Comment by KathySierra on http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/23/state-machinery-for-state-machines/

Fascinating. The person made famous for doxing individuals (i.e. posting their private personal information -- social security numbers in particular) has spun himself as a privacy advocate, and the tech press falls for it. Rich. Weev is pretty much the LAST person who -- when it comes to defending privacy rights -- "has our back." He publishes the social security numbers and other personal private information of *individuals*, simply for "the lulz."

A self-proclaimed liar, weev boasts one of his top skills is artful blending of fact and fiction to get people to believe the most outrageous things. Yet the tech press (I'm looking at you, TC), for example, ignores the conflict between what weev *actually* said about the ATT incident pre-getting-caught preferring (and propagating) the charming, 100% fictional "hacktivist hero" narrative concocted only *after* he was caught and charged.

Spoiler alert: when the ATT incident was happening, weev's own words in the IRC logs never included even a whiff of "social justice", "protecting privacy", or "public good". What you will find, in his own words back then, are explicit goals of personal gain, though mostly for "max luilz" and "spin Goatse as legit" (and speculation on how this could be used for many awesome purposes like targeted phishing, stock manipulation, etc.). And despite his claim that he told ATT first, he later admitted that of course he did NOT tell them. (His supporters/apologists explanation? "it's not like ATT would have done anything." Which, while potentially true, does not explain or justify why he lied to journalists and the world about it).

I cannot speak about weev from the place of objective privilege most of you are coming from. I speak, along with my family, as one of his "personal ruin for lulz" victims.

I don't have the luxury of reframing his trolling the way you have in TechCrunch, minimizing it as "mischief" and "pranks".

FYI: a "prank" is when the engineers reassemble the professor's vintage Porsche on the fourth floor of an MIT building. Here's what's NOT a "prank":  creating a fictional but devastating, permanent online history for your daughters that will, forever, describe them as having a single mother supporting them (while they lived, homeless, out of their car) as a prostitute, a father who was both a pimp and domestic violence abuser, and…" I'll stop there, though weev certainly didn't. And now, thanks to you, tech press (especially TC,) for giving credibility to the things he says, what *should* have been dismissed as the lying, absurd rant of a cruel troll is now suddenly being described today as "hey, he just calls people on what's true."

But TechCrunch doesn't seem to care about truth here. No, TechCrunch praises him. Gives him a platform. And a Crunchie. TechCrunch goes on to describe one of the most malicious online/hacker bullies of the last decade as an "American Hero". Cyan Banister, a woman I had much respect for until the moment she wrote that here, twisted the knife, saying that hey, he only really trolls those who, you know, "deserve it." Thanks. Thanks for everything TechCrunch. Thanks for spinning him as a "hacktivist hero". Thanks for reframing his motives as "noble", rather than quoting his earlier, self-described motives. Heroic motives like, for example, this one he wrote about *me*, personally:  "she fought the lol. The lol won." And another of his explicitly stated goals? To punish those who speak out. He authored one of the most misogynistic (and I do not use that word loosely) woman-in-tech documents on the planet, which served to warn women what would happen if they, as I did, "squeal like a stuck pig". What happens? You will be destroyed. We're talking way past mere "doxing". And your children will be acceptable collateral damage. These calls-to-action you publish from him? Yeah, how about the call-to-action he gave for people to "send things" to my home, and "her address is…" People did. We moved.

This guy you are calling a hero? He views other living, breathing human beings as simply "props" in his "performance art." (Those who have nothing to offer him, anyway) The night before sentencing, he managed on video (thanks, Reddit AMA), to explain to his surprised friends why, counterintuitively, he did NOT actually want me *dead*. No, his friends were missing the deeper point. If I were *dead*, he said, they would then be robbed of further lulz, watching me cry. Hilarity, laughs all around. To quote weev, recently, about potentially threatening rape comments, "well, they ARE funny you have to admit" and "It's just wishful thinking." And yet, some of his loudest supporters are themselves outspoken believers in and critics of "rape culture". I don't even.

This means nothing, I realize, to anyone but me and my family, but if you have a shred of empathy and compassion, try to imagine that the person our new American Tech Hero "ruined for lulz" is your own sister, wife, daughter, mother. Take one second, just one, and try to put yourself in that space. And to all his *feminist*, supporters…wow, you're giving him a pass on the things you fight against. To quote Australian Chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison on the degradation of women: "The standard you walk past is the standard you accept." Only you didn't just walk past it, you actively supported his trolling as somehow necessary and good and courageous.

If the government twisted a horribly vague law to suit their purposes of getting him, this is NOT how we're supposed to do things in this country, and I'm certain I've violated the CFAA more than once. The CFAA nightmare is real. We MUST act. But if the facts -- the TRUTH -- of this case are on the EFF/weev's side, then putting weev on some freakish pedestal should not be necessary. Fighting bullshit convictions with more bullshit makes no sense. So stop doing it.

I support the efforts of the EFF to help him on THIS case. It goes against every cell in my body to support #freeweev, but as a programmer, I must, and I do. But that doesn't mean he's innocent of *other* actual crimes for which I hope (thought doubt) one day he IS charged . But today, while he is in prison, I know a non-trivial number of his personal victims are exhaling for the first time in many years, knowing that -- for the moment -- he cannot harm others with horrific life-altering damage minimized here as "pranks" and "mischief."

In his public "letter" to and about me (once again, for the record, it was FICTION except for my social security number and home address, yeah, those were real), he said "welcome to the internet". My words to him now? "welcome to karma."

I am not alone in that sentiment. His individual victims are many. We might forgive, but we will never forget.