An alt-right troll and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist was caught Wednesday handing out flyers thanking Democratic Senators for “protecting our quality violent porn content,” including “ritual Satanic porn videos.”
Jack Posobiec, who made national headlines last month for interrupting a performance of Julius Caesar in Central Park because he believed the 418-year-old play had anti-Trump undertones, distributed the flyers at a Net Neutrality Day of Action demonstration outside the U.S. Senate, according to attendees.
This isn’t the first time Posobiec has been caught handing out fake fliers: he planted a sign reading “Rape Melania” to frame anti-Trump protesters in November. His involvement with the sign wasn’t revealed until January.
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The flyer claims to be written on behalf of the organizers of the Women’s March, open internet nonprofit Fight for the Future, along with the porn sites RedTube and PornHub. All of these organizations and companies supported Wednesday’s Net Neutrality Day of Action, which spawned rallies across the U.S.
“We can confirm that neither this flyer nor this campaign has any association whatsoever with the Women’s March,” said a spokesperson for the Women’s March
Trump administration-appointed FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai has recently taken steps to roll back net neutrality protections, which would allow internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast to artificially slow access to some websites in favor of their own.
Brian Tashman, a researcher at the ACLU who was working at the rally, first tracked down Posobiec under a tree after seeing several protesters discarding his flyers immediately after handing them out.
“Someone, a tall guy with sunglasses and jacket, was passing out flyers,” Tashman told The Daily Beast. “Then I saw him there under a tree and I took a photo of him. I thought, ‘This looks just like Jack Posobiec.’”
After Tashman confirmed with others that the person in his photo was the same man passing out flyers, he saw Posobiec trailing senators as they left the Senate.
“He was following Senators and asking them, ‘Why do you support this rally of Satanic porn?’” he said. Posobiec took a video of the encounters for his Twitter page.
Tashman then tweeted the picture of Posobiec, along with the sentence “The same @JackPosobiec who planted the ‘Rape Melania’ sign and disrupted Julius Caesar today tried to smear #NetNeutrality supporters.” He was quickly blocked by Posobiec.
Posobiec denied that he was trying to represent Net Neutrality supporters to The Daily Beast, saying "I never once claimed anyone else made the flyers."
"No dirty tricks here," said Posobiec. "I in no way attempted to say that these flyers were made by anyone but myself."
When asked what the headers from the activist groups and internet porn companies were intended to communicate, Posobiec said it was "tongue-in-cheek" and that he wanted to "let the gathered media aware of the fact that Fight For The Future is standing with PornHub and Red Tube today."
"I also intended to raise awareness about the existence of this appalling material on these websites, such as videos of US Border Agents raping illegal Mexican immigrant women. As well as Satanic porn and snuff videos," he said.
My only intent was to show people who Fight For the Future was standing with - not attempt to say I was representing them
Posobiec came to prominence in part by peddling the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely claimed a child sex ring run by Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager was operating in the basement of a pizza shop that has no basement. Posobiec and a friend videotaped themselves inside the pizzeria, where he videotaped a birthday party and was asked to leave.
In May, Posobiec received a one-day White House press credential for The Rebel Media, a Canadian far-right and pro-Trump outlet.
Tashman said he didn’t speak to a person who believed the flyer was really created by someone supporting net neutrality.
“It was obviously fake,” he said. “The people I spoke to, they all knew.”
This post was updated with comments from Jack Posobiec.
