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Notorious 8chan Board Has History Wiped After Federal Judge's Doxing
AmiMoJo writes On Monday, imageboard site 8chan's "baphomet" subboard, an Internet destination known for hosting aggressive "doxing" posts, received a major history wipe the day after one of its users posted the personal information of a federal judge in the Silk Road case. A follow-up post by baphomet's "Board Owner" account stated that "HW," a reference to site founder Frederick "hotwheels" Brennan, deleted "the SSN posts" and told the baphomet board founder, previously identified via an associated Twitter handle as Benjamin Biddix, to "lay low." The same day baphomet's "Board Owner" announced a "doxing for hire" service due to "running low on funds."
I'm sure the guy who posted was behind 7 proxies.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
What's the story here?
A user of a board posted info on someone, gets the attention of law enforcement and is probably going to see jailtime in the future.
The administrator deletes and removes said offending post.
What am I missing here or is this newsworthy?
Is it illegal to use SSNs as ID numbers outside of the intended purpose of Social Security accounting? It's not really the government's fault that so many companies are so fucking stupid.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Doxing (from dox, abbreviation of documents),[1] or doxxing,[2][3] is the Internet-based practice of researching and broadcasting personally identifiable information about an individual.[3][4][5][6] The methods employed to acquire this information include searching publicly available databases and social media websites (like Facebook), hacking, and social engineering. It is closely related to cyber-vigilantism, hacktivism and cyber-bullying.
Doxing may be carried out to aid law enforcement, business analysis, extortion, coercion, harassment, public shaming and other forms of vigilante justice.[7][8]
Post anything about anyone. That's fine. Just don't post anything about a judge. Lesson learned?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
People don't like being doxed. Judges are people too.
Well, you don't get it, do you? Of course "People don't like being doxed", neither you, nor me. The thing is, being a judge changes dramatically the way "doxing" is dealt with. Double standard...
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
I always assumed 4chan means "fortune." Is that right?
So then does 8chan mean "Asian?"
I've never been to either site. Can someone please explain the logic behind #chan?
More over judges, and other law enforcement officials have the power, and resources to hunt you down, and make your life miserable if you pull this kind of shit.
I don't think deleting the board's history is gonna help, as their are multiple archives of the board right now. I think Hotwheels' life is about too become an objective lesson in why you don't fuck with the law.
Trying to intimidate a federal judge is both a criminal act and a VERY bad idea.
Except law enforcement has made it de facto practice to comb through anyone's public information under the guise that it is fair game. They can't be so incredulous as to think that the same wouldn't be applied to themselves? They set the standard.
If not 8chan, there are more than enough other places for said info to be posted on the deep web, and being a judge just means even greater luls for pulling it off.
Certainly law enforcement has the power to make any individual's life hell, but when the attacks are coming from everywhere and nowhere, greater punishments just makes them even more of a target, and reinforces scorn that they are above the law
The founding fathers were terrorists, you fucking twat. You're "against terrorism" because you're too scared to fuck with society, you hypocritical coward.
Don't be so fucking naive. An ill-tempered judge is the most dangerous enemy you can possibly make. Once you are presented to them in hand-cuffs you are as fucked as a quarterback who pisses off a referee.
BONUS: the person who has discretion over who to deliver in handcuffs plays poker with the Judge!
Piss off a politician, piss off a cop, piss off the DAs office, or even a surgeon.
NEVER piss off a judge, especially not the type who can deny appeals without a hearing. Good luck writing a writ of habeus corpus that motivates a District Supreme Court to intervene on your behalf! You threaten a judge and expect another judge to have your back? Lol, you think Cops are the only one with a secret squirrel club? https://www.pinterest.com/pin/260997740877062065/
They are accountable only to themselves and the special investigators who can shake them down for corruption. Once they're on the bench, they're virtually impossible to remove as one of the tenants of the separation of powers. Absolute power does LOTS of things "absolutely". The guardians of "The Republic" have been bought and paid for by the prison industrial complex. Same as it ever was. Feel free to piss in the wind and try to change the system from the inside.
Where do you think disillusioned old men come from if not young idealists with experience?
Why does it matter? It's not illegal to post name, addresses, SSN, etc... and you don't have to do anything illegal to get them. There are plenty 'background checks' companies. Doxing is the crowd source version of such companies like Uber is to taxis.
I would suggest that you ask a lawyer about this as it applies to a federal judge. You might get a surprising answer, for free even.
You're living in the land of don't fuck with Federal Judges.
Play Command HQ online
Posting *publicly available* information of a **public servant** is illegal?
Jesus Fucking Christ.
It's obvious to everyone by now that the Slashdot editors have taken a passive aggressive stance towards Gamergate stories and submissions, using every opportunity to smear gamers and generally ignoring just about every even slightly neutral or nuanced aspect of the internet's biggest ever flamewar. Holy shit, News for Nerds, if ever there was news for nerds, it was Gamergate. Holy Fuck. The least the editors could have done was joked about it all.
But this shit? This is just straight up Propaganda, with a capital P. This obvious fucking bait that even the gamers and SJWs have almost completely ignored, ending up unironically on the front page. Propaganda for the New Age Fascists who have been shitting on both gamers and the entire tech sector for the last three years and who are fucking notorious for getting their SJW cult members to pull this false flag shit to try and get sites shut down.
I don't know what disgusts me more. Slashdot, the site that stood against censorship and SOPA, coming down on the site of the Moral Panic 2.0 hipsters calling for the internet wide censorship and controls. Or Slashdot, the site made by nerds, for nerds, coming down on the side of a transparent high school clique of social justice bullies who are ripping the tech sector apart at the seams.
Because for all their hysteria and anti-intellectualism, the SJWs are at the end of the day, fakers and posers who never cared about geeks, tech, or hobbies. But you guys, Slashdot eds and the shills in these threads, you were nerds once, and somewhere behind all the shame and self-loathing you've self-indoctrinated yourselves with, you know how wrong all this is. You know how hollow and hypocritical people like Shanley and Sarkeesian are, and you know that nerds, geeks, and techies are being bullied into submission by these people. You could have simply done nothing, but instead you've sided with some of the worst, most vicious, and most destructive trolls in the history of the internet. Shame on you. Shame on you all.
Thought For The Day: A heretic may see the truth and seek redemption. He may be forgiven his past and be absolved in death. A Traitor can never be forgiven. A Traitor can never find peace in this world or the next. There is nothing as wretched or as hated in all the world as a Traitor.
8chan was basically what happened when moot (who was 4chan's admin until his retirement a few weeks ago) banned #gamergate and fucked with /pol/. (Translation: Even he got sick of the gamergaters, and the fact that none of the political whackjobs could keep their shit in the /pol/itics containment board, so he fucked with 'em for the lulz. I thought it was funny as fuck.)
tl;dr: 8ch exists because there are people for whom 4chan is too polite.
There was a time when it was America.
Its called karma prostitution.
No, no there wasn't. That's a little pipe dream you had that you think is real.
I'm in awe!
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
As long as you're going to describe an ideal world........in my ideal world, there's no vigilante justice and people aren't mean and don't try to dox each other.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
"Don't be so fucking naive. An ill-tempered judge is the most dangerous enemy you can possibly make. Once you are presented to them in hand-cuffs you are as fucked as a quarterback who pisses off a referee."
Don't be so fucking naive. An ill-tempered criminal is the most dangerous enemy you can possibly make. Once they know where you and your loved ones live, you are as fucked as a quarterback who pisses off a referee.
I think you mean: moot was cosying up to Gawker and his brand new SJW buddies to get some money. GamerGate was busy attacking Gawker. So moot did what he was told like a little bitch.
Let's not compare the colonial revolutionaries being willing to fight for what they wanted _against the King's men_ (and they were no innocent maidens so far as this went) with violent fanatics who want to force a change in US government policies by the threatened and attempted _mass murder of civilians_
Is it ok if the mass murder of civilians was essentially successful and the few survivors have their lands confiscated and are locked away in reservations?
There is just a small difference in those things, "you fucking twat."
The main difference is success. Any means are justified by success.
It is not "an acceptable kind of vigilate justice". It is the kind of behaviour you expect from badly brought up brats with personality disorders so severe they have to be kept locked up.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
i.e. traitors
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Exactly what time in America was it appropriate to go vigilante against the government? I'm not talking "fixing it" by formally fighting it. I'm asking when it was appropriate to slander, wrap houses, slash tires, egg people in the streets, call them in the middle of the night with death threats, etc.
Americans have abused their freedoms to the point that any indication they shouldn't be assholes is an affront to their beliefs.
8chan supposed to be for free speech, but then they have the proviso
"Do not post, request, or link to any content illegal in the United States of America. Do not create boards with the sole purpose of posting or spreading such content"
8chan users always castigate 4chan as halfchan, but now itself is becoming 1/4chan
People don't like being doxed. Judges are people too.
Well, you don't get it, do you? Of course "People don't like being doxed", neither you, nor me. The thing is, being a judge changes dramatically the way "doxing" is dealt with. Double standard...
Being a Judge changes a lot of things. For example, there are plenty of people who after hearing the "wrong" verdict who lack the scruples to abide by the law and might be willing to actually kill a Judge.
So we have extra laws to protect Judges from those who are willing to assist in Judge revenge. Otherwise, being the good-old-USA, we would have people selling maps to the Judge's home just outside the courtroom.
The Judge in the case didn't perform misconduct, and he ran a fair courtroom. The defense had a hard case against them because there was a lot of evidence to substantiate the charges. Eventually the Jury decided the man was guilty, and now someone wants to dox the Judge? Such an idea is ridiculous, it was the Jury that made the decision.
The 1800s. Seriously, if the Sherriff or judge got out of control of a community, they took them out with force if necessary. I truly believe that this is missing from modern society. The ability for the local populace to revolt and replace as necessary.
Good-bye
If you are going to decide life and death, your privacy is not the same as the average citizen's. Judges should be closely monitored. Hell we should be tapping their lines as a matter of course.
Good-bye
This needs to change. No one person should wield that kind of influence. NO ONE should fear the judge, they should only fear the law.
Good-bye
The legal system gives a lot of leeway for those who want to be dicks. It just doesn't abide those who are conspiring to break laws.
To back up my first point the video game scourge of a lawyer, Jack Thompson, generally made an ass of himself for over a decade before he managed to finally commit acts so horrible he was disbarred.
Judges are the symbolic head of our legal system, but the Juries make the decisions. So outing a Judge is just a way to symbolically strike back at the court system. It doesn't actually attack the people who made an decision in any criminal trial.
Attacking judges in this manner is akin to attacking doctors who work in abortion clinics. Whatever your position is on abortion, it was the woman who made the decision to abort, and the doctor is a paid servant carrying out her wishes.
Likewise, it was the Jury that convicted the criminals, and the Judge ensured that a minimal set of rules were followed so the case wouldn't take forever and both sides couldn't just start making stuff up.
That is why doxxing a Judge is low. Judges don't get to pick and choose which cases they get. They don't get to overturn a Jury verdict without risking their career. If they overturn a jury verdict, there is a documented legal reason, like a Juror stating that the evidence and rules say a person should be convicted but they're not going to convict because the don't care about the evidence and the rules.
To put this in perspective, the bailiff has a similar role as the Judge. The court reporter has a similar role as the Judge. The secretary down the hall has a similar role as the Judge.
If you really want to strike at the legal system, go after the politicians who stand up too many laws to actually be followed (and some believe it is too many to actually be counted). Go after the enforcement agencies that decide to pre-punish because Judges assured that in a balanced courtroom there was no evidence to convict and the person really shouldn't be detained any longer. Go after the doxxers who decide that without anything except misinformation and rage they can do something beneficial by harrassing (probably the wrong) people.
If the government can do it without authorization or true legal justification, why cant the citizenry? As someone said above, they have set the standard that all private information is accessible, why should we deny ourselves this power?
Good-bye
You are arguing security through obscurity. I get what you are saying, but adding friction will only annoy a motivated actor, it wont stop them. The question becomes, how much friction are you willing to place on the system to stop that?
Good-bye
Nope.
If you have $50.00 and the name and address of a person or even just the License plate number you can contact NexisLexis and buy all their information including the SSN number.
This is the United States largest information broker for businesses, they will gladly sell it to most anyone that at least tries to look legit.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The tactics used by those rebels is currently called illegal by the US government - hence their need to place "enemy combatants" in concentration camps* without juridical oversight...
(* using the proper definition)
Let's not compare the colonial revolutionaries being willing to fight for what they wanted _against the King's men_
Pfft... it's not particularly brave when you're fighting against a bunch of guys who couldn't even put Humpty together again (and so stupid that they even thought roping in the kings horses would somehow help in that endeavour, for whatever reason).
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Don't encourage stupidity, stupid!
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I have a limited supply of fucks. Why should I give one to the drama, infighting, and paranoid delusions of a bunch of script kiddies?
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
You need to look up how the conservative part of the population was treated during the American war of secession. Hint, painting someone with boiling tar can be quite terrorizing as well as being hung without even a trial.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
there's two concepts of freedom
1. the teenager's conception: "i can do whatever i want, damn the consequences." this is immaturity (not to denigrate actual chronological teenagers, only to denigrate psychological teenagers, who could be 47 years old. plenty of actual teenagers are more mature than many "adults")
2. the adult's conception: "i can do whatever i want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else." freedom, and responsibility. in fact, there is no no such thing as freedom in this world without also responsibility. if you have no sense of responsibility, you are not in fact truly free
if your definition of freedom does not take into consideration how you might impinge on the freedom of others (such as doxxing people for harassment purposes) then you might be an immature douchebag that has no fucking idea what you are talking about when you talk about freedom. more like freedumb
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
the double standard is that your occupation doesn't involve passing judgment on murders, rapists, mafia, and other assorted shitbags who have, and would, given the chance, engage in violent retribution on the judge or their family simply for doing his or her job
so yeah, double standard
a completely 100% appropriate double standard
directly reflecting the nature of their work, compared to the nature of your work
your "double standard" complaint is similar to complaining that a nuclear missile silo gets more protection than an outhouse
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
the greatest enemy to freedom is cynicism like yours
vile evil people can do many things to remove your freedom. but it's quite hilarious that some people, like you, roll over in quivering fear and give it up on your own. because you perceive the enemies of freedom to be so potent. they aren't. they are in your cowardly mind. not reality
reality:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
if you think justice doesn't prevail, then whose side are you on in the end?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Certainly Mexico, for one.
the american revolution wasn't actually a revolution, it was a war of independence
independence movements always existed, and always will
many factors go into whether or not they succeed
the most important factor is the cohesive quality of the idea a group is fighting for
some may go nowhere
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
even with interesting backing
http://www.washingtontimes.com...
other movements may ignite convulsive earthquakes of power balances into orgies of death and destruction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
http://www.history.com/topics/...
and there are many such ideas. they range from the noble ideas of the founding fathers, to degenerate violence loving "revolts"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
the point is, terrorism, in the name of vile efforts, is real, and should be opposed, and is a separate concept than genuine reasons for revolution or independence
and no, whoever wins does not decide it's legitimacy, the *concept behind the effort* is what matters
just fighting society is not noble in and of itself, the question is: what exactly are you fucking fighting for?
and if your ideas suck (even if you mean well, your ideas may not be intended with malevolence, you just might be a fucking moron), and actually represent more injustice and suffering, like fundamentalist religion, or racist twattery, or whatever, then yeah: you're a fucking loser terrorist and fuck you
just fucking with society isn't noble. for many reasons it just means you're a pathetic socially retarded douchebag
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
There are reasons that a Federal judge might receive more attention from law enforcement in a case such as this. If you think /real/ hard, you might even be able to come up with them yourself.
Now now, of course
But actually there was one ... way back in 1776
After Lincoln was elected as the POTUS, all changed
The Alien and Sedition Acts may disagree with you.
An SSN is only valuable in that it's a number used to identify you for financial reports. If another number was used, it would be the one to be valuable, and be just as vulnerable.
Don't be so fucking naive. An ill-tempered criminal is the most dangerous enemy you can possibly make. Once they know where you and your loved ones live, you are as fucked as a quarterback who pisses off a referee.
What nonsense. A criminal who attacks your house can be shot, either by you, or police who show up, and you won't even be in legal hot water afterwards.
Try that with a cop who comes to arrest you for attacking a judge. Your life will be over. Over, full-stop.
Nobody said lynch mob. That term has a connotation of violence without cause.
No, it doesn't. At all. It means exactly what you are talking about.
And you're a fucking armchair revolutionary, happy to rant and rave from the privacy of their basement. If you're so fucking hard, put your money where your mouth is and put your views on the public record.
Besides which, what purpose does it serve to publish personal information of a judge? The only reason you'd do it is to encourage others to harass her. If you don't like the laws then you should be lobbying the politicians that create them, or taking protesting actions to highlight them, not fucking ordering unwanted pizzas.
So come on People's poet. Tell me how I'm wrong.
8chan was basically what happened when moot (who was 4chan's admin until his retirement a few weeks ago) banned #gamergate and fucked with /pol/
No, only the /gg/ board, and later /gamergate/ board came to be as you have described. 8chan itself (or infinitechan, the 8 representing a lemniscate) started over a year ago, which was many months before gamergate, when Brennan, having seen the many other *chans sprout up over the years in the aftermath of repeated censorship on 4chan, decided to create a hybrid of Reddit and 4chan.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
Well, in this case it would be fear of committing illegal acts against a judge. You probably aren't going to be in such big shit for beating him at golf, possibly not for banging his wife (unless somebody can find charges to hit you with or you've done something else illegal in the act), but get caught directly committing an illegal act against the top echelons of the "justice" system... well that's just fucking stupid.
you can't respond to someone's argument by misunderstanding it
try again and maybe i'll reply to you. first, try to read what i am actually saying, and actually respond to that. rather than making bullshit up in your head that has nothing to do with what i am saying
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
1) a world where everyone knows how to dox, teaches how to dox, and uses it all the time as appropriate.
2) a world where nobody uses doxing and doxing is frowned upon everywhere and under all circumstances
3) a world where people don't do doxing, and it is frowned upon for people, but the NSA, CIA and law enforcement uses doxing internally, and it is accepted that they should do this.
I want to live in 1) or 2), but I do not want to live in 3).
I prefer 2).
It's a judge's job to put bad guys in jail for a very long time. Usually the bad guys don't like it at all. The only thing keeping the bad guys from getting some revenge on the federal judges is the certainty that very extra super bad things will happen when they make even the slightest malicious gesture towards a federal judge. In short, we wouldn't have judges or a rule of law if we didn't protect the people working as judges. Seriously, would you want to tell a mob boss that he needs to rot in jail for 10 years, thereby disappointing many of his mob friends who had hoped maybe he could get probation? And then have some joker on the Internet who thinks it is an awesome prank to post your home address and other details of your private life? Nope, the joker is going to be exhibit A in the case of Federal Judge Smith v. Internet Joker, with Federal Judge Hammer presiding.
Join the IParty!
Yes, of course, that would be soooo much better... having well armed local militias. A whole bunch of them. Along with a weak central government. That works so well in Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, ...
I'd rather focus on fixing the problems with using real names than "doxing" anonymous posters, for example.
There was a time when it was America.
There was a time when the geek had more political sense than a baked potato. There isn't a secure and functional democracy on this planet that allows its judges to be threatened or harassed.
So, you're OK with giving judges more protection than other people, but you're not OK with giving those other people less protection than judges? Did I get that right?
weinersmith
The first hint of circumstantial evidence, and [judges] wake up and put an end to it immediately.
It seems like every time a geek goes on trial he makes the same mistake.
Eyewitness testimony is direct evidence.
Circumstantial evidence is used in criminal courts to establish guilt or innocence through reasoning.
University of Michigan law professor Robert Precht [once] said, ''Circumstantial evidence can be, and often is much more powerful than direct evidence.''
The common metaphor for the strongest possible evidence in any case ---the ''smoking gun'' --- is an example of proof based on circumstantial evidence. Similarly, fingerprint evidence, videotapes, sound recordings, photographs, and many other examples of physical evidence that support the drawing of an inference, i.e., circumstantial evidence, are considered very strong possible evidence.
In practice, circumstantial evidence can have an advantage over direct evidence in that it can come from multiple sources that check and reinforce each.
Circumstantial evidence
At least I didn't use one of the many cases of a cop killing an unarmed person. But yes, you have to use an example people have heard of, and all of those will be politically charged.
Learn to love Alaska
I'd do that before I'd go around threatening a federal judge. And releasing their home address, phone numbers, social security numbers, etc. *is* threatening a federal judge. You're being incredibly naive if you think otherwise.
I'm not saying judges are or should be untouchables. Not at all. Uncover and post every academic, financial, and personal acquiantance or interaction they've had since pre-school. That's useful and necessary oversight. But you do **NOT** post how to physically find them, interfere with their identity, or directly communicate with them outside of the courthouse. That's completely undermining the judiciary system. If a judge can't throw the book at someone for fear of their own life and safety, everything can fall apart.
A judge should be documented and attacked (figuratively) in the press, in the commons, and in the courtroom. But absolutely not after they remove their robes, not unless *they* do something to undermine your safety or their professional capacity *outside* the courtroom.
And I know some of you are saying "The judges are part of this shit, the militarizing of the police force, the war on drugs, etc. They have no right to privacy, who says they even deserve a right to safety for their complicity in this shit that kills and imprisons hundreds of thousands of US citizens?" Well who do you think has the power to directly *stop* those things? Without bloodshed? Yeah, the legislature can slowly change the laws until maybe police aren't carrying assault rifles regularly and aren't breaching your house without even knocking on the door...or the judiciary could become much more hostile to approving those warrants *today*. The public opinion is very obviously turning against total criminalization of narcotics and hallucinogens, against mass incarceration and crushing legal fines, against civil forfeiture and no knock raids. A judge can see this: they're generally very smart people. Make it clear that you respect them and expect them to uphold the will of the populace. Convince a judge that no knock warrants or the war on drugs are unconstitutional and they might do everything within their power and discretion to block those things. They have *huge* discretion, too. They say "I don't think you've met the measure of this code or the 'test' for getting this type of warrant." and that's the largest possible roadblock most police forces can encounter in pulling off something sinister. Just raiding shit with no warrants still isn't that easy, and it's not something any cop can just keep doing, no matter how good the Blue Wall is in a given town.
So make your choice. Either make the judiciary fear for their lives and give them serious pause about whether to jump deep into bed with military police forces, or treat them as allies who you will protect and honor. Make them feel safe and important *yourself*, while being firmly clear you want all this bullshit to stop, and maybe they won't want to support military policing or drug warrants so much anymore. Either make them afraid, or appeal to their pride an dignity. Which one do you think has a greater upside potential here?
Just because the government is scum, does not mean you should attempt to "out-scum" them. That is the work of ISIS and Beaucoup Haram, etc.
Being more evil than someone else is not how you get to be good.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
how can a SJW silence you?
i don't like SJWs but i also dislike the douchebag blowback against them
all you assholes, SJWs, and people like you so so butthurt by SJWs, poor baby, you can all swallow a shotgun as far as i am concerned
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I don't support doxxing people, even if it isn't strictly illegal. I don't think I would allow that sort of thing to happen on my website, if I owned 8chan. But, if Freddy is going to stand up for free speech, then it makes sense for him to allow board owners to get away with as much as possible before cracking down on them. And it wasn't HW who posted the numbers or even told anyone else to do it. It was a user on his site, who is solely responsible for the content of his posts.
This obviously can put HW and 8chan into a very gray area, legally speaking. That is a dangerous position to be in. But in the end, no matter what he does about it, there will be some reason to bitch. Either he is "hosting illegal content" (which is a terrible argument to make, as that one unsightly board has next to nothing to do with the rest of the site), or he is "wiping away evidence of a crime". Should he just contact the FBI anytime someone does something that sounds illegal? What about when morally wrong things happen, or offensive posts are made, should he remove those too? There are all sorts of arguments to be made in favor of him banning/removing lots of things, but the one he is sticking to is "will this land someone in prison?", which I personally am glad is his policy.
And I would add:
3. The reality: "I can do whatever I want, so long as it doesn't hurt anyone else, and there isn't someone out there that doesn't like it.*"
* Someone being any church, organization of mothers, organization of minority groups, or the most pure of puritans.