LOS ANGELES (VINnews) — Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro was unsuccessfully targeted by a leftist prankster, who attempted to frame him as the founder of an Antifa website.
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The method used to incriminate Shapiro was to put his email address in the source code of the website, and then reveal that “discovery” thereby giving the impression of an error made by Shapiro.
Shapiro himself reported the prank on Monday. “A rumor started over the weekend that I was trying to catfish people on the left,” Shapiro said. “They set up a fake recruiting website, and put my public email address in the source code. Someone named Libbie Sanger got 115,000 hits.”
“This is a prank by some Reddit idiot,” Shapiro continued. “I found out about it late last night or early yesterday. There are big named people on the left promoting this garbage. I don’t have twitter on my phone, because twitter is stupid.”
Antifa is a leftist “anti-fascist” group that in fact employs fascist methods to further their agenda. Antifa openly believes in using violence to advance their goals, rather than working towards policy reform.
A Twitter user going by the name Adam Rahuba (Leader of Antifa) has taken responsibility for the prank. As pointed out by Shapiro, it didn’t take long for him to seize the opportunity to try to make money off of the situation.
So here's how this went:
1. Plant my email address in the source code to "prank me";
2. Watch as idiots take it seriously and both spam me and suggest it's real;
3. Suggest I'm "playing victim";
4. Raise money.
May you grow like an onion, with your head in the ground. pic.twitter.com/gCf5ha3uSH— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 10, 2020
In a comical turn of events, various leftists on Twitter took the bait and gleefully shared the story. This is especially surprising, given how easy it is for anyone with a computer and internet connection to add any information into the source code of a website.
Shapiro himself took the opportunity to troll the left, tweeting “If you want to sign up for Antifa, guys, here is where you should put all your contact information.” Shapiro then inserted a link to tips.fbi.gov.
He then followed up with “I made this website myself. My email is in the source code.”
I made this website myself. My email is in the source code.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 10, 2020
The article says, “This is especially surprising, given how easy it is for anyone with a computer and internet connection to add any information into the source code of a website”.
But that’s not true at all. Try it yourself. You’re in front of a computer and an internet connection. Go ahead and try “to add any information into the source code of” this vosizneias website.
There actually WAS a fake ANTIFA site set up by white supremacists, but it Shapiro had nothing to do with that one.