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Former MLB Pitcher Doxes Internet Trolls, Delivers Real-World Consequences
An anonymous reader writes: When Twitter trolls began posting obscene, sexually explicit comments about his teenage daughter, former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling responded by recording their comments and gathering personal information readily available to the public. He then doxxed two of them on his blog, resulting in one being suspended from his community college and the other being fired from his part-time job as a ticket seller for the New York Yankees. There were seven others in Curt's crosshairs, all college athletes, but although he hasn't publicly doxxed those individuals, he hints, "I found it rather funny at how quickly tone changed when I heard via email from a few athletes who'd been suspended by their coaches. Gone was the tough guy tweeter, replaced by the 'I'm so sorry' apology used by those only sorry because they got caught."
There are far too many sociopaths in the world, and the Internet seems to be a perfect playground for their misanthropy.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Doxing isn't using public information. It's using private information. Otherwise a phone book would be doxing, so would house addresses.
Om, nomnomnom...
The next generation of "trolls" will only be more careful. Hope he feels proud of himself for stooping to their level.
away
The guys who were just messing around with stuff like "Can't wait to date her!" he responded in kind, and the people who were total shits he took the gloves off with.
Sure, most people will just meekly apologize when they are doxed. But not all people will react this way. Schilling took very real
risks playing the passive-aggressive doxing game. Why ? Because fucking with people you don't really know is a bad idea. Actually,
fucking with people you do know is a bad idea too, because any human being can snap if certain stressors are introduced. If you don't
believe this is true, do a Google search on "workplace shooting".
A truly intelligent person ignores the taunts of idiots on the internet, rather than taking the bait. If that's not sufficient, the next intelligent step
is to hire a firm which will "erase" all public record of the ugly posts ( the firms which offer to "fix reputations" for money are an example of
this, and I have no affiliation with any of them ). Doxing someone is _never_ the wise answer.
There are far too many trolls who ill deserve the title. If you can be doxxed you're doing it very wrong. You have to create a whole new identity, use proxies located in non-friendly nations or TOR and never ever let your two identities share a single solitary detail.
If you want to troll with the big boys you become somebody entirely new, someone completely unconnected to the real you.
All too often we assume that dealing with trolls is like pissing in the wind but a few crushing responses now and then (being made "famous" and getting fired) is a start. The idiocy of these guys writing stuff like that to a dude who has a wide audience is nothing short of astounding. It's akin to threatening Obama and then being surprised when the Secret Service shows up.
At any rate, screw the scumbags, they deserve their comeuppance.
This guy just made himself the target of trolls everywhere. Boasting about this will prove to have been a very poor choice.
is that sooner or later we're all witches.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
Although not technically Doxxing, I have no problem with someone being publicly shamed for their stupidity.
The irresponsibility with which the modern media operates astounds me. The cheerleading tone of this article is unmissable. We are supposed to rise from our seats and applaud this sportsmensch who hunted down the skeeves speaking ill of his daughter. And hey, on one level, I do.
But here's a little perspective that NJ.com apparently can't be counted on to supply. Just because this case is pretty black and white doesn't mean they all will be. The next time, some jackass will create social networking profiles with breadcrumbs leading back to their real target, and with minimal effort will get a Curt Schilling to do the dirty work, and bear the legal liability, for them.
This is why we have police departments. I fully recognize that they've deteriorated in capability and trustworthiness, losing their role as guardians of the real public interest to politics and less esoteric concerns like meeting budgets and justifying headcounts, but that's a reason to fix what's broken about our system, not replace it with every-man-for-himself vigilantism.
The comments were horrific. Directed at her, because she was his daughter. Her only "crime" was being the daughter of a sports star. She had done nothing, but comments ranged from raping her, to penetrating her with a baseball bat.
I hope every one of these sick little fuckers loses their job, gets kicked out of school *and* has their name attached to the story. I want somebody to find these comments *every* time that one of these guys is googled, forever.
This shit won't stop until there are actual consequences. It won't ever stop completely, but it could certainly help.
On Slashdot, maybe 'former MLB pitcher' is less noteworthy than 'creator of Kingdoms of Amalur'.
... also, I can kill you with my brain.
This is why we have police departments.
Come on, you realistically expect the police to handle every case like this?
This is no different from having a reasonable right to self defense to protect your life. If you are being harassed online you should be able to do something about it, because chances are the police will not are at least not nearly as expediently as you can. The earlier you take action, the more you cut off the really bad stuff.
that's a reason to fix what's broken about our system
What if what is broken is having inherent trust in the system to do everything for you?
Sounds like it is being fixed.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The Salem Witch Trials were good thing. After all, there might have been some real witches there.
In this case you have people literally flying around on metaphorical brooms on Twitter.
If there had been actual witches eating children, are you saying they should have done nothing? Because that's what you are saying should be done in the case of people talking on Twitter about how they want to rape his daughter.
We aren't talking about witch-hunts here against people who have done nothing. We are talking about bringing consequences to people who in fact HAVE done something and expect nothing to happen as a result.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Either the chief apologist for the local constabulary should
Guess what? Harassment is anti-social behaviour which should be criminal. (Pressurising a politician is different.)
Interesting he didn't dox other athletes.
The Salem witch trial methods would still have killed many innocents even if witches did exist
But all that we are seeing in THIS case is someone pointing out what people are saying to others. So the harm done is directly proportional ONLY to the persons own actions.
Someone moderately clever will post horrifically offensive content under someone else's name, then "catch" the designated offender and post their info and purported crimes to social media.
So since that might happen one in 500 million times of ACTUAL trolling - so we should do nothing at all about real trolls that we can actually combat. Even though it can be disproved...
The good of the many and all that. We should not back down from preventing common crime because of a hypothetical.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
and the screwing over of the Rhode Island taxpayers to the tune of ~115 MILLION forever puts him on the scumbag list (especially given his hardcore right wing rants about welfare, etc when he's happy to take corporate welfare)
HOWEVER, his daughter has nothing to do with him being a raging a-hole complete douchebag and anti-science nut.
'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
The police only investigate serious crimes or imminent threats where either a lot of money or someone's life is on the line, and even then, they aren't fast, accurate, or trustworthy. The legal system does not have the time or the motivation or the resources to deal with what is the online equivalent of schoolyard antics.
That is not to say what these idiots were doing was trivial or harmless. But let's put it this way: suppose every time you had someone come up to you and say something completely disgusting and violent to your face, that your response was to do absolutely NOTHING except file a police report, do you really think that would stop such behavior? If someone punched you, are you just going to stand there and not defend yourself, instead electing to wait until you can go to the nearest station and file a report?
The bottom line is that you cannot reasonably expect to have a free internet while at the same time tell the government or law enforcement that users must be held accountable for their online actions. People suggesting that victims simply shrug off such behavior are either themselves psychopaths or have never themselves been the target of such abuse. And to then call out the victim for vigilantism is the height of delusion. Oh, but what if this opens up a slippery slope of unchecked vigilantism and real-world consequences for people who are the mistaken subject of retaliation?
Um,... I have some news for you: it's already lawless out there. It has always been. You can't simultaneously tell people to shrug off the trolls because "oh well that's the internet for you," yet cry foul when people fight back, saying "but what if innocent people lose their jobs?" That's hypocrisy. People are already suffering real-world consequences of the behaviors of trolls. You are just selectively inured to it because it happens a LOT more often and it's been going on for a lot longer than people successfully fighting back...and when they do fight back, it goes viral and makes the news because so many people are so desperate for a solution that it feels good to see the good guy winning for once.
That should tell you how completely nonexistent civility is in the online realm. People SHOULD be accountable for their actions online. But don't fucking tell me that it's the job of the government to do that for me, because we all know how PERFECTLY that works. What a joke. Accountability is not actually kicking someone in the balls for being a jackass. It's being able to carry out the promise of that consequence.
This is really bad stuff. It should not happen. I'm glad at least some of the creeps who wrote that stuff got doxxed and fired.
It's sad, but maybe Mr. Schilling could have shared his joy at his daughter going to college only with family and friends. That way he would not get the extremely harassing comments in response.
A couple of unrelated issues: why does Mr. Schilling pretend on his blog like because he is a Republican that all Democrats are vile? I have seen sooooo many disgusting attacks made by self-described "family values" Republicans against anyone they don't like or don't agree with. Just watch Fox News for five seconds to see examples of this. Not all Republicans are vile. But several prominent ones are. Second, anyone remember that Curt Schilling started a gaming company and got a $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island? Rhode Island eventually sued Curt Schilling in 2012 after his company went bust.
thanks for your thoughts, hero
This guy is the best dad this girl could have right now.
Sure he is.
Until someone sues them.
Or pulls the same thing on them on account of him painting that huge target on their backs.
Except now they can just wave any civil suit away on account of that he was just doing what her dad did.
Or it is simply seen as a Streisand effect taunt to any idiot out there. How many trolls CAN he handle?
And it is always smart to react to verbal insults in a way that will leave someone with a lot of free time on their hands, no prospects for the future AND angry.
But hey... It may be a hassle to remember that now the saying goes "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may get me fired/expelled." - but it's nice to see sayings change during your lifetime.
It means we are living in interesting times.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
In order to qualify as "doxxing" you must distribute the discovered information. He did not distribute the information. He used it to contact people with authority over the individuals and pass on notice of their behavior. You might call that reporting, tattling, ratting-out or even snitching. But to call it "doxxing" is misleading and gives ethical cover to people who encourage harassment by distributing personally identifiable information.
... so far, and find that this article is way more interesting and relevant than "the dress."
tyvm
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Sociopaths and Misanthropes are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
The foundation of their illness, the description - basically - no, not basically. At every definition, these are completely different.
LEARN 2 WORD.
I won't beleaguer the point, but you need to be slapped on the ass with a dictionary.
There are too many sociopaths. The internet seems to be a perfect playground where ignorant people can pretend to be informed, and hurt other people in the process.
For the record, if I hurt your feelings, it is probably because you have some factually incorrect dependency or premise which you need to eliminate.
In other words, you should be hurt, so that in later posts you do not make the same mistake.
Since you refuse to clarify, and I, being relatively ignorant, must rely on the dictionary definitions, I don't understand the point you are trying to make:
sociopath: a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience.
misanthrope: a person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society.
From those definitions, it appears that it is possible to be a misanthrope and not be sociopathic, but that one of the defining characteristics of being a sociopath is some level of misanthropy (or, at least, misanthropic behaviour). Of course, rather than berating the original poster, perhaps you could attempt to bring clarity. On the other hand, perhaps you were trying to exemplify the misanthropy suggested in the original post, in which case I apologize for missing the joke.
Rhapsody in Numbers
Curt Shilling is the megalomaniac who thought he could transition from jock to major gaming mogul? The guy who caused tax payers to lose about 75 million dollars? Nasty comments about his daughter are out of bounds. But Curt Shilling himself should be ostracized and ridiculed anywhere he goes.
Did Schilling do that with his employees that he ruined while running his copycat game company in the ground?
Did he apologize to Rhode Island for scamming them?
Way to go Kurt Schilling - what a victory. You successfully robbed someone of a job and higher education because they weren't being nice on the internet. Welcome to the internet Kurt - you've got your work cut out for you.
Before you hit him with that dictionary, use it to look up "beleaguer" and "belabor," then reconsider your fifth sentence.
" There were seven others in Curt's crosshairs, all college athletes, but although he hasn't publicly doxxed those individuals" Because he probably couldn't find any info on them. Not everyone is dumb enough to post with their real name.
A tooth for a tooth is bad dentistry.
The headline for this story should read:"People say bad things on internet; man sticks up for own daughter." Not a shocker, and it doesn't change the fact that Curt Schilling is still an asshole.
There's no justification for the things said about his daughter, but I've been acquainted with a fair number of Major League Baseball players through work, and with few exceptions they were all surprisingly humble, nice guys. Schilling was one such exception, and always a dick, so I'm not patting him on the back because he isn't a horrible father.
So are journalism and police investigation or public courts doxxing too? Basically if you're not allowed to break law anonymously, you're being doxxed, yes? Seems to me the discussion is ignoring basic facts: those trolls broke the law. If the law was enforced the way it is supposed to, they would likely end up in criminal court (I am not american, but I am assuming it is not legal to threaten someone with rape over there). Then suspension would have been the least of their worries. Some here said the "punishment" was disproportionate. As opposed to what? If he didn't do nothing or went to the police (same thing), then how proportionate would the punishment be then? Also what do you suppose would happen if they threaten his daughter in public. Would they be suspended then? Do they deserve some sort protection because they did it over the internet? Please. No, what he did was awful. But I don't see any of the other outcomes being better. Its just that any other course of action wouldn't rock the boat so much and that's what we've always hated.
The entire concept of "SJW" as an insult is ridiculous to start with and just makes me think of angry virgins who wonder why the "nice guy", or even just the guy who gets out of the basement, sometimes gets the girl and not them.
The term at least serves a useful role as an angry idiot detector.
Only as dumb as more than 99% of Facebook users.
Remember we used to tell kids not to give out their real name on the net? Then Facebook happened and what used to appear to be dumb is now the default.
It would be truly ironic for you to post what you've written above if your name really is Matthew Ventura.
Even more so if I was really the software dbaseIII that had become self aware over the years instead of someone taking the common form of it's name as a handle.
"I won't beleaguer the point, but you need to be slapped on the ass with a dictionary."
Physician, slap thyself.
Dox, Doxxed, doxxing.
Yet another made up word, where an existing word is already available, widely used, and only a few millimeters longer.
While I can appreciate that stories on slashdot have to keep up with the times, that doesn't mean Headlines should contain uncommon/unnecessarily stupid/undefined words. That just makes slashdot look more stupid than it (usually) already does.
methinks you need to get your skull bashed in by a niggerdick.
for the record, you are a nigger.
Speaking as an Anonymous Coward Misanthropic troll: I agree with Bite the Pillow.
I don't troll people because I'm a sociopath any more than Socrates or Diogenes were sociopaths. If antagonizing people by forcing them to face uncomfortable truths or exposing them to emotional distress because shit rolls down hill: every bully on the planet is guilty of Sociopathy because misery loves company.
Internet Trolls are the gutter where the torrent of abuse from real life collects. We don't like being shitty to others, but nobody wants to be the bucket that collects the dysentery so we pass it to the left like slices of birthday cake.
This is itself a fairly sociopathic post. If someone is ignorant, educate them. If they refuse to be educated, others will still learn from what you're saying. The clowns in this story weren't ignorant, they were just assholes.
THe whole thing just seems like a publicity stunt to me. There were no actual identities revealed, and Shilling just claims he called the employers/schools of some supposed people that were just made up characters with sockpuppet twitter accounts that Shilling himself controlled. Sure did drive plenty of traffic to his pathetic blog, though!!!!!!
So your contribution to the problem of people being asshats on the internet is to tell OP he needs to be slapped?
[FUCK BETA]
Sadly this will never happen but if we introduce real penalties for internet trolling the internet might just grow up.
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
"The clowns in this story weren't ignorant, they were just assholes."
In my experience though, people are often both.
The USA is only 4X older than me...perspective
Sorry, how were you going to beseige, trouble or harass the point about needing to be slapped on the ass with a dictionary? I'd like to see how that works.
www.wavefront-av.com
"belabor" (argue or elaborate (a subject) in excessive detail) rather than "beleaguer" (lay siege to).
They always confuse trolls with haters. A troll provokes and starts useful discussions/flamewars, while a hater just harasses people.
i wonder if hes still so proud that his daughter is joining in.
Howabout we send kids to college to LEARN THINGS rather than send them to play silly games.
Only a misanthrope who's also somewhere within the BPD/NPD complex would have gotten so upset over that distinction.
Slashdot - News for Herds. Stuff that Splatters.
It's a shame you didn't get a baseball bat shoved up your ass. Luckily you posted with your userID, which you can have /. trace back to your IP and I can pretty reasonably determine your location.
Don't worry, I won't tell your boss or your school. And since I'm a nice guy I'll try to remember to beat you unconscious before I sodomize you with a 2x4 so you won't feel the pain until you wake up. Or, maybe I'll just tie you up and let you watch while I do that to one of your family.
Why can't a sociopath embrace human society and like people? That doesn't stop them doing nasty things.
I like my small furry creatures in Lemmings. I teach them how to help themselves. They're lovely and cute and so sweet when I tell them to commit suicide, and go, "Oh no!" just before making like fundamentalist muslim.
Never heard that term before....?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
You damn moron. There is nothing wrong with his post. He didn't imply sociopaths and misanthropes were the same, and it's foolish for you to assume that was his meaning.
Sociopaths often exhibit misanthropy.
Read up on things before you go around trying to correct people, dipshit.
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
He wants to belieber him.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I won't beleaguer the point
The common phrase that you're looking for is "belabor the point".
I guess "beleaguer" makes a modest amount of sense, but "belabor" is definitely a better fit here. Once you've finished beating others over the head with your dictionary, I recommend that you look up those two words and decide for yourself.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
Ah shit - a misanthrope with a dictionary...
I find your post sociopathic as well. Broadcasting your views (about education, ignorance, clowns) as if you're the center of the world. Clearly, you need to learn some empathy for uneducated, ignorant people.
This only works because we're now in the Age of Political Correctness. Once we move over to either a completely anonymous commenting situation or back to a "I don't care what you do in your free time as long as you don't do it here or on the clock" attitude with employers, doxxing won't work anymore.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
You're an OFF TOPIC troll yourself, Mr. Pot calling a kettle black http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
APK
P.S.=> Man - people like you? "Holier than thou" bullshitters?? They're ALWAYS the BIGGEST ABUSERS of what they preach, & NEVER practice - see subject & that link quoting you in EXACTLY what I show you for: Being an off-topic troll on your part, hypocrite... apk
It's real within the metaphor.
Just think of Inception mixed with the Matrix. :-)
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
> I won't beleaguer the point, but you need to be slapped on the ass with a dictionary.
Beleaguer? Really? I think you meant 'belabour'.
How could you dox Curt Schilling?
One word. Daughter.
As for "name recognition" - I'm sure he'd love everything else about him to be known too.
Like where he keeps his keys or his credit card numbers, phone numbers, alarm codes...
Hey! Does name John Pike ring a bell?
It should. Bunch of internet vigilantes doxed him - winning him $38000 of taxpayer money in the process.
But first they caused him " to suffer from depression and anxiety" by sending him "17,000 angry or threatening emails, 10,000 text messages, and hundreds of letters".
How many dead cats can you fit inside a mailbox? How 'bout death threats?
She can probably handle it, but why should she have to?
I don't know.
I'm not her asshole dad who put the target on her back by acting all vigilante justice nor am I a crazyass who has it in for jocks acting all "I'ma gonna show em whose bows".
I'm sure all those internet tough guys really love and admire those people making millions playing with balls and then acting like judge-jury-executioner combo like laws don't apply to them.
What could possibly go wrong, right?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Welcome to Slashdot -- where a distinction between the definition of "misanthrope" and "sociopath" gets modded to +5 Insightful, and discussions about the actual article are modded as flamebait.