Jason Fortuny
Encyclopedia
Jason Fortuny is a Seattle-area
freelance graphic designer and network administrator who received a degree of media attention when he published online the personal details and photographs of the men who responded to a fake personal ad he posted on Craigslist
. He described himself to a The New York Times
reporter as "a normal person who does insane things on the Internet."
all 178 of the responses, complete with photographs and personal contact details, describing this as "the Craigslist Experiment", and encouraged others to further identify the respondents.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
indicated that Fortuny may be liable under Washington State Law, and that this would depend on whether the information he disclosed was of legitimate public concern. Kurt Opsahl, the EFF's staff attorney, said "As far as I know, they (the respondents) are not public figures, so it would be challenging to show that this was something of public concern." while Wired writer Ryan Singel
described Fortuny as "sociopathic
". According to Fortuny, two people lost their jobs as a result of his Craigslist Experiment.
A "John Doe" plaintiff who was exposed by his project filed a lawsuit against Jason Fortuny in Illinois. On April 9, 2009, the Illinois federal court issued a default judgment
in the case Doe v. Fortuny requiring Fortuny to pay "John Doe" $74,252.56 in damages, attorneys fees, and costs.
. He created a blog called "Megan Had It Coming" which made crude attacks on the dead girl and her family, while posing as Lori Drew, the mother of a former friend of Meier, who had been accused of creating a MySpace account that had driven Meier to suicide. Although Drew denied authorship, many people remained uncertain about her denials. The county sheriff's department tried but failed to identify the blog's real author. Schwarz, who watched Fortuny log into the blog and make a post there, describes Fortuny's motivation as "to question the public’s hunger for remorse and to challenge the enforceability of cyberharassment laws," adding that Fortuny is "pleased with how the Megan Had It Coming blog succeeded."
Seattle metropolitan area
The Seattle metropolitan area in the US state of Washington includes the city of Seattle, King County, Snohomish County, and Pierce County within the Puget Sound region. The U.S...
freelance graphic designer and network administrator who received a degree of media attention when he published online the personal details and photographs of the men who responded to a fake personal ad he posted on Craigslist
Craigslist
Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities featuring free online classified advertisements, with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums....
. He described himself to a The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reporter as "a normal person who does insane things on the Internet."
"Craigslist Experiment"
Fortuny took the advertisement of another Craigslist poster, purportedly a real woman seeking a dominant partner for sex, and re-posted it in the Casual Encounters section of Seattle's Craigslist personals. On September 4, 2006, he posted to the online wiki Encyclopædia DramaticaEncyclopedia Dramatica
Encyclopædia Dramatica was a satirical open wiki that used MediaWiki software. Launched on December 10, 2004, it lampooned both encyclopedic topics and current events, especially those related or relevant to contemporary internet culture. It was frequently utilized by a socially fluid and dynamic...
all 178 of the responses, complete with photographs and personal contact details, describing this as "the Craigslist Experiment", and encouraged others to further identify the respondents.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
indicated that Fortuny may be liable under Washington State Law, and that this would depend on whether the information he disclosed was of legitimate public concern. Kurt Opsahl, the EFF's staff attorney, said "As far as I know, they (the respondents) are not public figures, so it would be challenging to show that this was something of public concern." while Wired writer Ryan Singel
Ryan Singel
Ryan Singel is a San Francisco-based blogger and journalist covering tech business, tech policy, civil liberty and privacy issues. His work has appeared extensively in Wired.com, and Singel co-founded the Threat Level blog with journalist and convicted hacker Kevin Lee Poulsen...
described Fortuny as "sociopathic
Psychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
". According to Fortuny, two people lost their jobs as a result of his Craigslist Experiment.
A "John Doe" plaintiff who was exposed by his project filed a lawsuit against Jason Fortuny in Illinois. On April 9, 2009, the Illinois federal court issued a default judgment
Default judgment
Default judgment is a binding judgment in favor of either party based on some failure to take action by the other party. Most often, it is a judgment in favor of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to appear before a court of law...
in the case Doe v. Fortuny requiring Fortuny to pay "John Doe" $74,252.56 in damages, attorneys fees, and costs.
Fake Lori Drew blog
Fortuny also said, in an interview with The New York Times reporter Mattathias Schwarz, that he played a previously unknown role in the controversy after the suicide of Megan MeierSuicide of Megan Meier
Megan Taylor Meier , was an American teenager from Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, who committed suicide by hanging three weeks before her fourteenth birthday. A year later, Meier's parents prompted an investigation into the matter and her suicide was attributed to cyber-bullying through the social...
. He created a blog called "Megan Had It Coming" which made crude attacks on the dead girl and her family, while posing as Lori Drew, the mother of a former friend of Meier, who had been accused of creating a MySpace account that had driven Meier to suicide. Although Drew denied authorship, many people remained uncertain about her denials. The county sheriff's department tried but failed to identify the blog's real author. Schwarz, who watched Fortuny log into the blog and make a post there, describes Fortuny's motivation as "to question the public’s hunger for remorse and to challenge the enforceability of cyberharassment laws," adding that Fortuny is "pleased with how the Megan Had It Coming blog succeeded."