What Is Violentacrez?
You've probably heard of Violentacrez, the man behind Reddit's Jailbait forum. But do you know his real name? We don't either. That's because Violentacrez is a pseudonym, a fake name used by a person hiding from public scrutiny. Violentacrez is only one of many pseudonyms on Reddit, but he's undoubtedly one of the most notorious. His handle was Violentacrez, and he worked on Reddit for years before discovering that he was Michael Brutsch, a programmer from Arlington, Texas. Brutsch had spent most of his life in IT support, but at some point, he started posting offensive content on the Internet under various handles. In 2007, he created Jailbait, a forum where users posted sexually suggestive images of underage girls and became an administrator within two weeks. He also made many other subreddits dedicated to controversial material such as "creepshots" (photos taken up women's skirts) and "chokeabitch. "In 2011, Gawker writer Adrian Chen wrote an article about Brutsch and his online activities called "Unmasking Reddit's Violentacrez is The Biggest Troll on the Web. " After receiving backlash from other users who disagreed with what he'd done, Violentacrez is significant not for the material he posted but for what he represents regarding the balance between free speech and online privacy. Many Reddit users see free speech online as an absolute. Those who take the opposite side point out that some of Violentacrez's postings were unethical, if not illegal. Violentacrez may also be significant because he is one of many "trolls" who have created a culture of fear within various online communities, from Facebook to Twitter to 4chan, by posting lewd or offensive content with malicious intent. It has led to groups such as Anonymous and Project Chanology, which have rallied together to oppose such tactics. Violentacrez was a Reddit user who lurked in the shadows. Before Adrian Chen of Gawker outing him in October 2012, he remained anonymous. Before that, Violentacrez was well known on Reddit as (according to Chen) the "creepy uncle of Reddit. "In this post, he talks about his life before being discovered and what it's like to be famous for something you never intended to be recognized.
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