Surprised no one's mentioned this, but right-wing troll Charles C. Johnson has gone over the line again. Yesterday, Twitter shut off his mic for the fourth time after he asked his followers to help crowdfund "taking out" one of the leaders of the BlackLivesMatter movement, Deray McKesson.
This is what greeted McKessson on Sunday morning. Needless to say, he wasn't happy.
Hours later, Twitter suspended Johnson's account. Johnson took to GotNews to whine about how he had been "suspended from Twitter for journalism." This coming from a guy whose idea of journalism includes plastering private personal information on the Web for all to see, and even stooping as low as criminal harassment. Boo-hoo-hoo, Chuck. Cry me a bleepity-bleeping river. I say this as someone who really was persecuted for practicing journalism. For those who don't remember, some members of that cultish campus ministry that suckered me into joining them in my freshman year reacted to my criticisms of them by trying to frame me for sexual harassment.
Johnson claims that he was only wanting help to dox McKesson. But even if we give him the benefit of the doubt, Johnson has admitted he's too lazy to use a term other than "taking out" to describe what he wants to do. And he expects us to believe that no one shouldt feel threatened when some yayhoo makes a post somewhere asking for help in "taking out" that person.
According to Little Green Footballs' Charles Johnson (no relation to Charles C.), Charles C. Johnson knows very well that some of his followers are among the lowest form of scum on the planet. LGF's Johnson, who was himself stalked by Charles C. Johnson last year, writes that Charles C. Johnson "uses the language of violence in a very calculated way"--apparently believing it will give him plausible deniability. Let's call this for what it is--stochastic terrorism.
Twitter says it's cracking down on cyberstalking. Let's hope it puts its money where its mouth is and keeps Charles C. Johnson's account shuttered for good. While we're at it, maybe we should let the folks at MediaTemple, his Webhost, know about this. From MediaTemple's TOS:
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6:07 PM PT: LGF reports that Charles C.'s old account is gone for good. Thank you, Twitter.