I say just give them what they're asking for. Being doxed is part of the risk for using this site (though typically it's just users doxing themselves/each other and not the government, but whatever.) If Null doesn't have the money to put up a fight, he doesn't really have any other options.
Kind of ironic that the same guy who suggested that we imagine our actual photos and names next to what we say is now worried that he will have to reveal the identity of a poster. People shouldn't post autistic garbage in the first place if they don't want people trying to figure out their identity. You can't post a fucking insane manifesto and be surprised that it has consequences.
It's a shame that someone else's stupid behavior got Null in trouble, though. A lot of people are going to try to blame Null for "creating a culture where this behavior is accepted," but that perspective is idiotic, a) because the site's "culture" varies greatly, and b) because it literally says in the goddamn rules that we're not an autistic illuminati. I think posting your batshit manifesto thoroughly qualifies as treating the site like an autistic Illuminati lmao
Printing, selling, sharing or posting an imbecile's
schizophrenic ramblings manifesto is protected under the First Amendment. If I say "Here's El Retardo's manifesto, I am in total agreement with what he says in fact I am joining his movement send us money and bullets pls" that's enough to get a visit from the FBI and maybe criminal charges too. Context is everything in this situation.
Was that really
@fag0t or someone pretending to be him?
Technically there are limits to free speech. Categorizing online speech as opposed to spoken word is tricky, but you could make a pretty strong case for terrorist propaganda falling under one of the following exceptions: fighting words or incitement of violence.
Additionally, "free speech" doesn't entitle you to anonymity, and it doesn't mean that your speech has no consequences. It means that your speech has no
government-imposed consequences. We've all heard stories about people getting fired because they posted some dumb shit on Facebook and their employer saw it. So long as these people are employed by a private entity (and not the government) and terminating them would not be considered discriminatory in their state, it doesn't violate the first amendment.
I also sort of doubt that the post itself was the crime, because as much as I've gone on about exceptions to free speech, speech crimes are very rarely enforced. They might just be looking for evidence connected to something else, which granted isn't a good look for the site either, but it's also not a restriction of free speech. Anything you say can and will be used against you, as it goes. The post (which is technically hearsay but most hearsay is allowed into evidence anyway because of exceptions) is probably being used to prove some other point.
