Part II: HuffPost enables, protects Moderators to post threats, solicitations of violence & death wishes

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This is the second installment (Part 1 here) in our series that reveals, in detail, the culture of hate and danger that HuffPost --- the #1 most-read blog on Earth --- knowingly incites and facilitates. See Action Items at end, to learn how you can help put a (peaceful) stop to this situation, to prevent the tragedies that we fear it will lead to, if it isn't stopped.

Feb. 15, 2011 update: HuffPost has allowed 8 out of 10 of these Moderators to remain active, and acting like maniacs -- including one whose comment archive it is demonstrably concealing from public view. Scroll to end.

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(1) Background, and Summary

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In Part 1 of this series, HuffPost enables, protects one of its “Community Moderators” to repeatedly threaten, call for murder of Boehner, Kochs, Cheney, others, we documented the following facts:

• HuffPost Community Moderators are users whom HuffPost has made a visible part of its internal "police force," empowered to help maintain the "civility" and adherence to its Comment Policy and Terms of Service, which explicitly prohibit threats and urgings of violence against anyone, etc.

• Since early 2008, HuffPost has been pre-moderating all user comments --- including those of Community Moderators. This means that that the only comments that appear anywhere on HuffPost are those that it has reviewed, approved, and decided to publish.

• From October-December 2010, HuffPost knowingly enabled and protected one of its Community Moderators, "foxinretreat," to repeatedly post open threats and solicitations of murder against Rep. John Boehner, Vice President Cheney, Charles and David Koch, Karl Rove and others.

• HuffPost repeatedly censored and fast-banned other users who complained about, and attempted to speak out against this Community Moderator.
  

• Such acts (by both individual users, and HuffPost) are egregious violations of HuffPost's Comment Policy and Terms of Service. In all likelihood, they are also likely violations of numerous federal laws, which prohibit use of the Internet to threaten others, to do so while hiding behind a fictitious identity, to solicit acts of violence against others, or to knowingly allow a website under one's control to be used to commit these acts (or other felonies).
  

This article documents the fact that HuffPost's actions in regards to "foxinretreat" were not isolated incidents. Rather, they are part of a long-term, broad pattern of behavior of HuffPost, and the radical leftist "Community Moderators" that it enables, protects and emboldens, to violate its Comment Policy at will. Examples of this pattern, documented in rich detail, below, include:

• "Heavy": 39,000 comments; claims bankers and conservatives should be murdered; repeated, explicit threats against other users.
  (At right: "Heavy" claims bankers "should be strung up"; another user dares to mock him --- and is banned by HuffPost within hours).

• "Postman": 62,000+ comments; HuffPost promoted him to Community Moderator after it enabled him, as a user, to post "(President) Bush should be put up against a wall and shot"; repeated, egregious violations including racist and homophobic hate.
  

• "Tounghoy": 3,000 comments: Provided address of a physician-legislator he doesn't like, urges others to "pay him a visit." (At right: We blurred out name, etc.; HuffPost promptly banned another user, "Red Tide" after he asked if this was a threat --- but left "Tounghoy" free to continue)
  

• "GOPtakesEllisDee": 32,800 comments; "Why aren't these bankers hanging from the light posts?"

• Numerous other long-term Community Moderators: Open solicitations and justifications for murder and violence against top conservative figures, and others. This also includes "Rampage/OnTopicOffTopic," whom it has repeatedly allowed to attempt to arrange fist-fights between himself and users who dare to disagree with him.

• In total, as documented below, HuffPost has permitted the Community Moderators just profiled herein to post --- at a minimum --- 300,000 comments.
  

If, after reviewing this post, you come to share our concerns that HuffPost's actions are going to lead directly to someone getting hurt or killed, we urge you to consider doing what we ask in ACTION ITEMS, at the end.

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(2) More examples of HuffPost (a) enabling and protecting its Moderators to post explicit & implicit threats & solicitations of violence --- and (b) censoring and banning users who object, or mock them

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"HEAVY": Active since October 2005; 39,866 comments

October 16, 2010: Bankers "should be strung up"

At 11:35am HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish Community Moderator "Heavy's" claim that bankers "should be strung up."


Note that two minutes later, at 11:37am, another user, "SultanofSchwing," mocked "Heavy" for posting such a solicitation of violence against others, as a "Community Moderator." As shown at right, less than 12 hours later, HuffPost had banned "SultanofSchwing."

September 21, 2010: "We need to eliminate" conservatives; "Second amendment solutions are starting to sound pretty good to me"

Another user (a HUFF-WATCH operative), "LeagueOfEddieHaskells," began flagging "Heavy," and openly mocked him:


In response, HuffPost allowed "Heavy" to post a direct threat to this user, to fight him in person (left). Within 24 hours, on Sept. 22, HuffPost banned "LeagueOfEddieHaskells" (right), but left "Heavy" free to continue posting his solicitations and threats of violence.

September 22, 2010: To another user: "I'd love to beat your ass"

The same day, September 22, HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish "Heavy's" claim that he'd "love to beat the ass" of another user, "redmeat_ronnie," whom he calls "beej." Sometime thereafter, HuffPost banned "redmeat_ronnie," but left "Heavy" free to continue posting his threats and solicitations of violence.

October 24, 2010: To another user: "I'd love to beat your ass" --- "Fuck you"

At 11:11am on October 24, HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish "Heavy's" claim that, once again, that he'd "love to beat the ass" of another user, "HopeNChange411," whom he calls "beej," and to tell this user, "fuck you" (left). As shown at right, sometime within the next three hours, HuffPost banned "HopeNChange411," but left "Heavy" free to continue posting his threats and solicitations of violence.

July 19, 2010: To another user: "Anyone knock at your door yet? You starting to sweat?"

HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish more implied threats by "Heavy," against another user, "Sic Semper Tyrannus." In the frame at left, note that "Sic Semper Tyrannus" was posting on the topic of this page, which was "Signs of Frustration in the Gulf" (see URL line). HuffPost claims that it prohibits, and will not publish "off-topic" comments --- those that do not pertain directly to the topic of the thread. Yet in this case, as shown at right, HuffPost allowed "Heavy" to claim that "Sic Semper Tyrannus" should be sweating, because he's going to get a knock at his door:

Within a few minutes, HuffPost banned "Sic Semper Tyrannus" but left "Heavy" free to continue issuing his threats.

As of December 20, 2010 (right) HuffPost was still allowing "Heavy" to post at will --- and add to the nearly 40,000 comments and threats it has enabled him to post since October 2005.

(Do you think the CEO of Chevrolet is aware that it appears as if his firm is supporting HuffPost's ability to enable and protect raving lunatics like "Heavy"? You might contact him and ask.)

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"Postman"/"Le Facteur 99": Active since September 2008 (under various IDs); total of more than 62,000 comments

As a user, HuffPost permitted him to claim that "(President) Bush should be put up against a wall and shot."
Although HuffPost later banned him, it allowed him to quickly return and "live" on site, and rapidly made him a Moderator.

See complete documentation of this user, and HuffPost's enabling and protection of him, here.

On May 2, 2009 --- more than a year after it began pre-moderating all user comments --- HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish a "comment" by "postman606" that claimed President Bush "should be put up against a wall and shot":


The following is all documented here:

• HuffPost decided to publish this "comment" while at the same time it was holding up to 25 other comments in "Pending," awaiting its review, and decision as to whether or not to publish them.

• HuffPost fast-banned at least two other users who objected to "postman606's" solicitation of murder against President Bush, and his racist attacks on Justice Clarence Thomas.

• By this time, HuffPost had allowed "postman606" to post at least 6,000 comments. Although HuffPost banned him soon thereafter, it allowed him to return within hours as "postman66" and to post another 35,000 comments in less than 12 months --- many of which were egregious violations of its rules; and as before, HuffPost continued to fast-ban any user that dared to speak out against him.

• In April 2010, HuffPost decided to make "postman66" a "Community Moderator," which he used to threaten other users, and delete their posts:

Although HuffPost banned "postman66" in June 2010, it allowed him to return within hours as "Le Facteur 99," under which it has allowed him to post another 21,363 comments to this day. Between his two previous IDs and his current one, HuffPost has allowed "postman" to post at least 62,000 comments since September 2008.

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"Tunghoy": Active since October 2005; 3,032 comments

Provides address of physician-legislator he doesn't like; urges users to "pay him a visit"

November 17, 2010: HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish Community Moderator "Tunghoy's" claim that other users should "pay a visit" to a doctor who did something he doesn't like:


Note that user "Red Tide" asked "Tunghoy" if this should be considered a threat. HuffPost promptly banned "Red Tide" --- but left "Tunghoy" still active. As of December 20, "Tunghoy" was actually "flagging" other users (right).

(Do you think the CEO of Chevrolet is aware that it appears as if his firm is supporting these threats? You might contact him and ask.)

As you read this, keep in mind that as documented in Section 5 here, Zach Chesser, a cyber-jihadi, pleaded guilty to posting a similar suggestion (in the context of broader threats) against the creators of "South Park" --- and is facing potentially thirty years in a federal prison, when he is sentenced in February 2011.

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"GOPtakesEllisDee": Active since July 2009; 32,800 comments

"Why aren't these bankers hanging from the light posts?"

As you can see from the sheer volume of "comments" that HuffPost has enabled this Community Moderator to post in 17 months (right), it has essentially allowed "GOPtakesEllisDee" to "live" on the site, day in and day out, for 8-14 hours every day. We mention this because while we have only one explicit example of his calling for violence in our files, we've seen similar from him, and worse, on numerous occasions, but neglected to document it.

On October 13, HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish his implied solicitation of murder against bankers:


More:


More (from here, July 31, 2011):

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September 23, 2010: HuffPost allows two of its long-term Moderators to claim that someone should execute Sarah Palin, Michele Bachman, Christine O'Donnell, Sharron Angle

HuffPost allows these two "Moderators" to violate its Comment Policy and Terms of Service at will, often in the most vulgar ways imaginable. HuffPost has allowed and protected "AvshanBH" to basically "live" on the site since February 2009, and to post nearly 36,000 comments (below left); it's enabled "bluessss82" to post nearly 19,000 comments, also since February 2009 (right).

On September 23, 2010, HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish their claim that someone should execute four top conservative women:


Even though several HUFF-WATCH operatives repeatedly flagged these comments as abusive, HuffPost did nothing --- as evidenced by the fact that the above screencaps of their user profiles were taken on December 20, three months later.

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September 28, 2010: HuffPost allows two Moderators to wish death upon a U.S. Senator.

Like "avshanbh" and "bluessss82," "Turnip" and "CostaMesaJoe" are two more of HuffPost's longest-term, most pathological, vulgar violators of its Comment Policy and Terms of Service, whom it made into "Moderators" in early 2010. Although Turnip is an intermittent poster, whom HuffPost has allowed to post nearly 9,000 comments since March 2007 (left), HuffPost has allowed "CostaMesaJoe" to often "live" on the site, and to post nearly 31,000 comments since March 2008 (right).

As they've done many times in the past, individually, on September 28, 2010, HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish them to wish death upon Sen. Jim Demint:


Even though several HUFF-WATCH operatives repeatedly flagged these comments as abusive, HuffPost did nothing --- as evidenced by the fact that the above screencaps of their user profiles were taken on December 20, three months later.

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"Rampage"/"OnTopicOffTopic": Active since January 2009; 51,000+ comments

As a user, HuffPost enabled, protected him to repeatedly threaten to beat up other users, and to basically "live" on the site.
It then made him a Moderator, and has continued to permit him to exactly the same thing

"Rampage" (now "OnTopicOffTopic") is another of HuffPost's most protected, long-term, pathological radical leftist violators of its Comment Policy and Terms of Service. His trademarks, as contained in our complete documentation, are:

• Openly threatening other users with physical violence. This includes even allowing him to "hijacking" the 6/6/09 thread that was dedicated to the 65th anniversary of D-Day so that he could arrange the location and time to have a fistfight with another user, whom he claimed he was going to beat so severely he'd require hospitalization. After HuffPost allowed him to change his screen name, when confronted, he even bragged about this --- as he continued threatening other users.

• Graphic homophobic insults and descriptions of sexual acts

• Essentially "living" on HuffPost for 10-16 hours a day, every day

• Obsessing over other users

Full documentation of the egregious violations that HuffPost has pathologically enabled this user/Moderator to engage in is located here --- and of the fact that it habitually bans the victims of his threats, while leaving him free to continue posting to his heart's content.

Below are some examples of his status as a Moderator, and his threats:


As shown in our complete documentation of "OnTopicOffTopic," HuffPost decided to promptly ban all of the users that he threatened --- but to leave him free to continue posting at will, and "living" on the site, to the point of posting nearly 22,000 comments in seven months.


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(3) ACTION ITEMS

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Apparently, HuffPost believes it can continue to engage in this behavior because so far, the public --- and its advertisers --- have remained unaware of what it is really facilitating on its "comment" pages.

Part of the reason why we've researched and documented this in such great detail is because we are deeply concerned that if this situation is allowed to persist, HuffPost's acts and omissions are going to lead directly to someone getting hurt, or killed. We believe this concern is particularly apt, given the fact that the vast majority* of today's political violence is perpetrated by the radical left --- the very constituency that HuffPost attracts, enables and protects.
(*The Media Research Center recently completed a report on the proliferation of left-wing violence; more data here, here, here, here, here, here.)

If you share our concerns, we urge you to do three things:

(1) Make your voice known to HuffPost's senior management and investors here.

(2) Write or call one or more of HuffPost's top advertisers, to let them know your thoughts on what their ad dollars are enabling.

(3) Forward the link to this report to others that you think should be aware of it.

Stay tuned: Much more is coming, to expose the culture of hate and danger that HuffPost --- knowingly incites and facilitates.

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UPDATES

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Jan. 8: Six Nevada middle school girls arrested over 'Attack a Teacher Day' invitation on Facebook

Fresh on the heels of the groundbreaking Zach Chesser ("Revolution Muslim") indictment and plea deal (here, here, here)...

Six girls have been arrested after students were invited on Facebook to take part in "Attack a Teacher Day" at two middle schools.

One girl was accused of inviting about 100 students on the social networking website to participate in the event Friday, and the other five were accused of responding with online threats against specific teachers, Carson Middle School (Reno) Principal Dan Sadler said. [...]
The 12- and 13-year-old students were arrested after allegedly posting threatening statements against six teachers at the two schools. One student used the word "die" before a teacher's name, while others wrote that they would "attack" certain teachers, Sadler said. [...]
No specifics, such as weapons or how the attacks would be carried out, were mentioned, said Carson City sheriff's Deputy Jessica Rivera, the school district's resource officer. The invitation to join the attacks went out either Monday or Tuesday night. "Even if the six girls meant it as a joke, there's no way to know if the other students who accepted the invitation weren't going to carry out the attacks in some fashion," Rivera said. [...]
Sadler said the teachers targeted by the threatening comments were shocked by the arrests because the six girls were good students. Some held leadership positions while others had top grades.

Are any of these perfect little darlings avid HuffPost users? Are their parents? Seems they'd fit right in.

Also see:

• HuffPost protects user who was interviewed by the Secret Service for urgings of Bush assassination --- on HuffPost
• HuffPost users: "Hey, someone should murder President Bush!!!" (HuffPost: "Approved!!!")
• HuffPost Users: "Hey, Let's Murder Bankers!!!" (HuffPost: "Approved!!!")
• HuffPost Users: "Hey, Let's Commit Murder!!!" (HuffPost: "Approved!!!")

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Feb. 15 update: With few exceptions, HuffPost has allowed all the Moderators profiled here to remain active

This is a continuation of HuffPost's allowing "foxinretreat" to return, as documented here. As a reminder, "foxinretreat" is the radical leftist Moderator that HuffPost enabled and protected to post repeated threats and solicitations of murder against notable conservative government and public figures.

In regards to the Moderators profiled herein, here's their status, in order of appearance:

1) "Heavy" - still active, never banned; now posted 44,070 comments.

2) "Postman" / "Le Facteur" - still active, never banned; now posted 25,325 comments

4) "Tunghoy" - still active, never banned; now posted 3,509 comments

5) "GOPTakesEllisDee" - still active, never banned; now posted 34,390 comments. And as of Feb. 17, HuffPost was still enabling and protecting him to advocate for the murder of bankers. What could go wrong?


6) "AvshanBH" - "banned," but still active:
HuffPost "banned" this Moderator soon after this report was published (reminder: it permitted to openly wished for someone to execute Sarah Palin). But within hours, it allowed him to return as "Ashan." Well, you say, that's not so similar, is it? Wouldn't it be easy for HuffPost to miss that? Take a look for yourself, at how well he's hiding who he is. On the left is "AvshanBH's" profile page and avatar; on the right is that of "Ashan" --- who's been engaging in the exact same behavior, and is now up to nearly 2,100 comments:

7) "Bluessss82" - Banned.

8) "Turnip" - Banned.

9) "CostaMesaJoe" - still active, never banned; now posted 33,033 comments.

10) "OnTopicOffTopic" / "Rampage" - "banned," but still active.
Although his profile has been removed, he's still been able to post comments for the past two months; he explained to one user that HuffPost told him it's a technical glitch. Feb. 16 update: Thanks to reader "TG," who sent in the following:

"I read this link last night: http://huff-watch.blogspot.com/2010/03/rampage.html

"And recognized the name "OnTopicOffTopic" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/OnTopicOffTopic?action=comments, and I clicked on this link to view his profile. The link says the profile is not found [he's been banned].

"This AM I was reading a thread, and guess who I saw. Yes, OnTopicOffTopic, so I clicked on the profile, and it's not showing up. I did managed to follow him, and he is following me. Looks like HP is hiding profiles on this people you put in your blog. It's just one case so far, but thought I'll share this." [attached screencap]

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The bottom line: HuffPost banned 2 out of 10 of its most egregiously-violating Moderators, but allowed at least one to come back shortly thereafter with an almost-identical screen name, and an identical avatar. And one of them, it is actively concealing behind a fake "banned" screen.

Tell us again, HuffPost, how hard you work to keep your comment threads "clean," and of the high standards to which you hold your Moderators for "maintaining a civil tone."

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