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
Because when TF does something “wrong”, it’s not really “wrong”, just “karma” according to those who slobber all over his shoes and throw their money at him.
So, he didn’t really do anything “wrong”, he’s just delivering justice to those who deserve it! [/OBVIOUS SARCASM]
Felipe is just bullshitting. They know as well as we do that TF’s in the wrong.
Again, I’m descended from Missourians. Show me.
If you have proof that this occurred, show me. If you don’t, it’s all just conjecture on this point. I know you lap up all the shit that TF puts out, but c’mon. Use your brain.
Even if you’re right (and I sincerely doubt it), and LW did use her real name in the video where she “gloats” that she got TF fired, he still posted the Yelp page for her business and is trying to make it go under.
Still doxxing, still in the wrong.
I’m pretty sure people can just link the video. Or his many, many tweets on the subject. Or how he admitted to it and says she deserves it because she didn’t apologize to his liking.
Oh, and you still haven’t told me how David “hinted” that we should report TF’s Patreon. Still waiting on that, but I won’t hold my breath.
Hypothetical question; lets say that the ‘harassment’ campaign works and thunderfoots patreon account is suspended . Other then him no longer getting payed by his fans to make youtube videos what would be the long term effect on him?
As far as David Futrelle seeding mob action in his OP, I see what David did as equivalent to what Mason did when he showed the Yelp page for LW’s business in his video responding to LW’s attempt to get him fired from his job. Mason didn’t actually call for any action. (Disagree? Show me.)
Mason just casually mentioned that LW’s business has a Yelp page. Just like David casually mentioned that Thunderf00t has a Patreon. And the results were the same — their respective mobs took action.
Come on. We’ve asked you to knock it off with this kind of talk before. Hinting that people should commit suicide is not okay.
We can scroll up and read David’s post, you know. Nowhere did David dox him, publish his private info or in any way hint that we should do anything.
Apparently you have enough awareness to understand that doxxing and harassing is wrong. So why are you defending Thunderfoot still? Your attempts to deflect by acting like David has done something equivalent are weak and nobody is buying it.
Except that one, David doesn’t nearly have as many followers as TF, and two, we’re not all ravenous anti-TFers who would do anything to see him destroyed. We don’t like him, but we don’t want his life ruined for it.
We’re not the same as his fanbase, who are notable anti-feminists who can, and have, done anything and everything to silence their critics. We’re not a hate mob, and we’ve never doxxed anyone. We don’t “brigade” Yelp pages to ruin someone’s business. The two groups are not comparable.
Quite frankly, if we “silenced” every critic against feminism, David wouldn’t have a blog anymore.
So why mention her business at all? Why bring it up? Why mention it, even in passing?
David mentioned TF’s Patreon because it’s relevant to the discussion. He has Patreon supporters that support his YT videos, which he used the money from to make a video doxxing LW. This is breaking Patreon’s rules. He’s making content that harasses and incites harassment against LW.
LW’s tub refinishing business had nothing to do with TF’s beef with her. At all. It’s irrelevant.
TF’s Patreon account directly funded the video where he doxxed Laughing Witch. That’s relevant to the conversation. TF’s using his Patreon funding to doxx people. LW just so happens to have an unrelated business.
False Equivalence is False, Felipe.
Still waiting on the proof that LW somehow doxxed herself too, but again, not holding my breath.
No, thunderfoot said that his followers should leave their thoughts about her on her yelp page. David didn’t say anything about use doing anything about his patreon page.
@Iris Scanner
Dear oh dear…. Patreon isn’t Mason’s primary source of income, whereas LW’s business is hers. There’s no equivalence.
Also, the business belongs to Laughing Witch’s husband too. Even if she deserved this – she doesn’t, but just for the sake of argument – what did her husband do to deserve it. Neither David or any of the commenters have suggested anybody take any kind of action that would harm any of Thunderfoot’s family members.
Wait… where did David say anything about, or link to, TF00t’s patreon?
@Kirby: Nowhere, actually. I thought that David mentioned it in passing, but Ctrl+F’ing the page reveals no mentions of the word “Patreon” in the article.
My bad on that one.
But, it does make Felipe’s argument even less coherent. I didn’t think it was possible.
@PI:
Yeah, I thought so. It was possible I was just missing something…
Kinda shoots Iris Scanner’s post in the foot as well.
At the start of the article there is a link to a story at the dailykos about anti-feminists who make money on their hate. Thunderfoot was one of the hate mongers featured and its there you will find the link to his patreon page. In other word you need to click on a link here that says nothing about a patreon page then click on another link that will take you to the patreon page.
@Fabe: So that means that the Daily Kos linked to it, not David, so if anyone’s “hinting” that people should go “brigade” and “harass” TF, it’s them, and not us.
Paradoxical Intention,
Oh, Jesus. I’ve just realized you are bloviating on this issue without even having seen the Thunderf00t video that you are expressing such confident opinions about.
It is not even in dispute that LW doxed herself. She has taken all of her videos down, but Mason includes the relevant parts in this video, the one you haven’t seen but are expressing opinions about.
In that video, you can see her pointing to her own real name on a computer screen, showing off the letter she sent to Mason’s employer. (That letter falsely accused Mason of engaging in criminal behavior and being a “Nazi.”)
Since you are obviously still catching up, here is the basic story to date:
1. Thunderf00t/Phil Mason attacked feminism on the internet.
2. So Laughing Witch and others attacked Mason’s income.
3. So Mason attacked LW’s income.
4. So now Mob Mammoth is attacking Mason’s income from another angle.
Please note the point at which the dispute left the realm of ideas and became about trying to get someone fired from their real job in the real world.
Bryce,
Well, I guess not — if you leave out the part about LW trying to get Mason fired from his job, his primary source of income.
But that’s probably an important part, considering that the campaign to get Mason fired was the act of aggression that set this whole thing off.
Mason did not go after LW until she tried to take his job away from him. Before LW’s actions, the disputes they had were entirely in the category of disagreeing about ideology on the internet.
@paradoxical
Yeah pretty much but try telling that to Iris.
Yes laughing witch did go after his job first,something David said was wrong and I think I have to agree . It failed and she apologized but that wasn’t good enough for thunderfoot who decided to do the same thing and then act like he didn’t do anything at all.
Good lord, it’s like Felipe isn’t even trying to listen anymore. They’re just constantly going on repeat, and then completely ignoring it when they’re called out and wrong.
– There were people who agreed that LW shouldn’t have gone after TF’s real job, myself included.
– That still makes TF a piece of garbage for showing LW’s Yelp page to his ravenous followers
– She only posted her name, he dug up the information about her business and willingly put it on his video even though it has nothing to do with their argument
– And he’s still not only doing illegal shit, but he’s also breaking Patreon’s rules, and using his Patreon money to make videos doxxing people
This isn’t a “Well, she did it first, so it’s okay!” kind of argument.
TF isn’t absolved of all guilt because she did it first. He’s still in the wrong, he’s still a piece of shit, and he is still breaking Patreon’s rules, and thus is still worthy of reporting to Patreon.
Not only that, but I still stand behind what I said earlier: LW’s business is completely irrelevant to the tiff they had, while TF’s Patreon is directly funding the video he made.
And I will also reiterate what other people said: This doesn’t hurt just LW, but also her family and employees. He’s using his fandom as a bludgeon against all of them, and that’s doubly shitty.
This also isn’t a “Well, you’re wrong for doing this, but it’s okay for TF to do it because reasons!” argument.
Sit the fuck down, Felipe. You’re still wrong, and will continue to be wrong.
Can you guys stop engaging Iris? You’re just encouraging him.
@Iris Scanner, LW did strike first, there’s no dispute. Trying to get TF fired was wrong, no doubt about it. TF’s response, however, was way out of proportion to the wrongs made against him. If someone insults you, even to your boss, are you then justified in completely ruining that person’s life and the peripheral lives of their supporters by organizing a hate mob to destroy them all? Such an utterly vindictive response is not what I’d expect from an adult man, but rather from a petulant (and sadistic) child wielding far too much power for his maturity to handle.
So if someone decided that you didn’t deserve to have a job because you disagreed with them on the internet, and they wrote a letter falsely informing your employer that you are a criminal and a Nazi, and they did this as part of a gang effort, you would just take it? You wouldn’t hit back?
You wouldn’t try to send a message to warn away any future harassment of a similar kind?
Again, these people tried to get Mason fired by sending vicious lies about him to his employer. It’s not clear to me that he had one obvious course of action that he should have taken in response to that aggression. If you think there is a better way to respond to people who send vicious lies to your employer to try to take away the job you love and the income you need, what would that be?
[quote]No, thunderfoot said that his followers should leave their thoughts about her on her yelp page. David didn’t say anything about use doing anything about his patreon page.”[/quote]
Seeing as his fans don’t USE her business, & thus have no relevant thoughts on it, there’s literally no way to interpret this but “post spam & flames to punish her for what she did to ME.”
The only reason I haven’t reported him to Patreon yet is because I couldn’t find where in the video he said this.
@lithp
Exactly! Thunderfoot did this whole ‘nudge,nudge,wink,wink’ thing while David did nothing of the sort . yet Iris keeps insisting that David did encourage use to harass him by reporting his patreon page by link to a article on another web site.