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.
‘Ilhan Omar’ May Have Already Compromised National Security, Foreign Affairs Committee Members Say
Ex-West Point cadet sued for secretly drugging pregnant girlfriend with abortion pills
JD Vance says Haley Stevens’ endorsement of GOP’s Mike Rogers will ‘certainly’ help Michigan Senate race
How a midterm tie gets settled in the case of the Senate
Judge Boasberg orders DOJ to stop demanding California officials set aside 20,000 ballots
Fed. Judge Suspended for Psychiatric Eval After Anti-White Outburst in Court Leads to Astoundingly Racist Quotes
Michigan County Stonewalls Reporter’s Attempt to Expose What El-Sayed Had to Say About Oct. 7
Illegal Alien Arrested for Rape After Being Released by Dem-Appointed Judge
EXCLUSIVE: Woman allegedly raped by illegal alien after Clinton-appointed federal judge ordered his release
Haley Stevens’s Mike Rogers endorsement stuns black voters in Michigan
Florida plane crash victims identified after 9 people killed in fiery wreck
Mysterious Washington, D.C., Power Outage Impacts Government Agencies a Day Before Midterms
Battleground Dem touts bipartisan record, but can’t name single issue she’d work with Trump on
Trump spends nearly half of his midterm closing pitch talking about Reflecting Pool renovations
Polish foreign minister blames rule-of-law crisis on ‘alliance’ of Russian bots and ‘global far right’
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.
‘Ilhan Omar’ May Have Already Compromised National Security, Foreign Affairs Committee Members Say
Ex-West Point cadet sued for secretly drugging pregnant girlfriend with abortion pills
JD Vance says Haley Stevens’ endorsement of GOP’s Mike Rogers will ‘certainly’ help Michigan Senate race
How a midterm tie gets settled in the case of the Senate
Judge Boasberg orders DOJ to stop demanding California officials set aside 20,000 ballots
Fed. Judge Suspended for Psychiatric Eval After Anti-White Outburst in Court Leads to Astoundingly Racist Quotes
Michigan County Stonewalls Reporter’s Attempt to Expose What El-Sayed Had to Say About Oct. 7
Illegal Alien Arrested for Rape After Being Released by Dem-Appointed Judge
EXCLUSIVE: Woman allegedly raped by illegal alien after Clinton-appointed federal judge ordered his release
Haley Stevens’s Mike Rogers endorsement stuns black voters in Michigan
Florida plane crash victims identified after 9 people killed in fiery wreck
Mysterious Washington, D.C., Power Outage Impacts Government Agencies a Day Before Midterms
Battleground Dem touts bipartisan record, but can’t name single issue she’d work with Trump on
Trump spends nearly half of his midterm closing pitch talking about Reflecting Pool renovations
Polish foreign minister blames rule-of-law crisis on ‘alliance’ of Russian bots and ‘global far right’
So … it appears that Facebook helped the reporter who wrote this story identify the person behind the doctored video of Nancy Pelosi — i.e., Facebook used its own internal data to help publicly identify a private citizen.
That’s extremely troubling. 1/ https://t.co/DEXXL8C4uj
— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) June 2, 2019
“It appears that Facebook helped the reporter who wrote this story identify the person behind the doctored video of Nancy Pelosi — i.e., Facebook used its own internal data to help publicly identify a private citizen” wrote Orr.
“That’s extremely troubling.”
‘Ilhan Omar’ May Have Already Compromised National Security, Foreign Affairs Committee Members Say
Ex-West Point cadet sued for secretly drugging pregnant girlfriend with abortion pills
JD Vance says Haley Stevens’ endorsement of GOP’s Mike Rogers will ‘certainly’ help Michigan Senate race
How a midterm tie gets settled in the case of the Senate
Judge Boasberg orders DOJ to stop demanding California officials set aside 20,000 ballots
Fed. Judge Suspended for Psychiatric Eval After Anti-White Outburst in Court Leads to Astoundingly Racist Quotes
Michigan County Stonewalls Reporter’s Attempt to Expose What El-Sayed Had to Say About Oct. 7
Illegal Alien Arrested for Rape After Being Released by Dem-Appointed Judge
EXCLUSIVE: Woman allegedly raped by illegal alien after Clinton-appointed federal judge ordered his release
Haley Stevens’s Mike Rogers endorsement stuns black voters in Michigan
Florida plane crash victims identified after 9 people killed in fiery wreck
Mysterious Washington, D.C., Power Outage Impacts Government Agencies a Day Before Midterms
Battleground Dem touts bipartisan record, but can’t name single issue she’d work with Trump on
Trump spends nearly half of his midterm closing pitch talking about Reflecting Pool renovations
Polish foreign minister blames rule-of-law crisis on ‘alliance’ of Russian bots and ‘global far right’
Facebook confirmed to the reporter that the video was first posted “directly from Brooks’ personal Facebook account.”
So… Facebook is handing over information to reporters regarding what people are doing on their personal Facebook accounts? 2/ pic.twitter.com/7D6MDcU5Es
— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) June 2, 2019
“Facebook confirmed to the reporter that the video was first posted “directly from Brooks’ personal Facebook account.”
‘Ilhan Omar’ May Have Already Compromised National Security, Foreign Affairs Committee Members Say
Ex-West Point cadet sued for secretly drugging pregnant girlfriend with abortion pills
JD Vance says Haley Stevens’ endorsement of GOP’s Mike Rogers will ‘certainly’ help Michigan Senate race
How a midterm tie gets settled in the case of the Senate
Judge Boasberg orders DOJ to stop demanding California officials set aside 20,000 ballots
Fed. Judge Suspended for Psychiatric Eval After Anti-White Outburst in Court Leads to Astoundingly Racist Quotes
Michigan County Stonewalls Reporter’s Attempt to Expose What El-Sayed Had to Say About Oct. 7
Illegal Alien Arrested for Rape After Being Released by Dem-Appointed Judge
EXCLUSIVE: Woman allegedly raped by illegal alien after Clinton-appointed federal judge ordered his release
Haley Stevens’s Mike Rogers endorsement stuns black voters in Michigan
Florida plane crash victims identified after 9 people killed in fiery wreck
Mysterious Washington, D.C., Power Outage Impacts Government Agencies a Day Before Midterms
Battleground Dem touts bipartisan record, but can’t name single issue she’d work with Trump on
Trump spends nearly half of his midterm closing pitch talking about Reflecting Pool renovations
Polish foreign minister blames rule-of-law crisis on ‘alliance’ of Russian bots and ‘global far right’
“So… Facebook is handing over information to reporters regarding what people are doing on their personal Facebook accounts?”
“The guy didn’t break any laws. He didn’t even violate any of Facebook’s policies, according to the company. The doctored video is still up! In Facebook’s eyes, this guy did nothing wrong — yet they just handed over his private data to a reporter. How is that justifiable?”
Breitbart News has reached out to Facebook for its side of the story.
Story cited here.









