Takedownman

Takedownman is a YouTuber who pretends to be an expert hacker and "pedophile hunter" and produces videos about the secrets of the Deep Web, aka the Dark WebFile:Wikipedia's W.svg. To be fair, even respectable journalists can get taken in by stories of human trafficking.[1]

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He uses trappings of an investigative journalist style, often warning his viewer at length about the disturbing sites and images they are about to witness. He then proceeds to narrate over a series of screenshots of Tor hidden services about esoteric material.

However, he has been ridiculed[citation needed] by many genuine hackers who claim he has an extremely poor understanding of hacking and the Dark Web, making such basic mistakes as getting infected with viruses by friends and thinking computers can get "Worm Holes".[citation needed] Furthermore, his claim that he has special privileges by the FBI to seek out child pornography (to catch pedophiles) is not consistent with U.S. state or federal law.

In addition to making YouTube videos, Takedownman also campaigns on crowd-funding websites such as Gofundme.com in order to secure payments from his followers to support his "work".

Many are skeptical of Takedownman's grandiose claims about himself, such as his being a CIA agent, an expert in "Chinese healing", and a 'hitman.'[2] In true crank fashion, Takedownman and several YouTube followers have claimed that anyone who doubts his authenticity is a "pedophile".[3]

Background

From about March 2013 Takedownman began producing online content discussing polygamy in the context of the gay marriage debate. At this time he was running a polygamy resources site at societypl.com which has since closed. He has 2 wives.

He claims to have stabbed a pedophile in New York and spent time in jail for this.[4] as well as to have spent some time in jail around May 2013 for threatening someone with a gun.[5]

Timeline of coverage
  • 1 March 2014 he launches his first deep web video. The first video is factual, covering getting set up with the Tor browser bundle, Pink MethFile:Wikipedia's W.svg, an onion links repo 'OnionDir', The Hidden WikiFile:Wikipedia's W.svg, counterfeits websites, account selling websites and the 'Black Market' weapons market (later seized in Operation OnymousFile:Wikipedia's W.svg). This video would change the focus of his channel from here on.
  • 1 April he discusses Tor2WebFile:Wikipedia's W.svg in a factual manner.
  • 28 April he does a tour of the Evolution (marketplace)File:Wikipedia's W.svg Darknet marketFile:Wikipedia's W.svg.
  • 1 May, his deep web videos are bringing in 100,000 views.
  • 5 May Claims to be part of Cicada 3301File:Wikipedia's W.svg.
  • 16 May, the first questionable video, featuring the Cicada 3301 puzzle. He hides the url of the site because 'he doesn't want to get hacked'. It's unclear if that's a genuine sentiment.
  • 22 May features the 'Black Market' weapons market which would later be seized in Operation OnymousFile:Wikipedia's W.svg.
  • 24 May he covers DoxbinFile:Wikipedia's W.svg. According to his comments he has since been listed on there. He doesn't know what doxing is at this time.
  • 24 May does coverage on Exposed.suFile:Wikipedia's W.svg but has never heard of the time Exposed.su made the national headlines and its context.
  • 27 May he covers a list of North Korean websites yet he uses Tor for no discernible reason. Perhaps he is worried about being hacked by North Korea?
  • 16 June he does a report into Pink MethFile:Wikipedia's W.svg which gets over 200,000 views.
  • 22 Jul he shames a viewer that asked for information on child pornography.
  • 19 October he shares the updated link to the The Hidden WikiFile:Wikipedia's W.svg yet knows nothing about the hack[6] which actually precipitated this. Suggests you need anti-virus prior to visiting The Hidden Wiki.
  • 1 December shortly after Operation OnymousFile:Wikipedia's W.svg he claims so many sites have been shut down this has impacted his ability to create content. The numbers of sites seized do not back a lack of content.
  • 16 January 2015 Starts asking for money, claiming he'll be homeless otherwise. Has 7000 subscribers. Around this time he moved from Knoxville to Tennessee.
  • 28 February He discovers the 'Fund the Islamic struggle' website. He doesn't read any of the research about the matter.[7]
  • 16 March Threatens to HACK an alleged abuser.
  • 17 March He finds the Hell (forum)File:Wikipedia's W.svg hacking forum
  • 10 April He discovers 'The Human Experiment' Red Room. He repeats the urban legends about who you can pay money to get real life torture and murder performed and appears to believe this. Assures the viewers 'it's a real thing'. The video gets over 160k views.
  • 19 April Shares a mysterious (and presumably fake) video of a cop turning to plasma. People eat this shit up with +73k views.
  • 20 April He discovers 'TorTube' where such videos are posted.
  • 26 April Finds 'Tell Me Your Secrets' where the pedophile he outed previously is complaining about him. 100k views.
  • 28 April Covers snuff videos on 'Animal Nightmare', 'Scream Bitch' and insists on the existence of Red Rooms again. Discovers crush fetishFile:Wikipedia's W.svg content. (74k views).
  • 5 May Produces technical tips about using Tor. Doesn't understand the full screen fingerprinting risk. Turns 'all scripts' off but doesn't explain why. Suggests creating a new Tor identity before logging off for some reason. Suggests CC cleaner could be useful somehow. (why?).
  • 21 May Use of the keywords 'Disturbing' once again rack in over 135k views.
  • 29 May A more sensationalist intro and covering purely 'disturbing' website rakes in 845k views. Claims the existence of Red Rooms... again. Finds one of the fake hitman sites.[2] Finds 'Cam-A-Lot' which is likely a genuine hacked webcam site for perving on children. TDM now has a burgeoning YouTube following.[8]
  • 30 May Finds a couple of chan sites. Finds one of the fake human trafficking sites as misreported in Vice.[1] Finds a site selling slaves with amputated legs which totally are not just pulled from amputee fetish sites and Google Images search. Finds probably a genuine pedophile forum, Violent 'M'.
  • 2 June Plays a creepy 'Zion Kidnapping' video without context.
  • 4 June Talks about the 'Daisy's DestructionFile:Wikipedia's W.svg' abuse stories. No critical analysis. 500k views. (#Rebuttals).
  • 9 June Frames the (admittedly creatively creepy) videos of 'Tara the Android' as 'confessions of a serial killer'. At this point it's clear his show is working an angle if it wasn't previously. (#Rebuttals).
  • 9 June Becomes the RayWilliamJohnson of creepy videos at this point. 369k views and rising.
  • 27 June Is slightly skeptical of the existence of the Marianas Web,[9] thank God. But thinks the Deep Web is 95% of the internet :(
  • 10 June He finds his link on the Deep Web Wiki which mixes fact and fiction. (#Wiki_self-promotion).
  • 26 June Threatens to destroy a YouTube channel for using his picture without permission.
  • 10 July Discusses the alleged 'Dafu Love' baby rape video by Peter ScullyFile:Wikipedia's W.svg. In his usual style, he presents wild and sensationalist speculation about the tape's contents as fact, claiming without evidence such things as babies being used as pillows in a pillow fight. His claims are completely at odds with police accounts of Scully's crimes.
  • 14 July Covers Cicada 3301File:Wikipedia's W.svg again, this time getting 300k views. Again suggests it will go to a Red Room.
  • 27 July TDM goes fully creepypasta by simply narrating horror stories. (#Rebuttals).
  • 29 July Child RealDollFile:Wikipedia's W.svgs! TDM is confused.
  • 12 October Claims he fell off the side of a mountain (remember he's blind) and rolled down a 20ft cliff - but has no visible injuries.
  • 22 November Couldn't tell the difference between Nair and shaving cream and almost burns his face off.
  • 13 December Calls a 14 year old boy a pedophile (by name without proof) in a YouTube video and Facebook post because the boy confronted him about being a pathological liar. The boy's mother threatens to sue and TakeDownMan removes the YouTube video and Facebook post.
  • 15 December Channel was suspended and has moved to his backup channel.
  • 21 December Channel reinstated, as the removal was due to human error.
  • 21 December Claims a family member stole his laptop, microphone, webcam, new HTC phone, and a few other things but isn't able to prosecute because his family member crossed state lines.
  • 24 December Releases inconclusive evidence pertaining to busting 515 pedophiles on Facebook. He states he and 30 members of the (non-existent) "Deep Web Outlaws" hacked Facebook to expose pedophiles, when in reality they simply searched through Facebook claiming numerous accounts located in the Philippines, Korea and Tokyo were linked to pedophilia. No compelling evidence was provided other then a small snippet of a group conversation. All evidence was supposedly turned over to the FBI yet no action has taken place.
  • 4 January 2016 Shows off his "real voice" since he has a sore throat and claims to have a natural Tongan/English accent.
  • 6 January Speaks about "Obama Giving Doctors the Right to Take Guns Away" and makes a fool out of himself. Fans react with over 216 thumbs down.
  • 7 January Uploads a video that plays his roommate snoring (amplified) for two minutes. Fans react with over 115 thumbs down and the loss of 250 subscribers.
  • 17 January Threatens the mother of a 14-year-old boy whom he called a pedophile in a YouTube video and Facebook post for confronting him about being a pathological liar. He also implies in this YouTube comment that he hacked into her personal and medical records, when in reality he gathered the information from her Facebook page.
  • 18 January Claims to be a sociopath (and having alexithymia) and that he "Feel's Nothing Inside". He then states he walked into the hood and shouted racial slurs to get jumped on purpose, when in reality he stole this idea from a scene in Die Hard with a Vengeance. He then admits that when taking "Adderall" and "marijuana" is the only time he feels normal in life.
  • 11 January Complains that his fans want him to keep doing deep web videos, despite the success of his rant other other video types.
  • 19 January Admits that he makes up content for views and tries to make fun of Nicole Arbour, but fails miserably.
  • 27 February Covers the Besa Mafia Internet assassination scam un-sceptically
  • 7 March Covers the 'Shadow Web Red Rooms' site but at least suspects it is a scam. Finds the 'MasTOR' hidden webcam site, but doesn't realise it's obviously a scam.
  • 13 March Confirms he's partnering with 'Big Demz' for content production.
  • 19 March Reports that he had the police sent to his old address by trolls, as well as drugs.
  • 23 March A YouTuber critic of TDM, Jim Greenway, mocks him for him 'leading on' a pastor who molested him when he was younger. Jim's channel was terminated shortly after this. Other YouTubers criticised TDM's attack methods
  • 30 March Takedownman briefly goes to jail!
  • 3 April TDM fires co-contributor Big Demz!

Fabrications

Takedownman is known to fabricate his personal life, "third-party" reviews, web pages and addresses on the Internet that support and promote his sensationalist life and claims.

For instance, he "exposed" a Dark Web website (which was actually the site Keep Calm-o-Matic) that was selling merchandise containing a supposed still image from the child rape video "Daisy's Destruction", which showed a dismembered little girl on a blood-soaked bed. The still image, which is actually taken from the Japanese horror film Ginî piggu 2: Chiniku no hana, and not from "Daisy's Destruction", was found to have been placed on the merchandise by Takedownman himself.[10]

In another example, on September 8th 2015 he published a video showing multiple implausible or incorrect .onionFile:Wikipedia's W.svg addresses on his web browser. He displays ClearWeb sites in their place, as listed:

He has stated numerous times that the name "TakeDownMan" comes from his street fighting days but in this YouTube comment he states that TakeDownMan represents a letter of each of the 11 members of the Deep Web Outlaws. Which one is it? He doesn't even know the origin of his name.

When his channel was suspended in September, TakeDownMan claims in this YouTube comment that he doesn't make any money off the 100K subscription channel, and that he has another channel on another platform which is more popular (but nobody knows it's him) from which he earns more money.

Wiki self-promotion

In his June video he read the 'extraordinary claims' made on a deep-web.wikia.com/wiki/Takedownman on the same day he launched his spreadshirt shop which include:

  • Used to fight MMA
  • Is Illuminati, CIA, NSA, MI5, etc.
  • Trained as an assassin in the army
  • Multiple academic awards
  • Member of the Cult of the dead cowFile:Wikipedia's W.svg hacking group
  • Started a vigilante group called the 'Deep Web Outlaws' a.k.a. 'Deep Web Pedophiles'.
  • Claims in this YouTube comment to have recently left a cult that called themselves "Anabaptist", it was discovered "not true" and determined to be a cover.

However, the revision featured in his video as well as the 'unrelated' comments saying HOLY SHIT!!!! I knew this guy was a bad ass but HOLY SHIT! are from 68.53.245.44. Which is located in Tennessee where TDM lives.

"Testimony" on Red Rooms

Takedownman doesn't shy away from presenting rumour of Red Rooms as first hand fact in one of his few interviews on the 15th of August:[17]

VGN: Can you tell us what exactly is a red room?
TDM: Yes. It is a portal that requires specific access to watch and even participate during a live feed showing torture, rape and murder.
VGN: Who are these victims? Where did these site owners locate the victims?
TDM: The victims can be babies, teens, women, men – whatever the audience wants. The victims can be teen runaways who were lured by these organizations. They also tend to target homeless women and families by offering a good life for their kids. So, they pay the families, take the babies promising a good life, and end up in horrible situations such as a red room.
VGN: People pay to watch these live streams?
TDM: Yes. Take for an example someone entering a red room. The host tells them five minimum commands before the victim can be killed. Each guest can pay, for example, $10,000 per command. All bitcoin.

Complete fabrication.

He has been skeptically referenced by Vice as a someone who claims to have inside knowledge of the other Deep Web legends such as 'Dafu Love'.[18]

Rebuttals and counter-trolling

On the 23rd of August he complains about being Doxxed by someone from 8chan and from this point onwards he was having to more aggressively deal with trolling on his video #Fan_meetups

One such claim was he regularly attends fan meetups where he hires private security to deal with the random attacks he gets.[4] However no evidence of these meetups existing has ever been produced.

On the 17th of September he responded to a site where a girl was claiming to masturbate then kill herself online, blaming Takedownman, however he realised this was a hoax at this point possibly produced by someone on 8chan. The site at vlr2s4g732zw6yim.onion has since been replaced by a one-page Islamist site.

Jim Greenway

Prior to his account's termination, Jim Greenway had run a number of videos pointing out inconsistencies and insecurities in TDM's content starting with an initial 8chan rebuttal video

Comments included:

TakeDownMan, Once again I invite you to a Skype debate where we can talk about your legitimacy as a self proclaimed pedophile hunter. Regardless of if you're a TDM fan or a JGS subscriber, anyone should support this. TDM has no reason not to get in a Skype call with me and deliver me some of that sweet DWO justice. So let's make this happen. We can even do it live for all of your fans! They will love to see you in action.

However this wasn't received well from TDM:

So this what is all about still? A collab? I don't collab with pedos, better luck next time

The follow up was:

+Takedownman It's not a collab. That would suggest that we are working together to create something. This is a debate. You an I both know that I'm not a pedophile so don't even try to make that excuse. Stand up for yourself and quit being a fucking coward. Face the heat and address the legitimate criticisms of your videos.

TDM basically says 'fight me bro' in response to this.

This rivalry escalated to the point that Jim was mocking TDM's alleged abuse at the hands of a pastor, leading to Jim's account being terminated.

gollark: Sad.
gollark: Do you have potatOS-related ones?
gollark: What happened with that, anyway?
gollark: But killdan200!
gollark: There goes my evil weekend plan.

References
  1. My Brief Encounter with a Dark Web 'Human Trafficking' Site
  2. Conversation with a hitman (or not)
  3. #Jim_Greenway
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acsuMErnoKw
  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClK_eSoOsJI&feature=youtu.be
  6. https://www.deepdotweb.com/2014/03/14/hidden-wiki-hacked-wikitor-fills-gap/
  7. https://www.nikcub.com/posts/fbi-seizes-fake-tor-hosted-jihad-funding-website-as-part-of-operation-onymous-leaves-up-real-site/
  8. https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=takedownman
  9. https://usahitman.com/deep-levels/
  10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyVjLb5fyzc
  11. https://youtu.be/XrSTdwIzBPo?t=80
  12. https://youtu.be/XrSTdwIzBPo?t=170
  13. https://youtu.be/XrSTdwIzBPo?t=232
  14. https://youtu.be/XrSTdwIzBPo?t=276
  15. https://youtu.be/XrSTdwIzBPo?t=332
  16. https://www.reddit.com/r/onions/comments/3mazk2/psa_some_of_youtubes_takedownman_links_are_fake/
  17. http://www.viralglobalnews.com/2015/08/15/what-is-the-deep-web-the-good-bad-and-deplorable/
  18. https://www.vice.com/read/why-are-people-obsessed-with-the-legendarily-dark-internet-video-dafu-love-923
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