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posted by takyon on Thursday July 06 2017, @03:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the a-hole-news dept.

From CNN's writeup on how they managed to "dox" an individual who posted a GIF of President Trump wrestling a CNN logo:

CNN is not publishing "HanA**holeSolo's" name because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same.

CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.

For those that have not seen the GIF or video, it rose to prominence after this tweet by Trump. This story is being predictably split down partisan lines, but this raises major questions about freedoms in the internet age. This is a company which is part of one of world's largest and most powerful media conglomerates threatening to engage in an action knowing it would likely result in harm to an individual because they found a silly video clip about them distasteful.

To put this into perspective, imagine if an organization such as Fox News or Breitbart chose to track down and "dox" any of the countless individuals posting numerous anti-Trump memes. And they then threatened to publish this information unless said individual apologized and promised to stop posting memes. This may already be illegal under coercion laws in the US, but is time for the rights (or lack thereof) of anonymity and privacy in the digital world to be clearly codified?

takyon: A reporter for BuzzFeed, CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski's former employer, compared the HanAssholeSolo GIF to the video tweeted by the President and found some differences, suggesting that it was altered by someone else before reaching the President or his aides (including the addition of a sound track). In other words, someone out there actually responsible for catching the President's attention may have gone unidentified, and the Reddit user likely uploaded only the initial version of the infamous GIF. The editing is acknowledged in the second paragraph of CNN's story.

Kaczynski has denied threatening anyone and says that the Reddit user called him and agreed that he had not been threatened by Kaczynski or CNN. He says that the "reserves the right to publish his identity" line from the CNN story has been misinterpreted, and that "It was intended only to mean we made no agreement w/the man about his identity". Kaczynski has also denied the widespread notion that the Reddit user was 15 years old, saying that "HanAssholeSolo is an adult and not 15 which people have spread".


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by julian on Thursday July 06 2017, @05:24AM (3 children)

    by julian (6003) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 06 2017, @05:24AM (#535574)

    Their mistake was leaving that sentence in as is, because it's so easy to cynically misinterpret it and then pass that wrong interpretation off as fact on social media where it gets picked up by grandma.

    And Soylentnews, too, apparently.

    It's essentially legalese that just means no formal deal was made.

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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 06 2017, @07:20AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 06 2017, @07:20AM (#535608)

    Their mistake was leaving that sentence in as is, because it's so easy to cynically misinterpret it and then pass that wrong interpretation off as fact on social media where it gets picked up by grandma.

    How does one misinterpret a literal doxxing threat?

    It's so clear I can't even come up with any alternative interpretations without them sounding like a lawyer with less connection to reality than Donald Trump himself.

  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 06 2017, @07:42AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 06 2017, @07:42AM (#535616)

    Cognitive dissonance: the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.

    It really sucks that we, humans, are so good at this. You know threatening to dox people is wrong, but you want to believe that CNN did not do wrong here. Therefore, you're left to convince yourself that 1+1=3. Seriously, imagine this was published on Breitbart. And try to tell me you'd still be defending it. You would not. This is disgusting behavior whoever does it, and defending it out of bias is complete moral bankruptcy.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 07 2017, @12:59AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 07 2017, @12:59AM (#535952) Journal

    Their mistake was leaving that sentence in as is, because it's so easy to cynically misinterpret it and then pass that wrong interpretation off as fact on social media where it gets picked up by grandma.

    What misinterpretation, Mr. Credulous Rube? It's always interesting to see doublethink in action.