He was defending pedophilia. What other sign do people need?
ArsTechnica Reporter Peter Bright Arrested for Soliciting Sex with Children
- Thread starter Deleted member 39450
- Start date
2009, around the time when he made those jail-bait twitter posts.
Holy fuck just read that article. I hope they find that poor girl and get her the help she needs. God damn.
All these Twitter posts coming to the surface. Twitter has really allowed people's inner monologue to be expressed outwardly, hasn't it?
Drug money is a hell of a motivator.
It's possible he made her up to impress that FBI agent.
There was an article on cracked.com IIRC where they interviewed a former victim, that had a mother that pimped her out. Awful stuff, so it does happen, but from the article I got the vibe that Peter Bright was talking out of his ass. "I'm already training a 11 year old..." that was in another state or city, so he couldn't get to her that often. Sounds to me like something made up.
Well done to the agents who set up this sting , can’t imagine having to deal with these sickos day in and day out .
Never heard of this guy before , hope he’s locked away for good.
Never heard of this guy before , hope he’s locked away for good.
Bloody hell Arstechnica
There is more
MOD EDIT: Trigger warning. The following links include very offensive content.
Talking about having sex with boys.
At the time of those posts he was probably 19~20, so the huge concern is if he isn't lying he's talking about boys, as in under the age of consent. The "Catholic boys" just sets off alarm bells.
Potential victims in the past either directly or indirectly through downloading and potentially sharing CP, let alone what he's finally been arrested for here.
And this guy was employed for a decade, let alone got through the doors in the first place with all of this attached to his ArsTechinica forum identity.
There is more
MOD EDIT: Trigger warning. The following links include very offensive content.
Talking about having sex with boys.
At the time of those posts he was probably 19~20, so the huge concern is if he isn't lying he's talking about boys, as in under the age of consent. The "Catholic boys" just sets off alarm bells.
Potential victims in the past either directly or indirectly through downloading and potentially sharing CP, let alone what he's finally been arrested for here.
And this guy was employed for a decade, let alone got through the doors in the first place with all of this attached to his ArsTechinica forum identity.
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I find it ironic that these kinds of scumbags usually aren't hiding their behavior as much as they want to believe, it's sad that it only becomes readily apparent after the fact.
Or in the case here, he's plastered it all over their forums, had the community call him out, then been made a moderator of the forum before... finally being given a paid position as a staff writer.
At least with a forum mod, it's usually volunteering and less of a liability. Actually employing and giving someone a salary is just a bit of a step up. You're supposed to do some due diligence in hiring an employee, especially someone you know has been an issue on your own bloody forums.
While I would stress again no one at ArsTechnica is responsible for his actions, this isn't quite unfolding like some cases where a community/site literally know nothing or suspect anything of a members life outwith work/community use.
This guy blasted hints and comments all over the forums and the regulars from above have been suspicious for a while. At this point, ArsTechnica is going to have to take a bit of flak for elevating this guy up to a mod and then going as far as employing him. Given the things he was saying on the forums (as far back as 2000) he should have been banned let alone ending up employed. IMO anyway.
While the cops/FBI are arresting him on the charges they are, I hope they find any historic abuse/victims if there are any.
I've been reading Ars Technica for nearly 20 years, never paying any attention to the forums, and this fact that he was a known creep on there for a whole 10 years before being brought on as paid staff is a huuuge wtf for me. I can't understand the reasoning behind "This guy has a longstanding habit of making gross and highly questionable posts... let's bring him on as a face of our organization."
That's the kind of hiring that took place on amateur sites back in the '90s and early '00s, trust me, I saw it a lot, not on a major tech site that wants to be taken seriously.
It's just... what? It's not as if ArsTechnica is the Daily Mail or something either, looking for controversy and trolls to drum up shit. They're framed as a reputable tech site covering mainstream tech news.
Okay, forums can have moderators who turn out how they do, and we'll leave that there as I know most in here know what I'm alluding to. But as I said above you don't have a job interview or any sort of HR/CEO/Corporate overhead for that. It's volunteering to help moderate a community forum. I mean, don't get me wrong, the shit he was posting in 2000~2002 should still have caused concern for a community he got to become a mod.
Hence that massive poll topic above that a poster alludes to the community being concerned about/arguing about Peter's behaviour on the forums.
But the actual site hiring someone to work on a paid salary and have the legal obligations they would, is just soo much further forward than "we took on a bad mod for the forum". I doubt we'll ever get a PR answer or anything close to that as to how Ars was soo careless to bring this guy on in such a formal position. And I certainly doubt they'll make that mistake again with any future staff that might have a massive bread crumb trail going back many years on their own damn forums.
He was apparently hired formally in 2009 as a staff writer. I'm not sure as of now when he was made a mod on the forums.
Post-2009 his behaviour on Twitter still carried on from many of his prior forum posts, so it's been on multiple outlets for ArsTechnica (and his colleagues) to see.
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Can't imagine how difficult that agent's job is. Pretending to be into child rape to catch pedophiles has got to be one of the more psychologically damaging jobs out there.
The ArsTechnica forums sure seemed like a great place to post back in the day. I wondered why quite a few posters above were unhappy with Ben alongside Peter for behaviour on the forums. Well, it checks out why
OP unhappy with paedophilic content in anime, Ben not so concerned
"gas the jew" and "actual meaning of the swastika"
As for how Ben ties into Peter, apart from forum posters lumping them together as two voices who posted a lot of shit on these forums, he was openly defending him as well
Let's just hope Ben has changed his mind on paedophilia not being a moral wrong and views some of that shit Peter was saying on these forums in a different light now.
This topic isn't about Ben, but he's another who has broken into the mainstream tech press and has some pretty shit things said and left behind on the Ars forums.
OP unhappy with paedophilic content in anime, Ben not so concerned
"gas the jew" and "actual meaning of the swastika"
As for how Ben ties into Peter, apart from forum posters lumping them together as two voices who posted a lot of shit on these forums, he was openly defending him as well
Let's just hope Ben has changed his mind on paedophilia not being a moral wrong and views some of that shit Peter was saying on these forums in a different light now.
This topic isn't about Ben, but he's another who has broken into the mainstream tech press and has some pretty shit things said and left behind on the Ars forums.
The ArsTechnica forums sure seemed like a great place to post back in the day. I wondered why quite a few posters above were unhappy with Ben alongside Peter for behaviour on the forums. Well, it checks out why
OP unhappy with paedophilic content in anime, Ben not so concerned
"gas the jew" and "actual meaning of the swastika"
As for how Ben ties into Peter, apart from forum posters lumping them together as two voices who posted a lot of shit on these forums, he was openly defending him as well
Let's just hope Ben has changed his mind on paedophilia not being a moral wrong and views some of that shit Peter was saying on these forums in a different light now.
This topic isn't about Ben, but he's another who has broken into the mainstream tech press and has some pretty shit things said and left behind on the Ars forums.
I wish I saw this post before I started. I now need to just log off for a while.
It absolutely is. They have to rotate agents out frequently because of this.
JFC. I joined the ArsT forums nearly 20 years ago. PeterB's forum behavior pissed me off to no end and their embrace of him as a mod and later a staff member drove me away for good. But this is 1000x worse than I ever imagined. Fuck him to hell forever and ever.
I just caught this story. Good god this guy is sick.
All those Twitter and forum posts... all that projection... This has been going for years.
And I see the latest update is that Ben Kuchera is also fucked up. I mean, he was always an asshole but WOW.
All those Twitter and forum posts... all that projection... This has been going for years.
And I see the latest update is that Ben Kuchera is also fucked up. I mean, he was always an asshole but WOW.
i saw this thread when it was posted but then just clicked on it again now and saw this post
something clicked in my mind and i was like oh i think he used to play dota
i went to steam and sure enough i was still friends with him and i recognize the picture im pretty sure i played many tens of games of Dota with him
what in the fuck
I've spent hours of my life "interacting" (we didn't really talk or anything) with a man who did all that stuff in the story
i feel sick and gross
what the fuck
Wtf, cancel Ben Kuchera.The ArsTechnica forums sure seemed like a great place to post back in the day. I wondered why quite a few posters above were unhappy with Ben alongside Peter for behaviour on the forums. Well, it checks out why
OP unhappy with paedophilic content in anime, Ben not so concerned
"gas the jew" and "actual meaning of the swastika"
As for how Ben ties into Peter, apart from forum posters lumping them together as two voices who posted a lot of shit on these forums, he was openly defending him as well
Let's just hope Ben has changed his mind on paedophilia not being a moral wrong and views some of that shit Peter was saying on these forums in a different light now.
This topic isn't about Ben, but he's another who has broken into the mainstream tech press and has some pretty shit things said and left behind on the Ars forums.
while he was planning abusing a 7 years old he was posting an article about a windows updates on ars techinca... that's... scary
seeing that he had awful behavior on their forum going back a decade before being hired... you have to wonder...... this is something.
seeing that he had awful behavior on their forum going back a decade before being hired... you have to wonder...... this is something.
Yeah, that's fucked up when you know you've spent time with someone who is a monster. Can't blame yourself though if you didn't know any better and/or didn't know of his reputation on the Ars forums.
Seems quite a few posters stopped using the forums because of him.
Well, that explains why the Penny Arcade guys poached him from Ars.The ArsTechnica forums sure seemed like a great place to post back in the day. I wondered why quite a few posters above were unhappy with Ben alongside Peter for behaviour on the forums. Well, it checks out why
OP unhappy with paedophilic content in anime, Ben not so concerned
"gas the jew" and "actual meaning of the swastika"
As for how Ben ties into Peter, apart from forum posters lumping them together as two voices who posted a lot of shit on these forums, he was openly defending him as well
Let's just hope Ben has changed his mind on paedophilia not being a moral wrong and views some of that shit Peter was saying on these forums in a different light now.
This topic isn't about Ben, but he's another who has broken into the mainstream tech press and has some pretty shit things said and left behind on the Ars forums.
Yeah, there's "edgy shit I said when I was young on the internet" that I don't say now/regret and have possibly apologised for/acknowledged, and then there are comments around paedophilia that don't age well no matter what age you were when you thought/said/posted them. We're taught about age of consent and that the sexual abuse of children is wrong in school, you can't just go "but I was only 22 when I thought paedophilia wasn't that immoral/bad".
Speaking of that, more from Peter
Doing the usual if it's simulated child porn no one is harmed and it's a "thought crime". Also saying the justification of prohibition of child porn or snuff flicks is "weak".
Downplaying kidnapping/financial trade in CP.
In a reply to rape and child porn stating stating they don't contribute to problems, but availability reduces problems.
I mean Jesus fucking Christ ArsTechnica, you made this guy a moderator and then employed him? And Ben thinks this was just being awkward/a potty mouth? This is one hell of a rabbit hole to go down after this monster became mainstream news.
There always seems to have been this type of creep running through tech forums, and the overall tech sub-culture itself, since I first started participating in online discussion back in the ‘90s.Yeah, there's "edgy shit I said when I was young on the internet" that I don't say now/regret and have possibly apologised for/acknowledged, and then there are comments around paedophilia that don't age well no matter what age you were when you thought/said/posted them. We're taught about age of consent and that the sexual abuse of children is wrong in school, you can't just go "but I was only 22 when I thought paedophilia wasn't that immoral/bad".
Speaking of that, more from Peter
Doing the usual if it's simulated child porn no one is harmed and it's a "thought crime". Also saying the justification of prohibition of child porn or snuff flicks is "weak".
Downplaying kidnapping/financial trade in CP.
In a reply to rape and child porn stating stating they don't contribute to problems, but availability reduces problems.
I mean Jesus fucking Christ ArsTechnica, you made this guy a moderator and then employed him? And Ben thinks this was just being awkward/a potty mouth? This is one hell of a rabbit hole to go down after this monster became mainstream news.
This creep had all the red flags:
- aCtUaLlY It’s ePhEbOpHiLiA
- An intense legalistic obsession with age of consent laws
- Defending simulated depictions
They’re really good at ingratiating themselves with the powers that be (who tend to be similar types of assholes) to the point where they can pretty much say anything and have it laughed away.
These assholes are a dime a dozen in the tech world, and while this scumbag is obviously at the extreme end, he isn’t alone. This might be a good time for Ars and others within that culture to take a good long look at themselves, and re-evaluate who they celebrate, cultivate, and legitimize.
Going through the discussion over there, that seems to be exactly what happened. He established his role as the official court jester for Ars' founder Caesar, and that was that.
From my experience running a site/forum in the late '90s/early '00s, keeping control of the trollish elements of your community was really, really fucking hard. You didn't want to appear as too much of a hardass, because you wanted your community to thrive, but at the same time the looser you were with the rules the deeper a troll could embed themselves in your community. If things ever got too much and you tried to remove that "beloved" troll, all hell breaks loose within the community and people revolt. (Personally, that was the point where I said "fuck it", handed the reins to someone else, and washed my hands of the site and entire community.)
We never let the discourse get anywhere near as disgusting or edgy as it appears to have been at Ars, so we attracted mostly decent people (many of whom found success in the industry), but a friendly rival site of ours did... and wow, the real life dirty laundry that later came out of there.
Now again, this was all pretty much how things went with amateur sites, but when you got to the level that Ars achieved you'd think they'd try to keep things clean. It's like, IGN at the time was at a much higher level than our site, we had friends and connections with them, and they ran a very tight ship internally compared to us.
The first time I've ever had to close an article because of the content. This is so messed up. Has the company he was reporting for made a statement yet?
I really hope he was lying about the eleven year old.
I really hope he was lying about the eleven year old.
Yeah, I was an admin at a Star Wars fan site in the late '90s, so I feel your pain. It was before best practices had been established, so human nature did its thing with Admin's favorites, distrust of outsiders, chasing off "undesirables", etc.
The thing with guys like Bright is he's not uncommon in those circles. The tech scene, especially in the '80s & '90s, attracted counter-cultural types and anyone else outside the mainstream, so people just shrugged their shoulders at a lot of stuff. Combine that with the "I'm better/smarter than you" mindset that serves as the bedrock of that scene, and you have a recipe for all kinds of creeps to thrive and succeed. There was some good that came out of all of it, but the anarcho-libertarian, chip-on-a-shoulder, techno-utopian shit just served as an incubator for the worst people to emerge (gamergate, alt-right, etc.).
Just put him under the jail , despite warnings i read the article. Damn that guy is a sick sack of shit!
