The possible unmasking of an anonymous right wing cartoonist by Mike Peterson yesterday may get him suspended from X/Twitter if the recent efforts to reveal the identity of cartoonist Stonetoss is any indication.
Last week, Anonymous Comrades Collective, an online group that describe themselves as an “antifascist journalism collective dedicated to exposing Nazis, racists and fascists” published a new report alleging to have uncovered the person behind StoneToss, a webcomic popular among the far right.
On March 12th, 2024, the Antifa groups Anonymous Comrades Collective and Late-Night Anti-Fascists doxxed the person suspected to be the artist behind the StoneToss comics and its precursor RedPanels, revealing the identity of Hans Kristian Graebener, a 34-year-old resident of Spring, Texas who used to work as a security guard and an IT specialist.
Stonetoss’s works are racist, homophobic and antisemitic, and while he insists he is not a Nazi, his strips regularly feature Nazi bugbears, symbols and rhetoric, not least holocaust denial. Details from an 8-year-old Reddit AMA, LinkedIn and other sources linked the RedPanels and StoneToss personae, but a leak of user information from right-wing site Gab is what appears to have linked them to Graebner’s name and email address. The evidence shows he went to extraordinary lengths to protect his anonymity—all for nothing, thanks to the slapdash security of the platforms he used.
But when the identity of Stonetoss began to spread on X/Twitter Elon Musk’s company came to the rescue.
What Happened: As reported by Mashable on Tuesday, users of the X platform have been reporting suspensions for posting the name “Hans Kristian Graebener.”
The suspensions started after the official StoneToss account on X called on Musk for help due to users posting about the alleged identity. While not confirming the report’s accuracy, the plea certainly sparked a reaction from X. Following this, any prominent account mentioning “Hans Kristian Graebener” was suspended and their posts removed.
However, this move contradicts X’s official policies on doxxing, which explicitly state that posting an individual’s name is not against the rules.
LBGTQ Nation called out Musk’s X for its dishonesty:
Trans activists are calling out Elon Musk for protecting the identity of a Nazi cartoonist on X while allowing transphobia to run rampant on the site.
“Rather wild how Nazis can deadname and post private info of trans people on this platform but if you post the name of a Nazi cartoonist you will get banned,” wrote activist and journalist Erin Reed. “This site is cooked.”
But as Library Book Banners found out the resulting publicity has helped spread StoneToss’s reputation.
Stonetoss claims both traffic to his site and sales of merchandise has increased with the recent publicity.
Wired carries the entire story including this update:
Update 3/21/2024, 10:20 am ET: Updated to include mention that X has now updated its privacy policy to prohibit posting the ”the identity of an anonymous user, such as their name or media depicting them.” This article also has been updated with mention of Alejandra Caraballo’s recently restored X account.
I have no idea why anyone is still using Twitter.
Sorry, X.
(answer (for at least one Twitter/X user): research)
I left Twitter when it was X-ed out and began to smell Musky.