The name of the notorious hacktivist group Anonymous has been brought into an entirely new kind of issue – cyberbullying.  A Pastebin release from a member of the group contains what they say is the identity of the man who tormented a Canadian teenager for years online, ultimately leading to her suicide just one week ago. The released data contains very clear intent:

“Extorted amanda todd for pictures, at the most this is the person who did this to Amanda Todd and at the least its another pedophile.”

Amanda Todd’s story of torment was played out in a YouTube video called “My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm” that was released in September, asking for help. The video has been played nearly 4million times. In the video she used note cards to describe the harassment she suffered from her tormentor who had used a topless webcam photo to extort and harass her incessantly. His threats to release the photos he had saved to her friends and family drove her to change schools. The man was still able to track her down and continue to extort her for more photos. Her video also points out that she was ridiculed by peers for the photo. The teen turned to alcohol and drugs and described a previous suicide attempt by drinking bleach, which her tormentor ridiculed.

I’m struggling to stay in this world, because everything just touches me so deeply. I’m not doing this for attention. I’m doing this to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong. I did things to myself to make pain go away, because I’d rather hurt myself then someone else. Haters are haters but please don’t hate, although im sure I’ll get them. I hope I can show you guys that everyone has a story, and everyones future will be bright one day, you just gotta pull through. I’m still here aren’t I ?
– Amanda Todd

It is not clear how this identity was gained, nor if the identity of the person released is the actual perpetrator of the acts described. It is likely a case of sleuthing as the same username/nickname was used consistently across a number of sites that featured underage girls and boasted of blackmailing underage girls. The 32-year old Canadian man that was identified is apparently facing sexual assault charges in an unrelated case. And for those that think this is a one-off – you’d be wrong. Apparently Anonymous retaliated against a teenager who had tweeted nude autopsy photos of the deceased teen by hacking his Twitter account.

The amount of ‘trolling’ – posting inflammatory material regarding this case is rather despicable. An interesting recently timed story on Gawker exposed the identity of a Reddit moderator known as ViolentAcrez, reported to be Reddit’s biggest troll and the man behind the most controversial sections of the site, including one for example called “Jailbait” – the list of topics and materials he posted as far offensive as can be. Anyway it appears that certain elements of Anonymous appear to be taking a stand against this particularly in this case where a victim openly asked for help. Traditionally, Anonymous has focused on anti-censorship and freedom of speech, so using their notoriety and skills to retaliate in a case of internet harassment is quite notable. We will hear the word ‘vigilantism’ in reporting covering this case as calls for the man’s death have already been picked up. Canadian authorities continue their investigation and more will emerge in this story – so note that the significance here is the influence of the Anonymous hacktivist group is a fascinating twist in character to a complex and apparently evolving force on the internet.