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Anonymous Goes After Sam Pepper, The Murder Prank Asshole

By Dustin Rowles | Social Media | December 2, 2015 |

By Dustin Rowles | Social Media | December 2, 2015 |


I have mixed feelings about Anonymous, the vigilante hacktivist organization that wields an enormous amount of power, and for the most part, they use that power for good (according to my politics): They’ve gone after ISIS and they’ve done some real damage, taking down over 5000 pro-ISIS Twitter accounts and doxxing recruiters. They went after the Westboro Baptist Church for its homophobia. They’ve gone after Scientology, al-Qaeda, and they’ve gone after those who have supported anti-immigration bills. They’re a force for “good,” if your politics aligns with theirs. There’s lot of echoes of Anonymous in Mr. Robot, obviously. I guess my concern is what they might be able to do with their disruptive power if their politics shift. It’s the kind of organization you wouldn’t want to fuck with, and that in and of itself has the effect of suppressing speech. The fact that I feel a little afraid even to write that illustrates my point.

For now, they’ve put Sam Pepper in their crosshairs. Sam Pepper, you might recall, posted a “prank” in which he kidnapped his best friend and staged his own fake murder in front of his best friend. His best friend, not knowing it was a prank, screamed, wailed, and begged for his own life, and for a few minutes, thought that he had actually witnessed his best friend being shot in the head.

It was beyond fucked up.

Anonymous agreed.

Anonymous was true to their word, too. They defiled his website and took it offline. They released his address and phone number, posted a picture of his house, and more.

The YouTube video is still up, by the way.

I guess they’re not done, and that’s kind of terrifying for Sam Pepper, and anyone else who goes against Anonymous.