Oh good golly gosh, where to even begin. Well, let’s take it from the top.
To start off, we’d like to remind you of the purpose of this blog. The purpose of predator-exposed is not to put false accusations on people, but to give victims the opportunity to speak out against their abusers both online and off.
Okay, but see, here’s the thing:
This is a callout blog. This blog is not just to give victims a place to vent, or talk about what they experienced, but the purpose of the blog is to name people who have done horrible things and call them out, which on a site like tumblr, basically sends the dogs after them. That being said, do you honestly not see the very real possibility that people could lie about people doing bad things to them? I understand that the “omg she’s LYING” accusation is a part of rape culture, and that thinking that way perpetuates rape culture and victim blaming, but the sad truth of the matter is that, yes, sometimes people can lie. Maybe they got in a fight with someone, maybe they’re jealous of someone, maybe they want to stir up drama for some reason–who knows! Hell, maybe an abuser would report their victim to your blog so that everyone attacks the victim before the victim has a chance to speak up, thereby discrediting said victim before she or he has a chance to say anything. That is 100% possible. So saying, “this blog is not for false accusations” is vile nonsense, because whether that’s your intention or not, that is absolutely, 100% at risk of happening.
Building on that, one way to try and prevent that from happening would be to require evidence before posting anything. Screenshots, photos, the works. Of course, even those can be falsified and created, so really the best course of action is to not run a callout blog in the first place, and instead maybe have, oh, I don’t know, someplace where victims can submit stories without naming names (or edit the posts so that names are removed), so they have a therapeutic place to talk, but there isn’t a temptation for people to lie to slander someone else or hurt another. Just a thought, take it into consideration.
There is no one admin to point blame on for this public misunderstanding.
There may not be one admin to blame, but there is one blog to blame, and that blog is yours. Furthermore, this isn’t a “public misunderstanding.” While those who sent hate to Atesh are all to blame for their repulsive behavior, you specifically called him a predator in your posts. I recognize that you’ve deleted them now in an attempt to save yourselves from further fire (though the damage has been done already, and your posts have been saved), but that doesn’t change the fact that those posts were up for six months prior to deletion. You created posts on a callout blog specifically because you wanted noterity for “exposing” the Xkit Guy. Well, congratulations; you got the noteriety you so desired, but there was no “crime” to expose. Only an innocent man to be framed.
I also want to address the fact that there was no actual “accusation” made for a label of “false accusations” to surface.
So let me get this straight.
You not only start off this post by saying that your blog is not meant to label false accusations, but then your very next paragraph is devoted to defending yourselves by saying that you did nothing wrong, rather than actually apologizing for the fact that your post sent enough people after Atesh to drive him to a mental breakdown? I already thought you were abhorrent, but this confirms it. You care more about yourselves and your own reputation than the fact that your attention-craving actions drove a man to a mental breakdown. You are honestly repugnant.
That aside, yes, there was absolutely an accusation. You made a post labeling him as a “potential predator,” wherein you asked people to send you stories of how he had hurt them. Given that your blog is a callout blog, and given that this website is prone to overreacting in a manner similar to the townspeople of South Park, making a post that labels him as a potential predator is more or less the same as making one that labels him as one, especially since you were inviting people to send you stories, which could have easily enticed people who would lie for the attention to do so (though apparently, that thankfully didn’t happen).
Furthermore, after someone sent you an ask inquiring about him (because they didn’t want to use Xkit if he was unsafe), you relayed the story about the person who knew a person who knew Atesh that you have supposedly been told, and then said that you “unfortunately” hadn’t been sent any information on him. UNFORTUNATELY, you said, because you are fully aware that exposing such a popular person as being terrible would net you Tumblr fame. You don’t give a goddamn about people’s safety or health; you were in this purely for your own popularity.
Regardless, your posts labeled him as a predator before you had any evidence. In your eyes, Atesh was guilty until proven innocent, and that is despicable.
We didn’t/don’t have the means to call someone out when we have no evidence (that we’re allowed to post) to back it up.
Yes, you do. The only “means” you need are a computer (which you have), a keyboard (which you have), a Tumblr account (which you have), the “create a new text post button” (which you have), and a following (which you have). Ba-boom, you’ve now called someone out. I hope you’re proud of yourself, champ.
Completely ignoring and even denying the supposed actions of anyone because they are a popular figure on this website and instead attacking someone not involved in their actions shadows victim blaming culture.
Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up.
You are not going to make yourselves the victims here. You are not going to say that everyone who is rightfully calling you on your nonsense is “victim blaming.” No one is defending Atesh because he is popular. You might have called him out for that reason, but that is not why so many people are enraged with you. That is not why I am enraged at you. And you do not get to play the victim card to get out of this.
We are defending Atesh because he is innocent. Because your post sent an angry mob of people to Atesh, who then harassed him with vicious insults and death wishes for months. We’re defending him because he, as a person, and especially as a person who hasn’t done anything wrong, didn’t deserve that. In this scenario, ATESH is the victim.
We are snapping at you because you are not innocent. You are the catalyst for all of this. Your posts caused this to happen. While the people who sent Atesh those nasty messages are guilty as well, you are the ones that lit the match and then tossed said match onto the barrel of oil that is Tumblr to cause the entire thing to explode. You did this. In this scenario, YOU are the predators.
You say that it’s wrong to ignore the “supposed actions” of someone, but it is even more wrong to completely crucify someone over something that is supposed. Evidence is everything, and you have none, and you sparked a mob that destroyed someone’s mental health and feeling of security and stability. You ruined his life, at least for the time. You are not the victims. He is.
However; we are greatly sorry for the mass confusion that has been caused. It’s not, nor was it ever, our intention to spread false allegations.
Don’t apologize for “mass confusion,” apologize to Atesh for causing him to be harassed and threatened for months because of something you did. Whether or not was your “intention” to spread false allegations is irrelevant; that is exactly what you did, and you destroyed someone’s life over it. That needs more than this half-assed apology to an entire website, the victim of your actions doesn’t use the site actively enough to actually see this half-hearted post to begin with.
Honestly, putting a half-assed apology at the end of a post that does nothing but defend your actions doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t help anything. It doesn’t make you look any better and it certainly doesn’t help Atesh. I’m not sure there is anything you can do to help him now, but deleting this blog might be a good start. You are clearly not responsible enough to run something like this, and this will just happen again to someone else in the future, I’m sure. But if you don’t want to do that, fine; at least have the decency to send a message to Atesh to apologize to him directly for what you did. The problem here is not confusion or a misunderstanding (and I laugh at the “severe wording errors” comment, because the only “error” was you being so arrogant that you posted your craving for dirt on Atesh so blatantly in the text), it was you calling out an innocent person for the sake of notes.
Learn from your mistakes, and own up to them as well.
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