In today’s social media-driven society, we often post, tweet, yak and just type without even considering the consequences it might have. We’ve come to adopt a group mentality on social media — believing that what we say and do online won’t follow us or even have any impact. However, Curt Schilling, former Red Sox pitcher, has proven that group mentality to be especially faulty, and thank god he did. Maybe other social media users will learn from the example Schilling made of nine adult Twitter users.
The end of the nine Twitter users’ reputations began with an innocent tweet from Curt Schilling on Feb. 25. Schilling tweeted a congratulatory tweet for his daughter, 17-year-old Gabby Schilling, who was accepted into Salve Regina University in Rhode Island. It’s unfortunate that these Twitter users’ lives will forever be tarnished by less than 140 characters, but I believe it is quite deserving.
Within hours, Schilling received many tweets in response. Some joked about taking his daughter to a party or out on a date, while others went to the extremes of vulgarity, even graphically threatening rape. These were adult male Twitter users threatening sexual abuse of a minor, thinking that they could tweet at a celebrity with 121,000 followers without getting noticed.
Instead of ignoring the sexually-explicit tweets, Schilling chose a direct approach, writing words that would later tarnish the reputation of at least two offenders.
Schilling posted a 2,000 word entry on his blog, “38 Pitches,” where the story was first reported. In the post, Schilling names two of the offenders. With simple Googling tactics, Schilling collected information on the offenders’ real names, contact information and schools.
According to the New York Post, Schilling began by Googling their Twitter handles, their online friends, Facebook profiles and Instagram pages. He uncovered their names, addresses, high schools, colleges, sports teams, parents’ emails and more.
Tyrra DeMeritt / Equinox Staff
With persistent research and helpful blog readers, Schilling had the full names of at least two offenders. @primtime227 and @Nagels_Bagels soon turned into Sean MacDonald of Montclair State University and Adam Nagel of Brookdale Community College.
Even Keene State College students have made several “anonymous” Twitter accounts over the years, ranging from well-intentioned, like KSC Compliments to down-right rude and inconsiderate, like KSC Boobs or KSC Booty Call. Just like Schilling’s offenders, the people behind these accounts could easily be revealed with some simple research. Those people don’t realize that anonymous accounts really aren’t anonymous.
Since Schilling’s research, MacDonald and Nagel along with other offenders, have been suspended, fired, kicked out of their universities and fraternities or kicked off of their sports teams. MacDonald and Nagel have also deactivated their Twitter accounts.
Prior to the now infamous tweets, MacDonald was a part-time ticket seller for the New York Yankees. However, after Schilling exposed him he was fired from his job.
In response, the New York Yankees Executive Director of Communications, Jason Ziller, said, “There is no place for anything like this and the Yankees have zero tolerance for anything of this nature,” according to the New York Daily News.
MacDonald was also a part of Theta Xi Fraternity at Montclair State University, an organization which soon released a statement saying, “We agree wholeheartedly that cyber-bullying is unacceptable and should not be tolerated. This is not in accordance with the values of our organization, and we assure you that disciplinary actions have begun to address his unfortunate decision and hold our member accountable.” According to a statement released by Brookdale Community College, Nagel was suspended from school as a result of his vulgar tweets and released from the student-run radio show which he aired for one hour every week.
The school’s statement also said, “The Twitter comments posted by this student are unacceptable and clearly violate the standards of conduct that are expected of all Brookdale students.” Nagel will be going through the school’s conduct system and more disciplinary action will be taken at that time.
Social media users of our generation often forget that their actions on social media can have consequences offline. What is written online does not just disappear in the news feed. Instead, that post is forever a part of that user’s digital footprint that will never go away. It’s time users understand that they are not anonymous, their posts are not forgotten and their words and actions have serious consequences that can very well follow them for and ruin the rest of their lives.
According to the LA Times, Schilling has since been contacted by the FBI and local law enforcement about pressing possible criminal charges. Schilling has made it clear to several sources including CBS’s “CBS This Morning” that he plans to pursue every legal action possible. However, he has stopped naming offenders at the request of his daughter.
Schilling proved that social media accounts are not anonymous. It doesn’t take a tech genius to uncover who is behind a Twitter account, no matter how anonymous and secure the user thinks it is.
In Schilling’s original blog post that broke the story, Schilling wrote, “This will follow them for the rest of their lives. And for some of these guys, I’ll make sure of it.” And just by naming two of the offenders, Schilling has already made sure of it.
Taylor Howe can be contacted at thowe@kscequinox.com