A Homophobic Right-Wing Website Has Doxxed the Man Behind a Breitbart Advertiser Boycott
Until yesterday, Sleeping Giants — a social media campaign asking advertisers to boycott alt-right website Breitbart and other racist, queerphobic right-wing sites — operated anonymously. But then, The Daily Caller, a right-wing website founded by bow-tied conservative blowhard Tucker Carlson, exposed the man behind Sleeping Giants, providing his name, his wife’s name, their location, former employer and former school: basically enough info for readers to start researching and personally harassing the founder, his family and friends.
Sleeping Giants began operating shortly after the November 2016 election of U.S. President Donald Trump and has since gotten thousands of advertisers to leave Breitbart, a site that has become notorious for its often racist, homophobic and misogynist content. The site lost 90% of its advertisers in just two months thanks to Sleeping Giants.
Sleeping Giants also convinced advertisers to boycott Fox News host Laura Ingraham after she mocked Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg for “whining about” being rejected by four universities he applied to.
The Daily Caller figured out the identity of Sleeping Giants’ founder by using clues on social media. They then published his personal information, leaving the founder susceptible to personal harassment offline. This shouldn’t really surprise anyone who knows about The Daily Caller.
Among its many gross offenses, The Daily Caller has peddled unsubstantiated and homophobic #Pizzagate theories accusing gay business owners of running a pedophile ring in Washington D.C.. The site has mocked transgender students and has defended Russia’s anti-LGBTQ propaganda law by calling it an antidote to the “western ‘elite’ agenda of tolerance.” One writer for the publication has defended using anti-gay stereotypes by saying they make readers feel “comfortable.”
The site also has a long history of hiring and publishing the work of racist and anti-Semitic writers.
In response to being outed, Sleeping Giants’ founder has deleted his personal social media accounts. But the outing of its founder doesn’t seem to have deterred Sleeping Giants from its mission. Even now it continues targeting Breitbart’s advertisers.
In a public Facebook post which has been flooded by conservative commenters, Sleeping Giants wrote, “I, and the rest of the team here, have always wanted to stay anonymous to keep this about the mission rather than the individuals involved. That hasn’t changed.”
The post continued, “I am super proud of what we’ve built here and the fact that there are now hundreds of thousands of people across the world who have joined together to make hate unprofitable. This has never been about me or us. It’s about you. Thanks for your support. The mission continues.”
But right-wing social media trolls are promising retaliation against Sleeping Giants’ founder for his work. One troll wrote, “[The founder] tried to delete his own presence from the internet, and is complaining he is being harassed for being a topic of public conversation. This has barely started. Get ready.”
