The price of storming daily
Two years ago Taylor Dumpson was elected student government president of American University –
the first black woman president in the school’s history. The day she took office, several bananas with racist messages were found hanging from nooses.
The nooses drew headlines, which got the attention of white supremacist Andrew Anglin, the founder and publisher of the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer.
Four days after the bananas were found on the American University campus, Anglin encouraged his followers to troll Dumpson in a Daily Stormer post.
Alongside her picture, Anglin posted links to Dumpson’s personal Facebook page and the AU student government Twitter account, encouraging his readers to “let her know you fully support her fight against bananas.”
So they did. A federal judge ruled yesterday that Anglin and one of his followers have to pay Dumpson over 700k.
In her decision, US District Judge Rosemary Collyer said that Anglin’s actions “were racially motivated and intentionally resulted in a campaign of racial and gender harassment.”
“The extent of the troll storm was significant and Mr. Anglin, through the Daily Stormer, intended that result or was reckless in his actions,” said Collyer.
This ruling comes a day after a Montana judge entered a final order that Anglin pay $14 million to another woman he encouraged his followers to harass.
Anglin appears to be in hiding.
It’s about time some of these guys were getting some serious consequences for their actions.
I’m sure Ken White or Marc Randazza will come along any day now to tell us how horrible this is for the state of frozen peaches.
Free speech. Harassment. Not the same thing.