympathy for them.)
Rumors have spread on Reddit that one Redditor was physically attacked after being exposed as a CreepShot regular, but the only source of information on this is a user with the Reddit handle of POTATO_IN_MY_ANUS, so let’s just say that this is unconfirmed for now.
Links:
How to Shut Down Reddit’s CreepShots Once and for All: Name Names (Jezebel)
Internet Wars Over Women’s Bodies (Forbes)
The Internet War Over Creeps on Reddit (AtlanticWire)
/r/creepshots mod blackmailed into shutting down the sub a.k.a. The Admins Sure Doxxed The Ball On This One (ShitRedditSays thread)
r/creepshots has been removed due to doxxing of the main mod (SubredditDrama thread)
So it begins. Creepshots member beaten up following the Jezebel article which doxxed 20 Redditors (SubredditDrama thread)
There are naturally many more threads on the various aspects of all this on SubredditDrama right now.
Naturally, the good people of Men’s Rights have some thoughts on all this, many of them based on things that aren’t true.
/r/Creepshots and /r/violentacrez taken over by SRS by blackmailing with doxxing info. Apparently r/MensRights is next. (NOTE from DF: Nothing in this headline is true.)
Update on ViolentAcrez/Gawker/Adrian Chen/CreepShots (Substantially more accurate than the previous thread.)
Why does SRS feel the need to fuck with everyone? (Assorted SRS vilification based mostly on misinformation.)
Can the recent doxxing events be seen as an act of terrorism against this (or any) subreddit?
I’ll update this post with more info as necessary.
EDITED TO ADD: Here’s a giant list of links to media coverage of all this.
EDITED AGAIN: Chen’s article has been published on Gawker.
Meanwhile, the now-infamous Redditor POTATO_IN_MY_ANUS, the source of much of the dubious information discussed above, has been banned from Reddit; more importantly, he has been caught doctoring a screenshot of a conversation between him and a Reddit admin explaining why he’s being banned. So pretty much all of his claims, including the one about a creepshotter getting beaten up, are now suspect.
Also, here’s a screenshot that purports to be from Violentacrez explaining why he left Reddit.
Apparently, Brutsch is going to be on CNN. I wonder if it’s Anderson Cooper…
Now which of PZ’s thousands of posts have you so completely misunderstood as to cause you to “respect [him] immensely,” I wonder? Because from what I can tell, if you tried your schtick on him, Butthorn, you’d wind up in his dungeon faster than you can say, “cat!”
He’s come out in support of Rebecca Watson and Atheism+, Steelepole. Hell, he was on Watson’s side from the beginning. I admire and respect him for those stances. Why do you still “respect [him] immensely” given that he has expressed his opinions thusly?
Falconer, I wondered that too.
Steele, you do realize that that PZ is one of those vile m feminists, right? That PZ and the Horde would leave you as nothing more than a quivering blob of gelantinous goo in front of a keyboard the moment you opened you’re mouth there, right? And that some of the regulars here also participate in discussions there, right?
Steele thinks namechecking PZ will make him sound smart. If only it were that easy.
I don’t read Professor Myers’ blog regularly; I know him primarily through his associations with Richard Dawkins and other such individuals of substance. I suppose it’s possible he’s been corrupted by disgusting feminists; if so, that’s a shame.
Hahahahahaa!
Steele you’re an idiot! PZ has pretty much always been a feminist and aware of social justice issues. His blog is an inclusive space, and even regulars who make assinine statements get called out.
I’m sure you did respect him, thinking that he was part of the boys only club.
Steele, change your name to Glass, because you are transparent as all get out.
Sorry Steele. Not all respected white men are misogynist.
You’ll just have to throw him in the Mangina Bucket with all of the other men who have the capacity to own their shit.
More slander. What “boys’ club” are you referring to, exactly? Because I can say that I belong to none. The atheist movement? Well, that’s not something I’m much involved in – I’m more a scientist myself, and merely distantly appreciate Dawkins’ work – however, I have viewed many speeches by many atheist women, so I am forced to conclude that, on this point as well, you are full of it.
He’s viewed speeches, folks, everybody go home.
I’m full of it? Riiiiiiiight…
You’re the one trying to distance yourself from you’re own statement of admiration of PZ. But keep trying to make something, anything, all my fault.
He’s “more of a scientist”. So does this mean you aren’t actually a scientist Steele?
I get the feeling here that its like saying I’m “more of a realtor, myself”.
Wow. A scientist as well as an entrepreneur/businessman/etc?
Have you met Pell? I think the two of you would get on splendidly.
I’m more of a famous filmmaker*, myself.
* – than someone who has not seen a movie
@Bodsworth Or at the very least we could all have a good laugh at Steelebutt being rejected by the people he so very despewately wants to be bestest buddiez 4 lyf with. Again.
Lessee… Grad student. Up and coming member of a big firm. Entrepreneur. Attentive boyfriend. “more or less a scientist”.
What is there our boy can’t do…
Oh yeah, he can’t write.
Yeah, but that’s because of that one misandric English teacher of his. It’s not like there are literally hundreds of books, websites, magazines, classes and amateur writing groups that he could learn from.
Don’t forget IT! Didn’t he say he worked in IT?
this was forever ago but bored said,
and then said,
and doesn’t put two and two together. Posting ~sexy~ pics of women online, without their consent, has REAL WORLD CONSEQUENCES, as we’ve seen time and time again. When women are perceived as “sluts,” rapists start to justify raping them. And sometimes, if employers google, there are also employment ramifications. So, seeing as how you only seem to acknowledge that it’s easy for acquaintances to stumble across photos on hollaback, but ignore how acquaintances may also recognise women who are photographed for creepshots, I feel the need to inform you that dropping dox on a PREDITOR who is anonymously putting women at risk in their real lives is a form of vigilante justice. Is vigilante justice morally correct? Well, that is based on your individual morals. I sure don’t feel bad for someone who admittedly dedicated his time and energy to hurt other people, and I think people deserve to know who they’re dealing with. If someone I employed or worked with was posting upskirt photos online I damn sure would want to know that.
An eye for an eye is not an acceptable way to operate, but who do you protect? The preditor or the prey? The faces and locations of these men being publicized might mean women being aware that the person in their midst is taking photos of their underwear as they pass by.
Do you disagree with sex offender registries and being able to know when one is your neighbor? Because really, I’m seeing this doxxing as an internet sex offender registry, as upskirt shots should be a sex offense. We’re not talking about someone annoying you, we’re talking about someone victimizing you, and there’s a clear difference. Anyone who justifies doxxing someone for annoying them would dox that person anyways, regardless of whether or not someone else was doxxed for being a sexual predator.
So it’s ok for him to have real world consequences for his actions because someone in his class put two and two together, but it’s not ok for others to have real world consequences because someone on the internet put two and two together?
I’m really confused by the moral ambiguity issue here. If someone was caught in the act of upskirting, they’d be punished. But if they’re caught on the internet posting pictures of said upskirt they should have the right to anonymity because the internet? Like, people commit crimes, they should be punished. If police and courts were up to date on what is and is not legal internet behavior I’d say send these dox to the cops, but believe me, when I reported a cyberstalker in the past a police officer GAVE THE CYBERSTALKER MY HOME ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER so he could further stalk me. I simply cannot feel sorry for these men who get doxxed and don’t trust the police to catch them for me. Can. Not.
THis is a dude who bragged on reddit about having oral sex with his 19 year old stepdaughter. I don’t think this guy gives a single fuck about his family and was just trying to use them to play on people’s sympathy.
And to NWO, I know this is anecdata, but of the dozens of friends of mine who have confided in me about their rapes, not a single one reported due to peer pressure, threats, and being ashamed. STFU NWO and stop talking about shit that you do not understand.
And uhh, these aren’t numbers plucked from the sky, but numbers taken from surveys, and they’re of the liklihood that you will have been raped by the end of college, not that you were raped in college per se. Another such survery reported that of around 2000 male students, 4% had raped or attempted to rape over 400 times. There’s your 1 in 5. http://jezebel.com/5404064/rapists-admit-repeated-crimes–as-long-as-you-dont-call-it-rape
On the subject of sneaky photos though, if I ever catch someone creep shooting me, I hope I can be as smooth as Cole Sprouse, the best reaction to being photographed by fans ever
http://web.stagram.com/n/camera_duels/
Other semi-OT but related to comments. I saw the Room in theaters the other day and was DYING of lols. Loved the crowd participation (seeing as how I’m normally telling people to shut up when they talk through movies it was a surreal experience to be ok with it)
lol i forgot to spell check, forgive me
My concern about this kind of doxxing is that even if it’s justified on an ethical level, it will be used as an excuse for more doxxing that isn’t at all ethical by really bad people. I’m pretty much anticipating a rant from Elam about how this means that Register Her is totally OK.
Basically I worry about giving people like that things that they can use as justification for the nasty stuff they already want to do.
One of the things Varpole, et all, are ignoring is that these women weren’t anonymous; as VA/Bruscht admitted.
They had enough women who found out they were on r/creepshots to create; and by his admission regularly use, a protocol for removing them.
The fact that none of these innocent women were publicly identified, and those who asked for their pictures to be removed had them removed, does not factor into his equation.
Unless you believe that many women were fans of creepshots, you have to accept that someone else who knew them told them about it. Which means it strains all credulity to posit no one else was ever identified by people who didn’t cover her back.
VA admits he had no problem running a board he knew was exposing people to harm.
That’s the hill you want to die on. That’s the argument you are making. He should have free speech to hurt people because someone else telling others who he is would hurt VA/Brutsch.
Why is his ability to harm privileged, and Chen’s ability to help (by limiting VA/Brutsch’s ability to harm) to be condemned?
Maybe it’s because you don’t care about the people VA/Brutsch was harming.
To be honest I am ambiguous about his outing. Not because I feel all that much sympathy for him, but because I am not sanguine about the way people with less than decent motives will use it.
But… I look at the way other outings have been done, and the question is… why should this guy get a pass, when this happens?
I also note one of the differences here is that it’s not a “liberal” being outed. Far and away that has been the trend I observe. Maybe it’s confirmation bias, but at ObWi the Conservatives have been left to anonymity, while the more outspoken, “liberals” (I have a hard time calling Ed Whelan a liberal, he’s more centrist, but what to I know, I don’t think Obama is all that liberal), have been outed.
Pseudonymity is a thing which is harder to maintain; I don’t think it ought to be a blanket pass to be an asshole. Neither do I think it ought to be ignored for trivial things. Where to draw those lines is hard.
Brutsch will be on CNN tonight; you can see a transcript here:
http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/17/sound-bites-from-ac360-exclusive-invu-w-ex-reddit-troll-michael-brutsch-airing-tomorrow/