How we took down a social network for pedophiles

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How we took down a social network for pedophiles

It was called Incelocalypse

Until late last night, Incelocalypse was one of the most sickening websites on the internet. It was a forum for creeps to discuss child porn, fantasize about raping underage girls and share tips on mass shootings. It also had a secret, members-only section devoted to pedophilia.

The users of Incelocalypse subscribed to "incel" ideology – violently misogynist men who believe they are "involuntarily celibate" and that women owe them sex. They spent a lot of their time ranting about torturing and raping women – the slogan of Incelocalypse was "the day we make the jailbaits our rape slaves." Reddit banned the r/incels page last year, forcing incels to set up splinter sites like incel.life. When babe took incel.life down in February, Incelocalypse was set up.

Yesterday morning, we contacted DreamHost, the server for Incelocalypse, with links to users talked about raping girls, throwing acid in their faces and expressing support for mass murderers. Twelve hours later, the site was offline.

A screenshot of Incelocalypse when it was still online

While it was running, Incelocalypse was home to disturbing posts that saw users rail against women in extremely violent terms. Members posted threads like "Father-daughter incest makes more sense now than ever," which argued for men to raise daughters just to rape them. Another post was titled "Even if you could get pussy from a willing female, you should still want to rape girls." Users regularly fantasized about throwing acid in the faces of women, imagining what it would be like to make them "crippled with ugliness."

'Acid Attacks Are The Great Equalizer'

Members of Incelocalypse praised men who committed acts of terrorism, and nicknamed it "going ER," referring to Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old who opened fire on students in Santa Barbara in 2014. A recent thread offered advice on how to carry out a mass shooting. "I think the best way is to have a good vantage point like that Las Vegas guy," said a user.

In the wake of the Texas high school shooting, when a young man killed a girl who turned him down, a member wrote: "The bitch deserved it I'm glad he killed them." Another agreed: "Good. Dumb sluts either deserve to be raped for rejecting men or outright killed. I just wish this poor guy had raped the girl before killing, that way she would die knowing that the boy she rejected had still been inside of her body despite the rejection."

We have blurred out some of the description of child porn above

Incelocalypse had an even darker side – it had a private area for pedophiles. The administrator, who went by the name Leucosticte, described it as a "hidden pedocels sub-forum" where membership was granted on request. In one post, Leucosticte posted the name of a child porn video, describing it in graphic terms. "Truly a classic, which is why it's one of the most-downloaded vids ever. I get hard just thinking of it," he said. He then named several encrypted apps and privacy software that would allow users to watch and share child porn.

The screenshot above was widely shared on the r/IncelTears forum, which monitors incel activity online. As users began reporting Incelocalypse to DreamHost, we spoke to their Vice President Brett Dunst and showed him links to violent content. On Tuesday afternoon, he told babe he could not comment on sites that "may or may not be under investigation."

Dunst added: "Out of respect for user privacy, we can't comment on the status of individual customer sites."

But after Incelocalypse had been taken offline several hours later, the admin Leucosticte wrote on another incel forum to say: "DreamHost bows to the pressure; Incelocalypse.today taken down." He quoted an email from DreamHost which said: "This is written notice that DreamHost is enacting the 'Termination' clause in the Terms of Service regarding your account."

Leucosticte posting on a different incel forum – we are trying to independently verify this message

So long, Incelocalypse. You won't be missed.

UPDATE

HuffPost revealed that Nathan Larson, the congressional candidate we exposed as a pedophile in March, was behind Incelocalypse.

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@hshukman