FBI Cracks Down on Steubenville's Anonymous Ally

The 26-year-old leader of Anonymous’s “Operation Roll Red Roll” made the Steubenville Ohio rape case go viral. Now he’s being targeted by the FBI for hacking and identify theft. They take the forcible penetration of computers very seriously!

Deric Lostutter’s Winchester, Kentucky house was raided by FBI agents in April; according to the search warrant, they were looking for evidence related to the hacking of the Steubenville football team’s website—remember when it was defaced? —and the unauthorized access of the webmaster’s email address.

The hacktivist collective organized real and digital protests around the case and leaked images and video, most memorably one video of former Steubenville High School baseball player Michael Nodianos joking about raping the passed-out 16-year-old rape survivor “dead.” There’s no way to know whether Anonymous’ fervent efforts impacted the court case — and they definitely disseminated a lot of false information — but they also exposed the casual ubiquity of rape culture on a massive, national scale.

Now, Lostutter will pay. If convicted of hacking-related crimes, he could face up to 10 years behind bars.

[Mother Jones]