Last week, Gawker's Adrian Chen published a story claiming to unmask "The biggest troll on the web." It's hard to believe that anyone can objectively determine the winner of that title, but Michael Brutsch, a 49-year-old computer programmer from Arlington, Texas, seems like a worthy candidate. Under the pseudonym "Violentacrez," he's moderated Reddit forums so vile that it's hard to even type their names; "Jailbait," "Hitler," and "Incest" are actually some of the least offensive. When Chen located Brutsch, he was working on "creepshots", a forum where users could post surreptitiously taken, sexualised photos of women. And, to top it off, Brutsch has given the impression that his taste for young girls and incest is not make-believe; in 2010, he claimed to have had "consensual oral sex" with his 19-year-old stepdaughter.
Not to be outdone by Gawker, the 4Chan offshoot Anonymous made it their project to out someone even worse. They to have identified a 32-year-old man residing in Canada who allegedly convinced Amanda Todd (who was 13 years old at the time) to flash him via video chat, then allegedly threatened to release the picture to everyone she knew unless she "put on a show" for him. She refused, and he allegedly followed through on the threat. After two years of being severely bullied online and off, Todd slid into deep depression and anxiety, and, after two unsuccessful suicide attempts, killed herself at the age of 15.
Both of these stories are ubiquitous online, and for good reason: if the outed man is indeed the right person, then both of these men are arguably sexual predators, and one of them could allegedly be linked to a teenager's suicide.
But it's not quite time to hail these folks as warriors for social justice. After all, Anonymous's previous "outings" have included the two women who accused Julian Assange of sexual allegations, whose names have been published on the internet. This is something to remember about the politics of "outing"; they rarely rely on a hardline stance against any particular issue. What they do rely on is the public's taste for juicy details. Today, those details are about an alleged sexual assailant. Tomorrow, they may well be about a victim.
Cole Stryker has written extensively on the dynamics of anonymity and identity online, including the book Epic Win for Anonymous: How 4Chan's Army Conquered the Web. I asked him for his thoughts on the recent outings.
"The outing of Brutsch should not be seen as a victory for feminism. Even if Reddit's admins finally decide to crack down on this practice, creeps will scatter to other places. Chen's story needed to put a face to the movement for dramatic narrative purposes, but one wonders what is accomplished by hanging him out to dry."
Stryker stressed that he believed Brutsch should face consequences for his actions. But his larger point, I think, stands: Brutsch's predatory behaviour is not unique. Forums such as "creepshots" and the hounding of Amanda Todd are only possible through collective acceptance and support, whether that support takes the form of the Reddit staff's supportive relationship with Brutsch or a kid at Todd's high school bullying her in order to fit in with the other bullies. Outing individual predators, and subjecting them to the same mass persecution their victims have faced (Brutsch has been fired, and claims to have received death threats), feels like poetic justice. But in practice, it keeps us stuck in a dynamic where structural change is neglected in favour of sensationalism.
The charges against these men are stomach-turning, and it is undeniably good that they've been exposed. But unless we're planning to set up individual protest Facebook groups for each and every teenager who bullied Amanda Todd, and until Gawker outs everyone who has ever posted a "creepshot", they're essentially scapegoats, individuals being punished for collective crimes.
Ending bigotry and sexual harassment is not as simple as selectively unmasking one or two perpetrators. It relies on all of us working daily to create a culture in which such behaviours aren't tolerated. Harnessing internet outrage is much easier – and more immediately satisfying – than changing the attitudes of the culture itself, but it's that longer, harder work that will save us all in the end. Knowing Michael Brutsch's name is less important than knowing that we will challenge attitudes like his the next time we meet someone who expresses them. After all, right now he's still likely to be applauded for them when he goes online.