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.

ICE says immigrant who died in Texas detention center committed suicide

Judge and wife shot in broad daylight in Indiana, sparking massive multi-agency investigation

Dem Senator Warner admits Biden ‘screwed up’ the border, but claims ICE now targeting noncriminals

Trump says media focuses too much on Minnesota ICE coverage, not enough on corruption allegations

Maryland Democrat’s bill seeks to ‘digitally unmask’ ICE agents after fatal Minneapolis shooting

Bill Cassidy challenger digs in against Trump’s preferred GOP Senate candidate

Florida repeat offender allegedly killed 3 tourists minutes from Magic Kingdom after run of violence: records

ISIS fighters reportedly escape from Kurdish prisons amid fighting with government

Piers Morgan Hospitalized After Suffering Serious Injury at Restaurant

UN chief accuses US of ditching international law as Trump blasts global bodies

Minneapolis software engineers mistaken for ICE agents while eating lunch harassed by anti-ICE crowd

Oops: Leader of Anti-ICE Church Invasion Just Made Prosecutors’ Job a Lot Easier

Bruce Springsteen Pauses Concert to Deliver Vulgar Anti-ICE Message

Watch: US National Anthem Heckled at London NBA Game

Prominent Catholic bishop slams anti-ICE agitators who disrupted MN church service: ‘Unacceptable’

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.