News Opinons Politics

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.


Two groups form in California governor’s race, but still no clear front-runner
Former Marvel actor working with Daily Wire for action movie produced by Ben Shapiro
Watch: The Priceless Look on This Sign Language Interpreter’s Face When She Has to Sign Hateful Islamic Verses She Probably Never Knew Existed
Denver mayor orders ICE agents detained if they ‘assault or shoot’ residents
Iran and US silent as negotiations in Geneva conclude without resolution
Travis County DA faces renewed ‘soft on crime’ criticism after career criminal charged with murder
Perfect Justice: Bill Gates Confesses to Russian Connection That Trump Was Falsely Accused of for Years
Nancy Guthrie neighbors’ Ring camera captures vehicles on possible route from crime scene
Family claims casino staff mistook veteran’s illness for intoxication, delaying care before his death
Retired Air Force Major Charged for Allegedly Training Chinese Military Pilots
New Texas Poll Is Out, and Stephen Colbert and Democratic Establishment Won’t Be Happy With It
Mamdani to meet with Trump in unannounced White House visit
China expands space footprint in Latin America, raising military alarms in America’s backyard
Biden FBI spied on Susie Wiles during Trump’s campaign
GOP pushes to hold sanctuary jurisdictions’ ‘feet to the fire’ in state where Laken Riley was killed
See also  Bill and Hillary Clinton to sit for back-to-back House Oversight depositions over Epstein ties

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.


Two groups form in California governor’s race, but still no clear front-runner
Former Marvel actor working with Daily Wire for action movie produced by Ben Shapiro
Watch: The Priceless Look on This Sign Language Interpreter’s Face When She Has to Sign Hateful Islamic Verses She Probably Never Knew Existed
Denver mayor orders ICE agents detained if they ‘assault or shoot’ residents
Iran and US silent as negotiations in Geneva conclude without resolution
Travis County DA faces renewed ‘soft on crime’ criticism after career criminal charged with murder
Perfect Justice: Bill Gates Confesses to Russian Connection That Trump Was Falsely Accused of for Years
Nancy Guthrie neighbors’ Ring camera captures vehicles on possible route from crime scene
Family claims casino staff mistook veteran’s illness for intoxication, delaying care before his death
Retired Air Force Major Charged for Allegedly Training Chinese Military Pilots
New Texas Poll Is Out, and Stephen Colbert and Democratic Establishment Won’t Be Happy With It
Mamdani to meet with Trump in unannounced White House visit
China expands space footprint in Latin America, raising military alarms in America’s backyard
Biden FBI spied on Susie Wiles during Trump’s campaign
GOP pushes to hold sanctuary jurisdictions’ ‘feet to the fire’ in state where Laken Riley was killed

“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.

See also  Iowa congressman took cash from Chinese companies buying American farmland

“That’s extremely troubling.”


Two groups form in California governor’s race, but still no clear front-runner
Former Marvel actor working with Daily Wire for action movie produced by Ben Shapiro
Watch: The Priceless Look on This Sign Language Interpreter’s Face When She Has to Sign Hateful Islamic Verses She Probably Never Knew Existed
Denver mayor orders ICE agents detained if they ‘assault or shoot’ residents
Iran and US silent as negotiations in Geneva conclude without resolution
Travis County DA faces renewed ‘soft on crime’ criticism after career criminal charged with murder
Perfect Justice: Bill Gates Confesses to Russian Connection That Trump Was Falsely Accused of for Years
Nancy Guthrie neighbors’ Ring camera captures vehicles on possible route from crime scene
Family claims casino staff mistook veteran’s illness for intoxication, delaying care before his death
Retired Air Force Major Charged for Allegedly Training Chinese Military Pilots
New Texas Poll Is Out, and Stephen Colbert and Democratic Establishment Won’t Be Happy With It
Mamdani to meet with Trump in unannounced White House visit
China expands space footprint in Latin America, raising military alarms in America’s backyard
Biden FBI spied on Susie Wiles during Trump’s campaign
GOP pushes to hold sanctuary jurisdictions’ ‘feet to the fire’ in state where Laken Riley was killed

“Facebook confirmed to the reporter that the video was first posted “directly from Brooks’ personal Facebook account.”

See also  Trump invites US men’s hockey team to attend State of the Union speech

Two groups form in California governor’s race, but still no clear front-runner
Former Marvel actor working with Daily Wire for action movie produced by Ben Shapiro
Watch: The Priceless Look on This Sign Language Interpreter’s Face When She Has to Sign Hateful Islamic Verses She Probably Never Knew Existed
Denver mayor orders ICE agents detained if they ‘assault or shoot’ residents
Iran and US silent as negotiations in Geneva conclude without resolution
Travis County DA faces renewed ‘soft on crime’ criticism after career criminal charged with murder
Perfect Justice: Bill Gates Confesses to Russian Connection That Trump Was Falsely Accused of for Years
Nancy Guthrie neighbors’ Ring camera captures vehicles on possible route from crime scene
Family claims casino staff mistook veteran’s illness for intoxication, delaying care before his death
Retired Air Force Major Charged for Allegedly Training Chinese Military Pilots
New Texas Poll Is Out, and Stephen Colbert and Democratic Establishment Won’t Be Happy With It
Mamdani to meet with Trump in unannounced White House visit
China expands space footprint in Latin America, raising military alarms in America’s backyard
Biden FBI spied on Susie Wiles during Trump’s campaign
GOP pushes to hold sanctuary jurisdictions’ ‘feet to the fire’ in state where Laken Riley was killed

“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.

Share this article:
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter