This image was removed due to legal reasons.

During a presentation for Data Protection Day in Europe, FBI special agent Chuck Esposito apparently made light of the most obvious hacker stereotype — that all hackers are lonely, misanthropic nerds — according to a tweet by Christian Svanberg, a Copenhagen-based privacy lawyer.


This image was removed due to legal reasons.

As a clichéd trope (all a hacker really wants is love!) Esposito's comment is kind of perfect in its assumption that all Anonymous-affiliated hacktivists are men, or that any hacktivist woman must be a lesbian.


Not everyone was happy about Esposito's joke:

https://twitter.com/turing_tests/status/560438668725596160

Biella Coleman, the author of Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous and an expert on the group, replied that many Anonymous members already have girlfriends:


Ah, to be young, in love, and a DDOSer.

Update 3:00pm: Looks like Svanberg deleted his tweet for whatever reason. Lucky for us we had a screenshot of it, which we have now dropped in its place.


Daniel Rivero is a producer/reporter for Fusion who focuses on police and justice issues. He also skateboards, does a bunch of arts related things on his off time, and likes Cuban coffee.