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Media

Web ‘Redditor’ Fired From Day Job After Website Exposes Him as Being Behind Sleazy Postings

Oct. 16, 2012 5:19pm Liz Klimas

TheBlaze has reported on the seedy side of Reddit before. Although the social news, user-driven website is often the source of viral stories, it also has controversial content, like pornography, some of which has come under fire for showing minors in the past.

Now this dark side of Reddit is in the spotlight again, specifically an individual involved with forums on the site called Creepshots, Rapebait, Incest and Hitler, among others. Creepshots was a section where users posted compromising pictures of women without their knowledge. For example, a picture taken sneakily up a woman’s skirt. This section was moderated by the Redditor — as Reddit users are often called — Violentacrez. The identity of Violentacrez was exposed by Gawker last week as a man named Michael Brutsch. Even more recently, Brutsch is reported to have lost his job for his involvement on some of these controversial sections of the site.

Identity of Redditor Violentacrez Allegedly Revealed as Michael Brutsch, Brutsch Reported to Have Lost Job for Posts

This is the photo that Gawker’s Adrian Chen received from someone that is believed to have led him to the identity of Violentacrez, or Michael Brutsch. (Image: Gawker)

Who is Violentacrez?

Gawker’s Adrian Chen wrote that he first heard of Violentacrez/Brutsch more than a year ago. Here’s how he mildly describes some of the 49-year-old’s online activities:

If you are capable of being offended, Brutsch has almost certainly done something that would offend you, then did his best to rub your face in it. His speciality is distributing images of scantily-clad underage girls, but as Violentacrez he also issued an unending fountain of racism, porn, gore, misogyny, incest, and exotic abominations yet unnamed, all on the sprawling online community Reddit.

More specifically, it is reported that Brutsch was involved in the controversial section on Reddit a year ago called “Jailbait “Here’s what Chen alleges about Brutsch’s involvement on that forum:

Violentacrez and his fellow moderators worked hard to make sure every girl on jailbait was underage, diligently deleting any photos whose subjects seemed older than 16 or 17. Violentacrez himself posted hundreds of photos. Jailbait became one of Reddit’s most popular subreddits, generating millions of pageviews a month. “Jailbait” was for a time the second biggest search term bringing traffic to Reddit, after “Reddit.” Eventually, Jailbait landed on CNN, where Anderson Cooper called out Reddit for hosting it, and Violentacrez for creating it. The ensuing outcry led Reddit administrators to reluctantly ban Jailbait, and all sexually suggestive content featuring minors.

Chen goes on to describe calling Brutsch on the phone when he was at work as a developer at a financial services company in Arlington, Texas. He writes that Brutsch admitted to his identity on Reddit as Violentacrez. Chen reports him saying he wasn’t a pedophile but also that he wasn’t remorseful for any of the content he posted. He also “pleaded” with Chen not to reveal his true name in public.

“My wife is disabled. I got a home and a mortgage, and if this hits the fan, I believe this will affect negatively on my employment,” he said, according to Chen. “I do my job, go home watch TV, and go on the internet. I just like riling people up in my spare time.”

Chen did publish Brutsch’s full name, and affect his employment negatively it did. Appearing to post as the user mbrutsch on Reddit, Brutsch informed the Internet that he had lost his job.

“Nothing like living in the US with a disabled wife and no health insurance,” Brutsch wrote on a Reddit forum.

The Huffington Post points out that Brutsch set up a PayPal account for those sympathetic to his situation to donate money.

It should be noted that there is no way to officially verify Brutsch is the one posting under the mbrutsch username. Chen reported last week in his explosive post that Brutsch said he was giving up Reddit.

Gawker penalized on Reddit

After outing Brutsch by name, one Reddit community responded by blocking Gawker links from its section. In the Reddit politics community announcement regarding its ban on Gawker links, its moderators state that Chen looking for information regarding Violentacrez’s identity was “completely intolerable” as they believed it was something the Gawker reporter simply disagreed with. The moderators wrote, “We should all be afraid of the threat of having our personal information investigated and spread around the internet if someone disagrees with you.” For this reason, they chose to “disallow links from the Gawker network until action is taken to correct this serious lack of ethics and integrity.”

As was pointed out in a op-ed on The Guardian by a moderator “Rearth,” this was not a ban on Gawker links on Reddit as a whole. Communities, or subreddits, can choose to do this. Although Rearth himself says he was against the ban of Gawker links on the community’s forum, he writes that “witch-hunting,” such as what he believes happened to Brutsch, is a problem:

People have lost jobs, families and even their lives after campaigns started on the internet. Campaigns run without due process or any real justice. Both myself and a number of other mods, together with the admins of reddit, take a very firm stand against witch-hunting. This is the basis for the /r/Politics ban. (Once again, I did not personally agree it was wise.) If laws are broken we are the first people to report this. We do not think it’s our job to prevent anyone from ever beingoffended, as that’s impossible to police.

Rearth continues to say he doesn’t think the r/Politics subreddit will unblock Gawker in the near future.

As for how Chen was able to find out the true identify of Violentacrez, Brutsch writes on Reddit that he believes he was revealed through a picture taken at a Reddit meet-up event. He thinks someone who knew him provided his name.

The New York Times Media Decoder blog reports Brutsch writing on Reddit that he was giving an interview with CNN. The Times contacted CNN spokeswoman Christina Robinson who said he would most likely appear in an interview with Anderson Copper Thursday.

Read more details of Chen’s more than 4,500 word “Unmasking Reddit’s Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web” here.

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Comments (24)

ColtFord
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 2:44am
Seen him on Anderson Cooper he looked a little high. Him and Adrian Chin threw his family under the bus and he is the victim? Seen no remorse what so ever looked like was more stroking of his ego. Legal? if one reads the Texas State Penal code title 5, sec. 21.15, Improper Photography or Visual Recording it don’t look so legal. Would love to know if Texas is going to do anything about it. http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/docs/pe/htm/pe.21.htm

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objectivetruth
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 9:38am
Hum he likes riling people up in his spare time.Someone needs to illustrate for him just how dangerous this can be for him.Maybe if someone had he wouldn’t have done any of this in the first place.Hes crying the blues as he has been outed[quilty to boot].How special/sarc.Lets put it to you this way dear dumba^^.Its called a kangaroo court.It doesn’t have to be true real.Its not about anything but what somedumba^^ thinks.Its nothing new.You just are now the victim of it rather than the perp.Obviously he has never dealth with the kangjacks.I hope like he** you find out what its like to be on the back end of it from a terrorists scam.They will do so much more to you than these people ever did.They have a far more sinister plan than stopping a bully.
PS
To a certain person.I know I’m not my cheerful self/sarc.I took certain steps to stop the legal loophole that was being abused.The temper tantrums have reached full swing with em.My exacto blade and clorahexidine bottle is getting a real work out.I hate these passive agressive a-holes more than you could ever imagine.

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kevinj319
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 8:32am
Standing up for free speech means defending the things you don’t agree with, not just the things you do.

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blackyb
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 10:48pm
The Muslim Islamists. Obama and thugs stand against anything God is for, and for anything God is against. They are evil. There is no inbetween, no fence. They are evil. You know them by their works and deeds.

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thomas
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 8:05pm
Typical Obama supporter. They support pedophilia. Just ask the muslems.

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PutMoreOnMyPlate
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 7:23pm
Let me get this, so he allegedly posts things that could incriminate him if not just totally disrespectful to his disabled wife by doing so, gets busted then cries about it? Like it’s not his fault to begin with? I fail to see how acting online should be any different then acting on the street. Whether you do it online or “IRL” then you need to own up and take responsibility for those actions whatever the case may be.

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mrmarkjohnson
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 7:00pm
This was a drudge story from two or three days ago.

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- objectivetruth
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:05am
  Yeah I caught the headline there too.I’m starting to go to drudge first before this site.Interestingly, I’m finding out that more stories on here, seem to originate with drudge.They seem to be the inspiration.Not that there is really any thing wrong with that.Well provided no one copied and pasted the story as their own.
  
  Report this comment
BlackCrow
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 6:41pm
Wonder if any of our trolls could be traced back to one of his IP addresses.

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mrs.janet.murgatroid
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 6:34pm
Adrian Chen

http://db2.stb.s-msn.com/i/FA/EF338EB0B2E27A92FFC123757C593F.jpg

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P8riot
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 6:30pm
Its pathetic that this guy can victimize innocent little girls, but still believes he is the true victim here…

I’d bet a million bucks that this guy is voting for Obama.

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- starman70
  Posted on October 16, 2012 at 6:57pm
  Many times over!!
  
  Report this comment
- lectrik
  Posted on October 16, 2012 at 11:01pm
  If he’s on Reddit, he’s voting for Obummer.
  
  Report this comment
hechafteth
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 6:02pm
Trying to figure out which one is worse, the idiot with no conscience or morals stinking up the Internet, or the politically correct, torch-waving, pitchfork jousting, self-aggrandized Jiminy Cricket pocket weasel outing others from the veritable safety of his own anonymous keyboard?

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- mrs.janet.murgatroid
  Posted on October 16, 2012 at 6:31pm
  If you image search Adrian Chen you’ll see images of a guy who looks like a fairy, definitely a dumbocrap. I’d laugh if his personal data were revealed to all online.
  
  Report this comment
- P8riot
  Posted on October 16, 2012 at 6:32pm
  let me help – the guy posting pornographic pictures of underage girls is worse.
  
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purplehippo
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 5:54pm
I think he got what he deserved. Serving up porn to minors is aggregious along with all the other junk. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, but along with it comes responsibility.

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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 5:44pm
Looks like WANGO will be looking for a new job.

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- The-Monk
  Posted on October 16, 2012 at 5:50pm
  Dang, this means Wanker Wango will have more time to troll here…..
  
  At least we know what he looks like now.
  
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- Wango
  Posted on October 16, 2012 at 7:14pm
  Sorry, oh waddly ones, but I’m retired, as you know. So there’s that. But thank you for thinking of me so constantly. It warms my heart to know that I inspire you even in my absence.
  
  Report this comment
GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas
Posted on October 16, 2012 at 5:24pm
It seems Encinom lost his day job…..

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- handykeith29
  Posted on October 16, 2012 at 5:40pm
  LMAO. love it
  
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- lwoot
  Posted on October 16, 2012 at 5:47pm
  Hehehe ok that was so snicker worthy. I think if you don’t want others to know your doing what your doing then you must know you shouldn’t be. So when you decide to do it anyway and your found out at least take the consequences without crying about.
  
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- ronin_6
  Posted on October 16, 2012 at 7:12pm
  Best comment yet.
  
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