Anonymous

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Daryush Valizadeh, aka Roosh V, is many things. Misogynist, blogger, advocate of legalizing rape on private property, attention seeker, the list goes on. One tactic he has used constantly through all of his guises has been encouraging his troll followers to find out as much personal info about the women opposed to or even remotely critical of him and share it. Sometimes, he even doxxes them himself.

There was the time he tried to have a woman who started a petition against him entering Canada lose her child for being an “unfit mother” because she spent some of her time criticizing him on Twitter. There were the countless female journalists he urged his followers to doxx for reporting on him in an unfavorable light. More recently, after discovering the identity of the mystery woman who threw a beer in his face when he visited Montreal, he created a thread in his (now non-public) forum asking his minions to help destroy her.

But now, the tables have turned…

The doxxer has himself been doxxed. And he doesn’t like it one bit.

Anonymous Drops Roosh’s Info

Most of this week, social media, and even the mainstream press, had been talking about the so-called “international meetups” planned by Roosh’s site Return of Kings and many had been planning to protest them, including an all-female boxing club in Toronto. That was until Roosh supposedly pulled the plug on Wednesday, causing many to speculate that they weren’t cancelled, just now hidden and others to argue that they were merely nothing more than a publicity stunt all along.

The discourse changed yesterday. First, UK tabloid The Daily Mail revealed that this self-proclaimed alpha-male lived in his mother’s basement, causing many to snicker, then Anonymous (or more specifically the @WeAreAnonymous Facebook page) released Roosh’s home address, telephone number, cellphone number and even date of birth.

They doxxed the doxxer. The original post was reported and taken down, but only after receiving over a million views and over 10,000 shares.

(UPDATE: The second post containing the details by Anonymous has also been removed, but there are still several tweets and FB posts you can find that have them, just search the #rooshv hashtag)

Roosh Not Happy

Not surprisingly, but completely hypocritically, Roosh took to Twitter to voice his displeasure:

While normally I would agree with someone, anyone, decrying being doxxed and fearing for their safety or the safety of loved ones, this one time, it is different. Why? Because of the complete disregard Roosh has had over years of internet stalking and releasing personal information of women who dared to challenge his dangerous, misogynistic views.

I guess it doesn’t feel that good to be on the receiving end of a doxx, does it, Roosh?

FTB WeekendsNewsPolitics

The list of really strange bedfellows lining up against the Quebec Secularism Charter (formerly known as the Charter of Quebec Values) keeps growing. The Jewish General Hospital, QPIRG Concordia and even Harley Davidson have opposed this piece of legislation each in their own way, among other groups and now Anonymous has joined them.

The hacker collective has released a video in French criticizing Pauline Marois for acting just like most of the other major world governments, removing liberties and using distractions like the Charter to make people forget about the real economic and social problems facing our society. At the end, they call for her to step down or she will become their next target. Not sure what type of justice they have in mind for her (hacked websites, release of documents) but they have been successful in the past.

Regardless, Marois’ ability to get groups as varied as this together in opposition to a piece of legislation shows that she may well be a great rassembleuse after all.

CultureNewsWeb & Tech

I was having a really shitty week. My mind-numbing office job was driving me crazier than usual, my sinuses were completely plugged, causing a massive headache and I had an unexpected call regarding a four hundred dollar bill that I have absolutely no way of paying. And then I saw a post on Facebook with a picture of a bright-eyed, smiling teenage girl named Rehtaeh Parsons standing in front a lake with her dog. I read her story and bawled my eyes out at the kitchen table.

The 17-year old was gang-raped by four boys, then taunted and cyber bulled about it to the point where she took her own life earlier this week. Somehow, even though photos of the crime were widely circulated at Rehtaeh’s school, the police decided there wasn’t enough evidence to charge the rapists. This devastated the Parsons family, who called it a slap in the face.

Rehtaeh descended into a deep depression after the rape. “She was never left alone. She had to move out of her community. Her friends turned against her. People harassed her. Boys she didn’t know started texting her and Facebooking her, asking her to have sex with them since she had sex with their friends. It just never stopped,” her mother Leah said in an interview on CBC’s Maritime Noon radio show.

After the tragic tale made international headlines, the hacker collective Anonymous got involved. They tracked down the identities of the guilty parties in matter of hours, with a combination of internet sleuthing and character witnesses:

“Dozens of e-mails were sent to us by kids and adults alike, most of whom had personal relationships with the rapists. Many recalled confessions made by these boys blatantly in public where they detailed the rape of an inebriated 15-year-old girl,” they wrote in a statement on April 11th.

anonymousInstead of outing the guilty parties and leaving them vulnerable to vigilante justice, Anoymous used the names as bargaining chips, putting pressure on the Nova Scotia justice system to reopen the case or else they would make the rapists’ identities public.

Nova Scotia police finally caved to the pressure, releasing a statement on Friday that the case would be reopened. They denied that it was because of pressure from an outside source, claiming instead that a person had come forward to them with new and credible information.

It makes me incredibly sad that we live in a world where something like that could and will continue to happen. As if being physically violated wasn’t bad enough, to have everyone know about it, see pictures of it and question your version of the events is enough to break anyone, especially a sensitive, compassionate teenage girl. But it also makes me angry to know that for every case like this that makes the news, there are probably tens, hundreds or thousands that don’t.

The most touching tribute of all was from Rehtaeh’s father on his blog. In life, Retaeh Parsons couldn’t get away from her reputation and her father hopes that she will be remembered for more than just her victimhood.

“I had to write something about this. I don’t want her life to defined by a Google search about suicide or death or rape. I want it to be about the giving heart she had. Her smile. Her love of life and the beautiful way in which she lived it.”