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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".
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jmorris on Thursday July 06 2017, @03:16PM
Ok, I see what you are doing here. You think CNN is such #FakeNews that you can't even believe a direct statement from their
own lips saying they blackmailed the guy. :)
Duh. Guy posted the most over the top groveling apology seen in years and deleted every scrap of his online history he could remember the login info for. Guy did everything but apologize for being born and earnestly wish his mother had aborted him. Of course CNN didn't have to carry out the threatened action.
But it don't work that way. They said it. And their offense goes far beyond an allegedly misstated sentence. And it doesn't matter what they 'intended' when they have a platform the size of CNN, it matters what they actually said. The message was unmistakable: "If you think you can make jokes at our expense you are wrong, we will destroy you. We are CNN. We are Warner. We are ZOG." Alinsky was right, ridicule is man's most potent weapon, and CNN understands the danger of having that weapon turned on the Left.
Somebody thought tracking down the original author of a meme from chanistan that Trump thought funny enough to repost was a good idea, they thought it was a good idea long enough to expend hours of effort tracking the guy down. The 'layers of editors' thought it was a good enough idea to post a story about it. So no, I'm sorry, the Left made the rule that some random dude forwarding the 'wrong' email joke loses their job, having a twitter rage mob yell loses you your job, etc, so everybody involved in this has to go because we on the right don't get to make the rules but WE WILL ENFORCE THEM. Alinsky was right, making the enemy live by his own book of rules is powerful.
If the offenders are not fired, if the rest of the media do not demand they be fired, we will assume this can only mean that a rule change has occurred, that it is now OK to dox people. You will not like that world. Nobody will like that world. CNN certainly is not going to like that world because they will be first. Apparently a few of the more 'motivated' weaponized autistics aren't waiting to see how CNN management reacts, they are already going after CNN employees.