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Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep identities secret

seattletimes.com

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Re: Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep identities secret

#11

Post by Arnt »

faxc1001 wrote: post #6

So we have a newspaper in a city with 67.30% Whites and 15.43% Asian doing a little virtue signaling. In the witch hunt they use illegally obtained information. How do we know that the data sets are even correct? Can one use information from a hack? Will these journalists be prosecuted like Assange for using such information? I don't like the websites that the witch hunt target participated in, but public shaming lik…

Well, that part says three things. First, that someone's name appeared in the Epik dump as having paid for some domains, and names the domains. Second, that the journalists spoke to that someone, and that he said certain things. Third (and implying that this was public knowledge before this article), that he was fired by his employer, also named.

How do we know that this is correct? We can download the data via torrent and see that his name actually does appear, we have to trust that what he told the journalists is correctly quoted, and that he was fired? I've no idea, I suppose neither the employer nor the employee will be eager to talk about that, many people aren't.

The journalists may be prosecuted, but for what? If that already was widely enough known that his employer fired him, what is the significant change of this article? And what else might they be prosecuted for?

Re: Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep identities secret

#12

Post by mavhc »

h2odragon wrote: post #4

> The Post publicizes material obtained through hacking with caution, only after verifying its authenticity and ascertaining that there is news value in bringing such information to light. Sure you do. So let me just check here: Political purity as an employment requirement... Firing people for this is fine, right? What happens when the popular politics change? The "Moral Majority" folks were accused of wanting to be…

So you're saying releasing the names of trolls who doxxed people is not funny?

Re: Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep identities secret

#13

Post by krapp »

h2odragon wrote: post #4

> The Post publicizes material obtained through hacking with caution, only after verifying its authenticity and ascertaining that there is news value in bringing such information to light. Sure you do. So let me just check here: Political purity as an employment requirement... Firing people for this is fine, right? What happens when the popular politics change? The "Moral Majority" folks were accused of wanting to be…

Voltaire didn't give his life so that being exposed as a racist prick could have negative social consequences!

Re: Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep identities secret

#14

Post by rendall »

gerikson wrote: post #3
rvz wrote: post #2

I wouldn’t be cheering this data breach on as if ‘Anonymous’ or other internet vigilantes are the good guys here (They are not). Rather than cause a complete exposure of everyone’s sensitive data, just report whatever illegal content you find to the authorities to force Epik to take it down. One day Anonymous is on your side and in the next day they are not. They can try to do this to anyone they don’t like, even if…

I don't see any cheering. It's reporting on the consequences of a serious data breach.

Not really.

Despite "domains affiliated with right-wing politics comprise less than 1 percent of [Epik's] users", the focus was emphatically on Epik's "right-wing" and "racist" users. There was zero reporting on the consequences to non-affiliated and left-wing users.

Admittedly, the featured victims of the breech are unsympathetic characters, so it's hard to really be upset. Which is upstream's point: the article invites us as readers to indulge in schadenfreude which, let's be honest, is a kind of cheering.

The downside of such articles for people of all political stripes is that it seems to imply that online anonymity, such as that supplied by Epik, benefits only reprehensible people peddling reprehensible views.

It's easier to call for legislation that limits online anonymity if it is generally perceived to help only those who everyone can agree are awful.

Throughout history, good people have needed anonymity from the government and even from popular consensus. The Underground Railroad, homosexuals, Jews, civil rights activists, anti-war demonstrators, to name just a few prominent examples.

Re: Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep identities secret

#15

Post by bildung »

busymom0 wrote: post #7
gerikson wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any cheering. It's reporting on the consequences of a serious data breach.

I am old enough to remember when a year ago, these same media companies censored the hunter Biden story falsely claiming it was Russian disinfo and result of hacking and thus didn't report it. Do you really believe this is about data breach and not about only political vendetta? The article is doing a lot of cheering if you read the article.

"After a scandal narrative [about Hunter Biden] failed to gain traction in the mainstream press, conservative media and personalities pivoted to a "meta narrative" that the press, social media platforms and the "deep state" were suppressing news of the scandal."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biden%E2%80%93Ukraine_conspira...

Re: Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep identities secret

#16

Post by [deleted] »

mavhc wrote: post #12
h2odragon wrote: post #4

> The Post publicizes material obtained through hacking with caution, only after verifying its authenticity and ascertaining that there is news value in bringing such information to light. Sure you do. So let me just check here: Political purity as an employment requirement... Firing people for this is fine, right? What happens when the popular politics change? The "Moral Majority" folks were accused of wanting to be…

So you're saying releasing the names of trolls who doxxed people is not funny?

[deleted]

Re: Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep identities secret

#17

Post by PeterisP »

mavhc wrote: post #12
h2odragon wrote: post #4

> The Post publicizes material obtained through hacking with caution, only after verifying its authenticity and ascertaining that there is news value in bringing such information to light. Sure you do. So let me just check here: Political purity as an employment requirement... Firing people for this is fine, right? What happens when the popular politics change? The "Moral Majority" folks were accused of wanting to be…

So you're saying releasing the names of trolls who doxxed people is not funny?

The parent post seems to be saying that employers firing someone for their disagreeable political actions (at least outside of their workplace) is wrong.

Agitating contrary to the majority sociopolitical opinion should not make one unemployable; Firing people for inappropriate or immoral political opinion is not new, USA has already been there with e.g. Hoover's Red scare and the 1980s "Moral majority", but in hindsight it seems quite clear that this approach was wrong at least back in those years when it was targeted by the right wing towards the [USA-]left.

Re: Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep identities secret

#18

Post by marcinzm »

h2odragon wrote: post #4

> The Post publicizes material obtained through hacking with caution, only after verifying its authenticity and ascertaining that there is news value in bringing such information to light. Sure you do. So let me just check here: Political purity as an employment requirement... Firing people for this is fine, right? What happens when the popular politics change? The "Moral Majority" folks were accused of wanting to be…

>The "Moral Majority" folks were accused of wanting to be everything the Left has become.

You think people somehow inherently differ because of their political beliefs? We're all human and both sides will act roughly the same but for different stated reasons. Then denounce the other side for it before doing it themselves.

Re: Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep identities secret

#19

Post by notanzaiiswear »

mcphage wrote: post #9
h2odragon wrote: post #4

> The Post publicizes material obtained through hacking with caution, only after verifying its authenticity and ascertaining that there is news value in bringing such information to light. Sure you do. So let me just check here: Political purity as an employment requirement... Firing people for this is fine, right? What happens when the popular politics change? The "Moral Majority" folks were accused of wanting to be…

I think criticizing people for running websites like “theholocaustisfake” is less like “attacking people for having bad thoughts” and a bit more like “attacking people for poisoning the well”.

[flagged]

Re: Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep identities secret

#20

Post by notanzaiiswear »

marcinzm wrote: post #18
h2odragon wrote: post #4

> The Post publicizes material obtained through hacking with caution, only after verifying its authenticity and ascertaining that there is news value in bringing such information to light. Sure you do. So let me just check here: Political purity as an employment requirement... Firing people for this is fine, right? What happens when the popular politics change? The "Moral Majority" folks were accused of wanting to be…

>The "Moral Majority" folks were accused of wanting to be everything the Left has become. You think people somehow inherently differ because of their political beliefs? We're all human and both sides will act roughly the same but for different stated reasons. Then denounce the other side for it before doing it themselves.

People have different ideals. A lot of people really care about free speech and freedom in general.
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