Silk Road In June 2011, Chen wrote an exposé of
Silk Road, a
darknet market which facilitated online drug purchases. Following publication of the article, Chen was interviewed about Silk Road on
NPR's
All Things Considered. As a result of Chen's investigation, United States Senators
Charles Schumer and
Joe Manchin publicly called on
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to shut the site down.
Facebook In February 2012, Chen interviewed a
content moderator from
oDesk, an outsourcing firm hired to enforce
Facebook's
content guidelines. The article included the guidelines provided by oDesk.
Reddit In October 2012, Chen uncovered the background of Michael Brutsch, a moderator who oversaw several controversial Reddit forums such as r/creepshots and r/jailbait, under the username 'Violentacrez'. He arranged a phone interview with Brutsch during which Brutsch mentioned he had a disabled wife and pleaded for him to keep his identity secret. Though Chen claimed this "did shake [him] a bit", he published an article revealing his name, location, and workplace on Gawker. The next day, Brutsch was fired from his job. This release of
personally identifiable information prompted several subreddits to ban all Gawker link submissions from their site. Several commentators have expressed concern that the
public shaming of Brutsch may serve as an example to others, legitimizing online vigilantism and exposing individuals such as Brutsch to mass retribution. Reddit users accused Chen of
doxing Brutsch and declared "war" on
Gawker.
PropOrNot PropOrNot is a group that seeks to expose what it calls
Russian
propaganda and published a list of websites they called "bona-fide 'useful idiots of the Russian government based on methodology they called "a combination of manual and automated analysis, including analysis of content, timing, technical indicators, and other reporting". Chen was critical of
The Washington Posts decision to put the story on its front page. He wrote in an article titled "The Propaganda About Russian Propaganda": "The story topped the
Posts most-read list, and was shared widely by prominent journalists and politicians on Twitter. ... But a close look at the report showed that it was a mess." == Bibliography ==