(not satire)
A lot of people have been somewhat mystified by the extreme reaction I received after writing a blog post about what happened when I asked a journalist how she managed to ‘trace’ the personal phone numbers and home addresses of Twitter users.
In short, I was subjected to days of insults, aggressive trolling and even threats of violence by a small group of the journalist’s supporters as well as a very specific threat of libel from the journalist herself.
Well, it seems I had unwittingly walked right into the middle of a vicious on-line cyberwar between supporters and detractors of Steven Messham – the victim of child abuse who was wrongly given the name of Lord McAlpine as one of his abusers by North Wales Police.
The personal phone numbers and home addresses the journalist in question had managed to trace were of Twitter users who had actively supported Steven Messham during the difficult time after he had wrongly identified Lord McAlpine.
The journalist seems to have aligned herself with a faction of activists who regard Messham as a liability – or worse – to the cause of rooting out historical child sexual abuse in care homes.
At the time I asked my question about the tracing of Twitter users’ personal information, I wasn’t aware of any of this – I was only interested in the possible abuse of private and personal information by the press – something I’ve written extensively about before.
But I have also written before about Steven Messham – in strong support of him in fact – which is why my question was probably seen as an attempt to discredit the ‘anti’ Steven Messham faction.
However, that might not be the whole story.
Some time ago, I wrote a blog post exposing another Daily Mail journalist called David Rose – who has written several articles attempting to discredit victims of child abuse – including Steven Messham.
You can see my original article here:
Child abuse scandal can of worms – just who is Daily Mail reporter David Rose?
As you can see from these articles, there has been a consistent campaign by reporters from the Daily Mail for some time now to discredit child abuse victims.
But is there a connection with the present threats I’ve been getting?
I have no idea.
However, there is one thing I do know.
I still haven’t got an answer to my original question:
How did a journalist manage to ‘trace’ the personal phone numbers and addresses of Twitter users?
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I think this unpleasant story has now run its course and I hope this is the last blog post I will have to write about this particular sorry affair, although it won’t be the last I write about CSA.
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Pride's Purge 