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12 Oct, 2012

Gawker exposes Violentacrez

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Gawker outs Brutsch, a 49-year-old computer programmer from Texas, as the the real-life identity of “Violentacrez”, a Reddit moderator, who had set up more than a hundred sub-forums (called sub-reddits) where users could share links and images of underage girls, rape fantasy and upskirt photos. Brutsch shuts down his Violentacrez username after Gawker reporter Adrian Chen tells him he knows his identity. He returns to the site with the new handle “mbrutsch”. In response to the exposé of Violentacres’ identity, a number of Reddit moderators ban Gawker links from their subreddits.

16 Oct, 2012

Loses job

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As a result of the Gawker story, Brutsch is fired from his job. Brutsch said that he had warned his boss of the article before receiving a call Saturday telling him to not return to the office. Brutsch:

All my remote access has been disabled, my health insurance and FSA were cancelled immediately (so they had to drag someone in over the weekend to do that). At this point, if any of the dozens of death threats I’ve gotten were to make good on their promises, at least my wife would have the insurance.

Brutsch’s supporters on Reddit launch a campaign to donate money to the newly unemployed Brutsch and he released his email address on Reddit so supporters could donate money to his PayPal account.

4 Aug, 2015

Redirects released tel number

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After Gawker publishes Trump’s phone number, Trump changes the message to his campaign message.

Hi, this is Donald Trump and I’m running for the Presidency of the United States of America. With your help and support, together, we can make America truly great again. Visit me at Twitter @RealDonaldTrump and check out my campaign website www.donaldjtrump.com. Hope to see you on the campaign trail, we’re going to do it.

19 Aug, 2015

Paid for Ashley Madison membership

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Gawker reports that data from the Ashley Madison hack reveals a credit card under the name Joshua J. Duggar was used to pay for an account on the site. The address listed along with the card was that of the Fayetteville, Arkansas, home his grandmother Mary owns. That credit card was used to purchase two different monthly Ashley Madison subscriptions, costing $986.76 from February 2013 to May 2015. He reportedly opened another account using his address in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where he lived when he was lobbying as part of his job as the executive director of the conservative Family Research Council. That account was registered in July 2014, and was paid monthly through May 2015. The account details sexual preferences:

Conventional Sex, Experimenting with Sex Toys, One-Night Stands, Open to Experimentation, Gentleness, Good With Your Hands, Sensual Massage, Extended Foreplay/Teasing, Bubble Bath for 2, Likes to Give Oral Sex, Likes to Receive Oral Sex, Someone I Can Teach, Someone Who Can Teach Me, Kissing, Cuddling & Hugging, Sharing Fantasies, Sex Talk.

29 Sep, 2015

Quits Twitter and Gawker

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On the Re/code Decode podcast Dunham tells Swisher she has quit Twitter and Gawker citing verbal abuse and body-shaming.

I don’t look at Twitter anymore. I tweet, but I do it through someone else. I really appreciate that anybody follows me at all, and so I didn’t want to cut off my relationship to it completely, but it really, truly wasn’t a safe space for me.

She says the decision was prompted after she posted a picture of herself in her boyfriends’ shorts:

It wasn’t a graphic picture. I was wearing men’s boxers, and it turned into the most rabid, disgusting debate about women’s bodies, and my Instagram page was somehow the hub for misogynists for the afternoon.

She also says she has stopped reading Gawker and Jezebel:

I used to read Gawker and Jezebel in college and be like, ‘I can’t wait to get to New York where my people will be to welcome me.’ And it’s like, it’s literally, if I read it, it’s like going back to a husband who beat me in the face — it just doesn’t make any sense.