HanAssholeSolo told CNN he was nervous about his identity being revealed, which led CNN to withhold his information because “he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same.”
“CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change,” wrote reporter Andrew Kaczynski.
Not surprisingly, this resulted in a wave of pseudo-outrage on the internet, culminating in the troll-y hashtag:
#CNNBlackmail.
It has also led to people claiming that CNN’s act of kindness constituted literal illegal blackmail and that the troll is a 15-year-old boy (
he isn’t).