Man Planning To Sue After Liberal Media Outlet Doxxes Him, Reportedly with Facebook's Help
A man linked to a fake video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to sue the media outlet that doxxed him.
Shawn Brooks, 34, is not alone in his outrage.
A report by writer Kevin Poulsen in The Daily Beast, a left-leaning outlet, claimed Brooks created and spread the video, an allegation he denied, and made it appear that Facebook helped the media outlet identify Brooks.
In response to the story, commentators questioned why a lone individual would be put in the media crosshairs and why Facebook would allegedly violate his privacy.
If Facebook thinks it’s ok to reveal private user data to a reporter to identify someone who — according to Facebook — didn’t even violate the company’s policies, what’s stopping them from handing over your personal data to a reporter?
(Hint: Nothing is stopping them.)
— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) June 2, 2019
Video of the California Democrat speaking was posted to a pair of Facebook pages last month. In one version of the video, the audio was slowed down, which had the effect of making it appear that Pelosi was drunk. The doctored video was seen by millions on Twitter.
On June 1, about a week after the video became a brief sensation, The Daily Beast devoted almost 2,000 words to a piece accusing Brooks of creating the doctored video, a claim he rejects.
The report also covered the history of Brooks’ political opinions.
Although Brooks acknowledged he is an administrator of the Politics WatchDog Facebook page, he said he didn’t make or post the video, the Washington Examiner reported.
Brooks, a working man from the Bronx, responded to The Daily Beast’s article by creating a GoFundMe page with a $10,000 goal.
As of Monday, the page had raised more than $6,000.
“I’m looking at my options for possible legal action against anyone who was associated in publishing that inaccurate trash article about me, misquoting me and accusing me of being the creator of the Speaker Pelosi video that went viral,” Brooks said on the page.
“I see some people are wondering why I put 10,000. I’m not aware of the cost because I’m still in discussions with Lawyers. That was just a number I set. I will keep everyone updated on the finances. Just bare with me please. Thank you,” he wrote.
The Daily Beast did quote Brooks as saying he did not create the video, but then added this:
“It’s conceivable that someone else actually edited the clip. But a Facebook official, confirming a Daily Beast investigation, said the video was first posted on Politics WatchDog directly from Brooks’ personal Facebook account,” The Daily Beast wrote.
The Facebook connection worried many on Twitter, as did the effort expended to identify the alleged author of a social media joke.
I’m seeing social media accounts claiming to be the person the Daily Beast outed, and he’s strongly contesting the story. If the Daily Beast exposed him _and_ got the story wrong, _and_ Facebook helped expose their customer, then we’re looking at next-level misconduct.
— David French (@DavidAFrench) June 2, 2019
So … it appears that Facebook helped the reporter who wrote this story identify the person behind the doctored video of Nancy Pelosi — i.e., Facebook used its own internal data to help publicly identify a private citizen.
That’s extremely troubling. 1/ https://t.co/DEXXL8C4uj
— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) June 2, 2019
Can’t believe (honestly) that journalists don’t see why it’s so repellent to unleash the resources of a major news outlet on an obscure, anonymous, powerless, quasi-unemployed citizen for the crime of trivially mocking the most powerful political leaders https://t.co/0VU7D1sul9
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 2, 2019
I gotta say, it sets a really bad precedent when a private citizen, particularly someone who is working a blue collar job, has their identity publicly revealed simply because they made a video of a politician appearing to be drunk. His identity offers nothing to this story. https://t.co/yiXC1dkfIf
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) June 2, 2019
A hit job on a completely private citizen from the Daily Beast over a joke video of Pelosi that happened to go viral
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) June 2, 2019
Brooks has since posted on Twitter that he thinks he could be a victim.
“On May 29th Poulsen sent an email to my email account that I only use for banking and is not associated with Facebook or my paypal account. How did he get my banking email address? A crime has been committed here. Question now is who else is responsible,” he tweeted Monday.
On May 29th Poulsen sent an email to my email account that I only use for banking and is not associated with Facebook or my paypal account. How did he get my banking email address? A crime has been committed here. Question now is who else is responsible.
— Shawn (@sportsgurufsr) June 3, 2019
He added an explanation on his Facebook page.
“So as many will see that an article of me has been posted online by a left leaning site called the daily beast. I’m being accused of creating the Pelosi video that went viral,” he wrote.
“I am one of the admins of the page but i DID NOT CREATE THE VIDEO NOR DID I POST IT to the Politics WATCHDOG page. They need a fall guy and they choose me because of my background. Yes i made some mistakes in my life but the details in that article about my past does not explain the full picture and it can appear to look like i’m just some bad guy. Anyone who has had any interactions with me either online or in person must understand that i am not the person they are painting me out to be in this article.”
“Facebook was taking heat for not taking down the video so they made me the scapegoat of this pelosi video which was the final piece for The daily beast to throw me under the bus with their article. P.S Details in that article are not 100% accurate,” Brooks posted.
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