Why Don’t I Name and Shame?

I run the Twitter account @forexposure_txt , which collects anonymous quotes from people who think artists don’t deserve to be paid.

The question I get asked every day, several times a day, is why I black out names. Some people get angry about it. One dude called me a worthless cuck for refusing to name and shame. Sometimes, people go vigilante, find the source themselves, and add the names to replies and I have to block them.

The reason is to avoid situations like this:

These were on the personal feed of someone I had just anonymously quoted. I freaked out when I saw those posts alongside more tame replies from For Exposure readers, but luckily these folks were not readers and the ones that were had already beeninvolved in the situation before it was quoted on the site. I encourage people to call out disrespect in their own community.

But that, right there, is why I don’t name and shame. I do want @forexposure_txt to embolden artists to stand up to disrespect when they witness it. But I do not want to turn it into a public mass-shaming machine where I direct 90,000 angry people at strangers every day, not knowing what they’re going to do.

I quote all kinds of anonymous strangers on the site. Some are large companies or presidents of countries. Some are just randos who said something dumb. I don’t know anything about these people. For all I know, some of them could be children. They could have mental issues. Some of the things I quote are from years ago. The people who said them could be different people now. Some might be missing context. One day someone might even mock up a fake screencap to try and stir up trouble for someone, and I would have no way of knowing.

Heck, if you dug deep enough into my Google history I’m sure you could find a quote from me to put on there. People change.

I recommend everyone check out the book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. It explains more eloquently that I could how our culture has shifted into turning public shaming into sport and entertainment. Lives can be ruined by a name-and-shame gone viral. Even the smallest round of public shaming can push someone to self-harm.

In specific events, where a person in a position of power is using their influence to take advantage artists, and the WHO is what makes the quote interesting, I may leave their name. BUT…

If anyone doxxes the people I quote in the replies, reveals their name or handle, hunts them down, or attacks them, I will immediately block them. If you want to be unblocked, you can remove the post and contact @ryanestrada to let me know to unblock you.

So far it has never become a big problem for anyone but me, but if it does, I will have no choice but to shut @forexposure_txt down.

If an artist is personally wronged by a member of a community, I am all for them spreading the word to warn the people in their circles that there is a fox in the henhouse. But I will not let @forexposure_txt become a forum for daily public attacks on strangers that folks would never have interacted with otherwise. We’ve all said stupid things. I am not personally the judge, jury and executioner that decides if those stupid things get to ruin your life or not.

And I don’t ever want that job.