Anonymous Twitter Activist Is Hero To Some, Villian To Others
By Melony Roy
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Who is FanSince09, the anonymous Twitter activist at the center of Social Media postings revealing alleged wrong-doers to law enforcement?
The handle FanSince09 was created as a persona of someone who became a fan of Phillies after they won the World Series in 2008.
"It's still, I would like to say, primarily sports humor at a local level," he says. "But when stuff kind of goes bad, it turns into more of a social justice/activism handle."
FanSince09 gained national attention for helping police identify the alleged attackers of a gay couple in Center City over the summer.
"I am very proud of the assault case," he says, "because not only did it really put Philadelphia in a good light, and that was ultimately what I wanted to show was there are enough people in Philadelphia that don't want this type of stuff happening in their town."
He was back in the news this week after being tipped off by one of his followers who "outed" a Central Bucks West guidance counselor's private Facebook post.
"I feel that a lot of the time, it's just basically educating people and saying like, 'hey you're accountable for everything you say,'" he says. "And if people don't like it, they can take action to show you that."
He operates his Twitter account anonymously and has nearly 12,000 followers.
"Part of it is, I tweet at work, and I'm really not supposed to, and I kind of just don't want to have that discussion as to why I'm tweeting at work," he says. "And I kind of owe it to my followers who have stuck by me since I started that don't want to know who I am."
FanSince09 has made the Sports Illustrated 2014 Twitter 100 list, and was just awarded a Pen and Pencil Club of Philadelphia award for "Social Media Use of the Year."
Listen to the compete interview with FanSince09:
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