Phil Mason, better known online as Thunderf00t, is a scientific researcher and YouTube bloviater who’s turned his hate-crush on video game critic Anita Sarkeesian into a surprisingly lucrative part-time job; his seemingly unending stream of YouTube videos attacking Sarkeesian, many of which have drawn hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, have without a doubt contributed mightily to the harassment directed against her by the online mob known as #Gamergate.
Now Mason is trying to defend himself against charges that he has become the de facto leader of a vast hate mob that harasses Sarkeesian and other women … by encouraging his followers to harass a woman who charged him with exactly this.
And a good number of Mason’s 400,000 YouTube followers have taken him up on this challenge, flooding the Yelp page of the business the woman runs with her husband with fraudulent one-star reviews and besieging her and her family business with angry and harassing phone calls (at least one of which the perpetrator has put online).
The story of this particular debacle began this past January when the YouTuber who calls herself Laughing Witch sent a letter to Mason’s employer, accusing the YouTuber of harassing Sarkeesian and other women and repeatedly suggesting that he and his followers were a bunch of Nazis. Her email was part of a letter-writing campaign by a number of feminist Youtubers who hoped their letters would get Mason fired from his research job.
Mason, who apparently faced no repercussions from the letter-writing campaign, decided last week to retaliate against Laughing Witch — real name Jennifer Keller. He posted a video about Keller’s letter, following up with a second video posting her name as well as screenshots from the web page of Porcelain Tub Restoration, the company she runs with her husband.
While Tunderf00t didn’t explicitly command his army to harass Keller and her husband, he suggested to his supporters that they post their thoughts about her on the business’s Yelp page — and they did, cratering the company’s rating with literally hundreds of fake one-star reviews.
Yelp has been removing the most obviously fake ones, as well as those referencing her letter about Thunderf00t, but many remain up as “not recommended” (in other words, questionable) reviews, including a number of clearly trollish ones accusing Keller of being a Nazi.
These negative reviews, as ludicrous as many of them are, have apparently hit the business hard. Keller and her husband have set up a FundAnything page in an attempt, they say, to make payroll in the wake of the attacks on their and their company’s reputation online. On the FundAnything page Keller’s husband, Paul Burns, writes:
We are getting slanderous lies about our services and people posting deplorable images on review sites, as well desecrating our star ratings and customers calling. No one clicks to a service company with 1 star rating.
According to Burns, the 26-year-old “family based service business with 14 employees” may be forced to close “because of a brutal mob attack on our social review sites.”
Mason’s response to this campaign being waged in his name? Another video, in which he declares that “Karma [is] ONLY A BITCH, if you are one!”
Except that this isn’t “karma,” a supernatural force that Mason, a self-avowed “skeptic,’ presumably doesn’t believe in anyway.
This is an organized harassment campaign, instigated and encouraged by Mason himself.
While I’ve enjoyed Laughing Witch’s videos in the past, I think the letter writing campaign was wrong. Writing employers is a low blow. And despite Mason’s many flaws as a thinker and a human being, he’s no Nazi.
But the wave of harassment he’s brought down on Keller — and which he has not made even the slightest attempt to rein in — is indefensible.
And it’s getting worse by the day: 8chan’s Baphomet forum, a haven for malicious doxers and harassers, has now jumped aboard this harassment train, targeting not only Keller but her supporters as well. They’ve doxed one other YouTuber already, and are working on doxing others.
In a Baphomet thread, one anon happily reports that the attacks on Keller are causing her great distress:
While Mason at first suggested that he would call off the attack if Keller apologized to him, he has since refused to accept her apology, and seems positively gleeful about the pain he’s caused her and her allies.
The internet has officially hit another new low.
I’ll post more on this as it develops.
NOTE: Thanks to Daily Kos blogger idlediletante (Margaret Pless), who provided me with a number of tips on this story. She’s written three posts on the subject so far:
Family Business Brigaded on Yelp by MRA YouTube Stars
Phil Mason is Working With Baphomet to Ruin DC Business
How it Feels to Be Targeted By An Internet Hate Mob: One Man’s Story
Talk to me, not about me, you blithering cockbite.
Bryce:
Before we continue, what about implicit? Like what if someone walks into a store and tells the shopkeeper about how dangerous the neighborhood is, and how it’d be horrible if something happened? They were just offering a warning, and you know, offering to help keep anything from happening. Would you consider that threatening? They didn’t explicitly threaten. Right?
And also hypothetically, let’s say someone online posts videos about another person. And the target of these videos is harassed by a portion of this audience, an audience the video maker actively seeks to alert about his or her new videos on the subject of the person being harassed. Do you believe the video creator shares some contribution for the ongoing harassment? What is your personal opinion about someone profiting on the harassment of someone else? Do you believe the person does not know what’s going on? How about when they implicitly target someone else, and lo and behold, the fans start harassing the other person? Would this be evidence that the creator knows the harassment of the typical target of hisor her video is related to the videos?
@Tessa
This is a good point. No one can really argue that TF has NO IDEA that his fans tend to be awful, rabid abusers when he actively uses them as a weapon to target someone who has irked him. Someone who mysteriously didn’t have to deal with harassment on anything approaching that level BEFORE TF opened his mouth.
The short version since my last comment got eaten.
It’s really easy to dismiss misogyny as just an opinion if you’re a man because it doesn’t threaten you. I wouldn’t feel safe or comfortable working with an MRA or gamergater and Bryce, it is not your place to say a woman is wrong in feeling that way.
Take several seats.
I don’t know why but “take several seats” made me laugh just now.
Anyway, I like occasional reader’s “oil on existing fire” analogy and I think treehugger has gotten to the root of the problem: It’s a bunch of people (usually defending the actions and viewpoints of Phil Mason) coming HERE and telling US how to FEEL and what to THINK.
I mean listen, if you really want to rationalize and justify Mason’s behavior, I’m open to hear you out and consider your perspective. I don’t know what GOOD it will do you but as long as you’re not an ass about it, we can totally have a trade-off in the “marketplace of ideas”, as Phil likes to often say (for some reason).
The problem is that most of these “fans” are beginning from a foregone conclusion and trying so hard to apply it to every test sample. Phil Mason is a scientist, right? Well, what people are coming in here and doing is pretty much the definition of bad science.
If you try to validate Mason’s actions by pointing out how BAD Laughing Witch is, that’s kind of like counting the horse before the carriage AND robbing Peter to pay Paul, all at the same time. Most of us already know and agree LW didn’t put her best foot forward but that does not matter anymore. This is about Phil Mason and his reactions to all that and his implementation of his followers that he should be held accountable for.
I see we’re having one of those “If you were a robot built by aliens who had never interacted with a human being, these claims would seem completely baseless” conversations.
Quick update, I looked at the Yelp page, and they had this message up on the page.
And so far it looks like the majority of flagged reviews are being removed, 228 so far. There was one I saw that tried to use someone else’s name, but the thing is the guy whose identity they’re trying to hijack there lives in the UK according to the twitter account they linked to. It’s also apparent from the converstaions he’s having with dunderfart and the youtube videos he has that he definitely wouldn’t be the type of person to be joining in on the whole mess.
Incidentally, does anyone know how to let the folks at yelp know that someone has used your name to try to validate their bogus review? Other than the simple coverall flag button?
@John Pavlich: Re: Sarkeesian critics
I’ll just take your word for it that KiteTales and Toolbox are more reasonable than others, but I’m just so tired of how many people on YouTube spend time specifically criticizing Anita Sarkeesian. I’d rather people actually took a note from Sarkeesian and, instead, made their own videos doing in-depth analysis of fictional narratives and the tropes associated with them. It’s why I enjoy Feminist Frequency and (despite their association with PennyArcade, who I’m not fond of) Extra Credits, if there’s anything YouTube needs less of – it’s these unbearably pedantic-yet-misinformed rants that can go on for an hour. I fucking hate talk radio as is and YouTube becoming the new version of such, except with far more obnoxious and reactionary pundits, is unbearable.
The worst part being that people like The Amazing Atheist don’t actually give a shit about videogames or at least their value as Art (he’s even admitted so himself). Then again, their audience is made up of a bunch of pretentious anti-intellectuals who don’t get Art anyway…
NickNameNick: I’m with you on this one; no matter how wrong they are, spending all your time criticizing another critic is just fundamentally not all that productive, because the most you can possibly prove is “this one person is wrong about some things.”
Yep, and it’s an easy way to downplay how repulsive that view is. ‘Cause, hey, it’s “just” an “opinion.”
This is why I dislike it when people say someone is “entitled” to their opinion: because, when called out, they act like they’re being judged “unfairly” over a “difference of opinion”. Rather than because, y’know, their views are just discriminatory and harmful to others.
Or a number of other people, like white supremacists.
The idea such attitudes need to be ignored is nonsense – especially if, say, that person’s biases effect management decisions and treatment of other employees. I’m pretty sure that’s why there’s a lot of job discrimination in the first place.
Plus it’s stifling overall creativity. I mean, you can put almost any kind of material up on YouTube and yet many people are using it to…complain into a camera about someone else, often repeatedly? It’s such a waste of a venue and shameful how ubiquitous it’s become.
@NickNameNick
I LOVE EXTRA CREDITS. I agree, they’re exactly what we need more of. I also like/used to love MovieBob’s Big Picture videos although lately, he’s too cynical and didactic for my tastes. I’m like, “Dude, what are you yelling at me for? I didn’t do anything! I’m on YOUR side!”
I still like MovieBob, especially due to his more recent “Really That Good” videos that examines popular films for deeper meaning and why they resonated with so many people. His one for Ghostbusters is spot-on, I think:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPoILjs6BYI&w=560&h=315%5D
Even his one for Independence Day gave me a new appreciation for it:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSAp-QCHj_A&w=560&h=315%5D
Whoops, wrong link! Here’s the right one:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcma0bKjJlY&w=560&h=315%5D
Of course if one takes it too far this train of thought can turn into the old “if you don’t like something, make your own” line and become an argument against all criticism. There’s a balance in there somewhere between criticism and original work.
But I doubt that balance leaves much room for criticism of other critics, which is just really obnoxious and pointless.
Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t go that far.
Funny thing you mention that: it’s a common refrain I hear made against Sarkeesian – that, if she doesn’t like these things in gaming, she should try making her own game. Even though many of the people who say that have never made a videogame themselves. It’s almost like they’re just finding another way to tell someone to “shut up”…
Right, and criticism of criticism gets incredibly repetitive quickly. A counter-argument is one thing but “OH MY GAWD ANITA SAID SOMETHING I DIDN’T LIKE AND HERE’S WHY!” shouldn’t be the basis for that many videos. Especially when they’re all making the same exact claims, using the same weird brand of “logic” that can be either obtuse or incomprehensible.
I don’t see film critics do this – spending hours explaining why they hate, say, Peter Travers and disseminating every review he does. Most of them just offer a differing or similar view on those films. Armond White is spoken of with disdain not because of his views on movies as much as his behavior towards other creative people – even when it does have to do with his reviews, it’s because they’re badly written.
I’d rather someone just did their own review, than a review of a review which will then end up with a review of that review of the review and so forth…
@NickNameNick Yeah, those are pretty solid, though I feel his RTG for Independence Day fails because “I’m not an idiot, Bob. I got all of what the movie was doing. I didn’t like ti because I feel it did it BADLY.” I think his Ghostbusters and Die Hard vids are the best, so far. Although, it infuriates me how he unnecessarily throws in that jab at Scream, saying he “won’t do one of these for Scream because SCREAM SUCKS.” That’s what I’m talking about when I say he’s become didactic.
NickNameNick
There was a brief rumor going around that Anita Sarkeesian was being brought in to consult on Mirror’s Edge 2. Her haters went absolutely APE SHIT over this. Alternatively, when she made that animated video of a proposal for her own original game, The Legend Of The Last Princess, they went to pieces over that, too. So, their whole argument is, once again, BS.
I was going to watch that Independence Day video, but not if it trashes Scream. I love that movie and Wes Craven general.
Not that everyone is obligated to like what I do, I’m just guessing we wouldn’t see eye to eye.
Fair enough. I suppose I tolerate it because, on the occasion he uses it on something like Pixels or The Visit, it can be rather entertaining.
Of course, because they keep moving the goal posts. It’s like when people hide behind their age and say “get back to me in ten years”; they’ll just come up with another reasons as to why you haven’t fulfilled their arbitrary prerequisites.
Even if you did exactly what they said – they have to come up with some reason why it “doesn’t count.” The reality is that they like a thing and see anyone criticizing the thing as being an insult to both the creators as well as those who enjoyed it. It’d make sense coming from a five-year-old, but it’s baffling when it’s coming from ostensibly adult males…
This is veering really off topic, but speaking of Scream, has anyone noticed a recent trend of people being too hip and edgy to appreciate horror movies everyone loved in the 90s?
Say what you will about Scream, Blair Witch and Sixth Sense, but those movies greatly boosted the genre. Horror was stale, unprofitable and pretty much finished until Scream in particular came along. Sure. Meta, found footage, and shocking twist endings are done constantly now, but between the mid 80s and mid 90s horror pretty much consisted paint by numbers slashers and cheesy Exorcist/Omen rip offs. Those movies people love to scoff at these days were fresh and exciting back then. Have a little respect, youths. I don’t want to hear your hot takes!
Okay. Sorry. Rant over.
The thing that gets me is, I keep hearing this argument “if you don’t like it, go make your own!” in so many other circles outside of gaming.
I mean, I heard this argument when Twilight was still popular.
@WWTH
The Scream dig is in the Die Hard video, BTW.
I think Nick is absolutely right about the moving of goal posts and hiding behind one’s age. It’s this abstract appeal to authority. I always liked this line from the pilot of Community: “Can we stop with the pumpkins and the sweeties? Being younger does not make me inferior. If anything, your age indicates that you’ve made bad life decisions.”
“If you try to validate Mason’s actions by pointing out how BAD Laughing Witch is, that’s kind of like counting the horse before the carriage AND robbing Peter to pay Paul, all at the same time.”
It’s strange, because he keeps complaining about how “gleeful” Laughing Witch & her supporters were at the thought of harming his livelihood, & that this made her a “despicable sadist,” & of course shows “feminism’s true colors.”
He doesn’t exactly seem to be deep in mourning about the Yelp spamming campaign.