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
@The Golux
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/Sephirajo/tumblr_inline_ngtnaq3xJa1rohyae_zpsot2jlvgi.gif
“Then TF made a video about it (which im sure we would all agree is his right) then some of his fans did something stupid. But so what? TF doesnt control people and he never asked people to do this.”
Yeah. It’s totally not his fault that he made a video directing people to her company and Yelp page. He can’t help it if, after showing that information to his fanbase, that said fanbase decides to do bad things with that information that he specifically gave them in a video where he very clearly implied that bad things could happen.
Totally blameless. He didn’t do anything at all! All he did was make a video with her company information and say “Gee, that’s a nice company you got there. Sure would be a shame if something were to happen to it. Am I right, four hundred thousand subscribers?”
Could someone actually explain to me what makes TF a misogynist?
The Gofux, Thundershitcock makes serious fucking bank off bashing Sarkeesian because Gamergaters are worthless illiterate angry piss piglets who hate women, and he’s cynically exploiting them. The world would be better off without all of them, and I don’t actually care if any gamergaters with depression take that the wrong way. That’s how fucking livid I am.
So, you don’t think it’s a reasonable assumption, especially when you have 400k raving followers who are mostly hellbent on destroying feminism, that when you post their personal information, their yelp page, etc., that some of them will be going out to do something vindictive. How stupid do you think Phil Mason is? Because it’s a lot more stupid than I think he is.
The Golux wrote:
The insincerity is strong with this one.
Was Laughing Witch within her rights to contact Thunderf00t’s university? Of course. All universities have policies on the use of social media by their staff (although I can’t find the one at Thundy’s place, probably because it’s in Czech), and they usually stipulate that staff must ensure that there is clear separation between personal opinion and professional association. Phil has not only shot videos from his lab he’s also made explicit reference to his scientific authority (granted ultimately by his institution) and even given acknowledgment to his Youtube viewers and Patreon supporters in a published paper, ultimately funded by his institution. As a concerned member of the public it is not only LW’s right to question his public statements it’s pretty much her responsibility. I’m sure the institution would actively support the expression of public concern about a member of staff that her letter represented, however ill-phrased, and I hope would frown on attempts by that member of staff to exact retribution on the complainant.
About TF’s youtube career:
The early parts of his creationism video series are some of his most viewed videos, in part because they have been out there for 7-8 years by now. Part 1 has 2 millions views. Already in part 2 it drops to 900k. From there it’s downhill. These days, he makes his money off feminism related videos. When he puts “feminism” or “feminist” or “Sarkeesian” in the title, he gets significantly more views than his other videos. These videos have about twice the popularity of his creationism videos, while non-creationism and non-feminism videos have much fewer views. In later years, one of his feminist-bashing videos gained 1.2 million views, and others have reached 700k-900k. Videos not related to feminism generally get 200k views at the most.
When I type thunderf00t into my YT search bar, I get these autoresults:
– thunderf00t busted (a number of videos centered on personal attacks, mostly against Sarkeesian)
– thunderf00t feminism
– thunderf00t anita sarkeesian
– thunderf00t laci green
– thunderf00t vs rebecca watson
– thunderf00t kent hovind
– thunderf00t rebecca watson
– thunderf00t ray comfort
– thunderf00t gamergate
– thunderf00t channel
Yeah, once upon a time he was known for other things than harassing feminists on the internet. But not anymore.
If I want to listen to someone bust young earth creationism, I’ll listen to someone who is also witty and a good person. Like Neil Degrasse Tyson or Bill Nye. I kind of doubt anyone who isn’t an anti feminist would bother with Thunderfoot when there are better and more well known options.
I can’t sit through any of his tiresome, unoriginal Muslim/creationist/feminist baiting videos. Still can’t see much moral distinction here either: the actions of both parties involve trying to hurt someone for the sake of it. It’s up to Mason’s employer to decide whether his online presence is harming their reputation. They were probably already aware of it to some degree.
Laughing Witch not only tried to get Phil Mason fired from his job (for disagreeing with her on the internet), but also for a moment mistakenly believed that she succeeded in her goal. She made a video gloating about her victory and taunting Phil Mason for losing his job. She could not have been happier when she thought she had participated in a mob action that had deeply wounded the target, robbing him of his primary source of income. In her gloating video, LW even displayed her real name and bragged that there was nothing Phil Mason could do to her.
In response, Mason made a video that didn’t explicitly call for retaliatory mob action, but nonetheless resulted in it.
Kind of like David Futrelle in the OP here, casually linking to Mason’s Patreon page but not calling for any specific mob action against it. Like Mason, Futrelle knows the mob will take the hint.
1) Is your link supposed to go back to this very page? Because I find that confusing.
2) What hint am I supposed to get from a link to tf00t’s Patreon? Am I supposed to… give him money? I’m not going to do that.
And a new troll appears.
@fabe
Well, we mentioned the thunderchrist. They’ll be coming out of the woodwork for awhile now. Kind of like roaches.
Gee, Iris! I can’t imagine why anyone would ever want to retaliate against Thunderfoot and his follwers. I mean he’s such a rational and reasonable human being. He’s never hurt anyone.
Except he did hurt many people. Laughing Witch is only the latest casualty of this overgrown toddler’s outbursts.
Milkshake Fan:
Might I call your attention to the following:
I count 6 comments from you after the preceding promise.
Pro tip: When you swear that you will flounce, FLOUNCE!
@Iris Scanner
Except David didn’t post any link to TF’s Patreon. Someone in the comments did because uploading stuff encouraging (“explicitly” or not) harassment of another person is against Patreon’s terms of service.
Funny how you’ll defend TF for outright doxxing someone by claiming he “didn’t explicitly call for” his followers to harass someone when it’s fucking obvious that they would simply because everyone knows what type of people they are and what they think of feminists, but then you turn around and get pissy when someone says “Hey, TF’s violating Patreon’s ToS by uploading videos where he harasses women and doxxes them, we should most likely report that”.
Take a seat, Felipe.
@freemage
I call it “libellous” too, because that’s the British English spelling.
*Sigh*. I really really really really really really really really hate MRAs.
Viscaria,
The link goes to the ninth comment on this blog entry. That’s how long it took before someone took the hint from David Futrelle and initiated a mob action against Mason’s Patreon funds:
This was followed by several comments encouraging further action, and, as far as I know, zero comments saying that it was wrong to go after someone’s funding this way. It apparently bothers few, including David Futrelle, that Mason is not guilty of any of the listed offenses.
“The internet has officially hit another new low.”
So when Thunderfool actually does its OK but if you just say some else is doing the same thing then its a bad thing, OK got it . thanks for clearing that up Iris
My grandfather was from Missouri, Iris. You know what that means? Show me. Where did David “hint” that we should go after TF in any capacity? Where did David encourage us to do so? Because he didn’t link to it in the article, like you claimed earlier, and now you’re backpedaling and saying he “hinted” at it.
Also, that person had a point. TF doxxed someone, that’s breaking Patreon’s rules, and illegal. TF isn’t immune to the way Patreon runs their shit. If he breaks their rules, Patreon has a right to know. He’s using their platform to fund his bigotry, and he openly doxxed someone, leading to their harassment, which is illegal.
If you have proof that TF didn’t, in fact, break any of Patreon’s rules, feel free to provide it. In the meantime, we’ll be sitting here on the proof that he did, and thus, we should report it.
Again, Sit the Fuck down, Felipe. You’re being obnoxious with all your wrong.
Why would it be wrong to inform Patreon about a user breaking their rules?
Paradoxical Intention,
You don’t know what you’re talking about. Thunderf00t/Phil Mason did not dox Laughing Witch. Laughing Witch enthusiastically displayed her own real name in the video where she gloated about costing Mason his job (for disagreeing with her on the internet). She specifically bragged about using her own real name in the letter she sent that falsely accused Mason of criminal behavior and being a “Nazi.” She doxed herself and made a big show of doing it.
The current Patreon brigading attack on Mason will most likely fail, but that’s only because Patreon will actually care if the charges against Mason are true.