I'd also like to point out this is not new behavior for this piece of trash. Do you all remember Sunil Tripathi? I hope so.
Well, the specific order in which things happened appears to be:
1.- The reporter found out the reddit guy's identity.
2.- Reporter sent an email asking to speak with the reddit guy.
3.- Reddit guy, presumably panics, and post the apology along with the subsequent deletion of his posts.
4.- If I got it right, at this point -specifically after point number 3- he spoke with the CNN reporter (though I am not 100% clear on this).
With this sequence of events it would be true that the guy deleted his posts and issued his apology before actually speaking with CNN. He simply received an email and presumably panicked. And this would be before CNN published their article. At this point I wouldn't think it is reasonable to assume CNN was threatening the guy unless the content of the email, which we don't have of course, was threatening. The earliest at which a threat could have happened is stage 4 which is what the article would reference. Now even if CNN actually threatened or meant to threaten the guy at this point it would be moot. He deleted his stuff and backed down before even responding to cnn's email.
And with that in mind the question would be whether cnn is allowed to actually publish his identity (which the stuff that would make it into a dox like his phone number, emails and personal information). Of course, regardless of circumstances CNN shouldn't release that information because this is some random irrelevant asshole/troll. Doing so would be legitimately bad reporting. But doing so probably wouldn't be illegal.
As for the harmless bit... I disagree with that. The guy was a troll who posted antisemitic stuff. That is in no form or context harmless. Maybe the cnn gif was harmless but definitely not the rest of what he did.
You misunderstand. The threat isn't in the information simply being possessed. It is in the wording of the public article. We don't know what that email or phone call contained, what we do know is in the article.
And this is how it actually happened. KFILE found several posts on reddit where he discussed sensitive information that, all together, tied back to a Facebook account (/pol/ and anonymous sources state TWC helped hand over his IP but that's just a rumor for now). With the FB account found, KFILE contacted him through email and phone
first (again, confirmed by Andrew and his article!) asking him about the content of the gif and the content of his posts but did not receive a reply back.
Upon finding out KFILE had his information and found all of his content, he became afraid and embarrassed (and we know why, given the content of the article). He deleted his posts and then issued an apology on reddit (the post stood for a while before he finally deleted his account). Afterward he reached out to CNN in an interview to
apologize further. CNN decided that since he showed regret and promised never to shitpost again, they would not reveal his identity but if he should go back to his old ways (should any of that change) they would release the information. They set a condition and a punishment for going against it. However you might want to look at it, this was in fact a threat/a violation of a criminal code in New York.
Once this threat was pointed out to Andrew and CNN, Andrew attempted to backtrack and confuse people (see images above again please) but before r/the_donald mods removed the posts, the information had been set in stone with dozens of screenshots, archives, tweets etc etc. Han was contacted
first about the "horrible things he's done" through his FB details. Han panicked, deleted his stuff and apologized after because, as he said himself and CNN quoted him on it, he was fearful for his safety and the livelihood of his family. He then apologized
again afterward directly to CNN. Again, consider Andrew's tweets.
So the actual events that happened are as prescribed above not only by me, but by their own article and the author of it, Andrew Kaczynski. In his own words he said it happened as such, before he was caught and then changed his mind about half an hour later to try and say Han decided to, all by himself, contact CNN, apologize, delete his stuff and disappear out of fear. If CNN hadn't contacted him first, why was he afraid someone got a hold of his information and would release it?
If you don't want to believe me on the seriousness of the article's threat, that's fine, but I would suggest you read the codes said to be violated and the opinions of both liberal and conservative legal analysts, lawyers and prosecutors who all agree the content of the article was clearly a threat that
could even contain more violations of criminal code dependent on the redditor's actual age etc.
Words are harmless though unless they specifically contain content that isn't. He didn't incite violence. Saying something mean is not harmful. No one is responsible for how
others react either. If him putting Stars of David on pictures of people is "harmful" to people, this world needs a reality check. What
is harmful is someone like Linda Sarsour calling for jihad (a violent action of motion that cannot be interpreted any other way) on Trumpers, Trump and his Admin.
Those are harmful, threatening words, not some distasteful, racist, bigoted jokes that neither ask or promote any kind of violence, just more idiocy and bigotry that breeds more dark humor that no sane person would actually find funny.
I guess we now just have to wait and see what happens. At the very least CNN needs to step up soon and stand in condemnation of the message the article gave, even if it was unintended, and fire the man behind it who has done this to people more than once.
Fuck what CNN did, I don't approve of that crap, and they were too sensitive about it. But I also don't feel that badly for an anti-Semitic piece of shit. Would you have cared as much if this was an anti-Trump or left wing being "doxxed" by right-wing source like Fox News or Breitbart? Doubt it.
I am glad to read that, and I'm sorry for jumping the gun on your position on CNN's actions. I get a bit passionate sometimes about stuff like this and let loose the cannons.
I'm constantly confused by many for a Republican. I am not. I just happened to approve of a lot of Trump's messages. So I voted for him, just as I did for Obama when he first ran. So to answer your question...yes, I would be equally "upset" if it had been a conservative doing this to a liberal user and his memes, no matter how distasteful his jokes or memes were (and oh boy, they exist). As a Trump supporter I even laugh my ass off over "negative" means and jokes about him because that's all they are. Only an utter idiot would find something so silly so offensive that they would hunt someone down. And this was before they found out about Han's history. They started it
solely because of the wrestling gif, not because the content of his posts made years ago. That was just the "icing" on the top for them.
Hopefully a conservative news outlet will never do this though, but if they do, you can bet your ass I'll be complaining about it (though you probably won't believe me that's fine). I don't want to live in a country where someone can't make a joke, no matter how distasteful, without fear of a billion $ empire destroying their lives because it hurt their feelings or humiliated them.
And that's just it though,
r/imgoingtohellforthis is a
troll subreddit, where most of his content originated from. No one there means
anything they say, well at least not most of them as I'm sure there are real racists etc hidden in that forum. It is a dark humor subreddit where assholes go to troll over shit just to make people react. It is absolutely asinine that so many people think people can't make even crude jokes and not personally stand behind them. Do you know how many comedians do things like this and no one bats an eye? I can name one (who is hella funny) like Aries Spears. Comedy isn't PC all of the time and people need to realize this, no matter how bad it hurts their sensitivities.
The problem here is that the guy happened to post a pro-Trump, anti-CNN gif and engage in a Trump subreddit sometimes. Did you see CNN react like this for the memes created from neutral or leftist parties (which are now being made more and more not only by pro-trumpers)? No. You didn't. KFILE and CNN even said various times on twitter how "evil it was" to dox and release personal information on people (before they deleted the tweets), but that all went out the window with a wrestling meme insulting CNN...
Is the guy still an asshole for posting the stuff, definitely, but even if he
was an anti-Semitic (he never said anything anti-Semitic by the way, just racist crap) idiot, it doesn't change how wrong CNN was for doing what they did. It isn't about whether you should feel sorry for him, at least it shouldn't be about that. Doing something mean or racist or sexist or whatnot does not make it okay in any capacity to threaten and violate that person's rights. It sets an ugly precedent that unless corrected or punished in some way, will encourage more to do exactly the same thing.
