However, the outlet made the decision not to reveal the person’s identity after he made an extensive apology on The_Donald in which he claimed he had grown addicted to trolling and that “This has been an extreme wake up call to always consider how others may think or feel about what is being said before clicking the submit button anywhere online”: Using details from HanAssholeSolo’s Reddit account, CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski tracked down the creator of the GIF in real life. Trump has previously tried to distance himself from the alt-right, but members of the movement interpreted the tweet as a show of support from the White House for their racist beliefs. Yet the fact that the GIF apparently originated from The_Donald, and specifically from a member of The_Donald who’s espoused a racist and violent ideology, prompted public debate over whether the president was promoting violence, however obliquely, with his tweet. ![]() Then things got hairy.Īfter Trump tweeted the GIF, CNN responded to what it deemed to be Trump’s incitement of “violence against reporters,” while Trump supporters, along with the White House, insisted the GIF itself was satirical and nonviolent, and could not be read as a threat toward CNN or the mainstream media at large. CNN tracked down the GIF’s creator in real life. It’s also notorious for its right-wing extremism, and has helped propel alt-right memes, multiple right-wing conspiracies, and ongoing distrust of the media into the mainstream conversation surrounding the president. The tone of HanAssholeSolo’s comments is typical of the rhetoric found on The_Donald, which is one of Reddit’s largest communities and one of the internet’s primary mainstream hubs of support for Trump. CNN reported that a senior White House official clarified the president did not source the video from Reddit, but the outlet noted that to date, no other public source for the Trump-versus-CNN footage has been located.Īs many journalists quickly uncovered, HanAssholeSolo had a long track record of posting racist and violent speech to Reddit, including racial slurs, threats of violence against Muslims, and anti-Semitism. HanAssholeSolo, who has since deleted his account, claimed to have created the GIF and watermarked it it’s not clear who edited the GIF into a video with sound, or how the video then found its way onto the president’s Twitter accounts. The video, which includes sound, is an edited version of a GIF that was posted to Reddit’s r/The_Donald community on June 28 by a user called HanAssholeSolo. The tweet in question, which was also retweeted from the official Twitter account, shows edited footage of a staged 2007 WWE match in which Trump wrestles Vince McMahon. #FraudNewsCNN #FNN /WYUnHjjUjg- Donald J. ![]() As a result, many, including Donald Trump Jr., are accusing CNN of bullying the GIF’s creator, while glossing over said creator’s history of hate speech on Reddit before he came under public scrutiny. ![]() Since then, the president’s public battle with CNN has escalated into a debate over how to treat online trolls who spread racist and violent hate speech - a debate centered on what many perceive as a veiled threat by CNN to dox the creator of the original GIF behind the president’s tweet, who was a member of Reddit’s alt-right hub r/The_Donald. On Sunday, July 2, in the midst of ongoing clashes between Donald Trump and CNN, the president tweeted out a video in which he symbolically beats up the media outlet in a wrestling match. A wrestling GIF posted to Reddit last week by an alt-right troll has become the focal point of mounting tensions between the president, the media, and internet-bred ideological extremism, which have since prompted the trending hashtag #CNNBlackmail and escalating right-wing backlash against CNN.
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