| > We only have SSC's account of the conversation between him and the NYT reporter. True. But Scott only asked to not to have his full name published and I trust him enough to have asked the NYT beforehand. Even if he didn't, the NYT could've simply said "we won't, but ask next time" and it would look pretty bad for him. > The NYT does not have a history of doxxing people, particularly their home addresses. Revealing that sort of personal information is traditionally what "doxxing" means. Just revealing the name is not "traditional" doxxing, I agree. It's clear, though, what he tries to say. > SSC's fans revealed the NYT reporters name and home address. That is to say, the only person doxxed here has been the reporter. So the power dynamics are not as clear cut as SSC made out. Well, just after Scott put the blog offline. And he did explicitly ask his readers not to doxx or attack anyone. Now, it is possible say that, given this action, one could know that this would happen with a high likelihood, but, given his situation, he did what he could to prevent it IMO. That's debatable, though, I give you that. > Tucker Carlson has since used his fans to doxx NYT reporters when he objected to them writing a story about him. That is, this has become a right-wing tactic. And that will be unhealthy for a free press. That's not on Scott. He neither "invented" this nor asked anyone to do it; in fact, he said the reporter is probably innocent and asked his readers not to. So you can't blame this on him. > It's not at all clear that Scott Alexander is anonymous, or that revealing his real last name constitutes doxxing. Scott Alexander are his first and middle names. He blogged under his full real name for many years at LessWrong. He published an SSC post in a Springer book in 2017 under his first and last names. I can see the NYT side on this; not publishing the name of someone who's name is already kinda public if you search a bit seems strange at hand. But on the other hand Scott is right, too; a NYT article would've directly brought up SSC when searching his name. Therefore, I think it's fair enough to ask not to have his name published and I don't think it's too much to ask, to be honest. Also, similar to the sibling, I can't locate this book. Overall, I can see why he did what he did, but I can also see why it came to this. |