Daily Beast Says Facebook Helped Them Dox Trump Supporter

The Daily Beast recently doxed a black forklift driver and reported Trump supporter for the alleged high crime of creating a parody video of Democrat speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi. But there’s more to the story — it appears Facebook may have helped the left-wing journalists identify him.

The Daily Beast identified the video creator as Shawn Brooks, whom they described as a forklift driver and Trump supporter from the Bronx.

A Twitter account claiming to be Brooks disputed key details of the story, claiming he is not a Trump supporter, did not create the parody video, and does not live in the Bronx.

By doxing Brooks, The Daily Beast followed the example of CNN, which threatened to unmask an anonymous Trump supporter over a parody video, forcing to him apologize in exchange for not revealing his identity. The scandal caused “CNNBlackmail” to trend on Twitter.

But there’s another aspect to the Daily Beast story which has major implications for the privacy of Facebook users — according to the Daily Beast reporter himself, Facebook gave him information on Brooks’ activity on the platform.

Lindsey Graham’s final act reverberates in Senate as sister is urged to “keep pedaling”

Karoline Leavitt to hold first press briefing since return from maternity leave

Louisiana man accused of killing deputy US marshal faces possible death penalty

Trump says Iran released American woman held since 2024 in ‘gesture of goodwill’

Tim Walz offers strange defense for pardoning convicted child rapist Trump administration deported

Nevada Lt Gov: Elon Musk could make space tourism state’s next big industry

Bloodhound K-9 unit helps bring Georgia manhunt to end with arrest of suspect accused of shooting woman

EXCLUSIVE: Pence pushes to rename bill for Lindsey Graham, recalls final talk: ‘Bring Putin to the table’

Trump says ‘proud American veterans’ will replace illegal immigrant truck drivers

Former Marine running for Congress says Trump is the Antichrist and ‘must be killed’ in shocking video

Tim Scott floats Lindsey Graham’s sister as permanent successor

GLAAD Complains Over New Study Showing Movies Have Become Less Gay: ‘Our Stories are Disappearing’

Drunk wrong-way driver killed Mass. trooper after 9 drinks at bar, DA report says

Retired math professor charged after wife, an airline meteorologist, found shot dead: cops

House Democrats fracture badly over Massie amendment to cut $3.3B in US aid to Israel

Via the Daily Beast:

It’s conceivable that someone else actually edited the clip. But a Facebook official, confirming a Daily Beast investigation, said the video was first posted on Politics WatchDog directly from Brooks’ personal Facebook account. [emphasis ours]

If the Daily Beast’s description of Facebook’s actions is accurate, Facebook compromised the privacy of one of its users, handing over information on his activity to a journalist who was clearly engaged in a politically motivated hatchet-job.

Facebook has been rocked by repeated privacy scandals over the past two years, including giving major corporations access to user data without permission. CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently unveiled a re-branding effort emphasizing the company’s commitment to protecting the privacy of its users.

“I believe that the future is private,” Zuckerberg said at a recent Facebook conference.

Even left-wing feminist Caroline Orr, who described the Pelosi parody as “disgusting” (it’s simply a video of Pelosi slowed down to make her words appear slurred), expressed shock at the idea of Facebook handing over private information about its users.