CNN informally declared war on the Internet and the whole World Wide Web turned against it, the head moderator of /r/The_Donald subreddit, where the clip that triggered the #CNNBlackmail scandal was originally posted, told RT in an exclusive interview.

No one should be surprised by the fact that “CNN is suppressing a private citizen’s right of free speech,” he said. The man is a moderator of “The_Donald” Subreddit, where the viral clip, showing US President Donald Trump wrestling a man with the CNN logo for a head, was originally posted and then deleted by its creator. The scandal started after the news network tracked down the alleged meme maker and threatened to disclose his identity if they post such “offensive” content again.

READ MORE: #CNNBlackmail: Ted Cruz claims CNN may have broken law as meme war intensifies

The moderator believes that such actions against freedom of speech cannot end up without consequences.

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“CNN has all of the Internet against them right now, and when organizations attack freedom of speech, it never ends up well for them,” he told RT.

“This is an attack on the Internet and CNN has informally declared war upon it. In return we need to hit CNN where it hurts, and tell the advertise companies… that you do not approve of them by running ads at the network or endorsing CNN by running adds.”

While CNN says it respects the privacy of the man behind the viral meme, the network said that it “reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change,” which is understood as “complete threat,” ‘PrinceCamelton’ said in the interview. This message was received by the whole community, the moderator said, referring to the threat.

CNN has no right to make “blanket threats… telling you to stop doing what you want to do on the Internet” the moderator stated, adding that people should “stick to their guns and do what they think is right.”

The moderator also said that he would be frightened if he were the Reddit user who posted the clip.

READ MORE: #CNNBlackmail: Network blasted for ‘threatening’ Trump meme creator

CNN’s move has triggered outrage among the Internet users, resulting in many more mocking memes and videos.

“There are hundreds of other gifs just like that, there are subreddits that are dedicated just to making CNN gifs now,” /r/The_Donald moderator said.

“What CNN did was unfortunate for them,” US President Donald Trump said, referring to the scandal during his visit to Poland on Thursday.

“I think that CNN has really taken it [the viral clip] too seriously, and I think they have hurt themselves very badly,” he stated, adding that the network has been “fake news for a long time.”