Tom MacMaster says complimentary anonymous commenter in online forum using same IP address was friend who was visiting

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

Tom MacMaster, the US graduate student behind the Gay Girl in Damascus blog hoax, has been accused of creating another fake Arab female online identity to defend his own reputation online.

A comment on the website Mondoweiss under the name "Miriam Umm Ibni", mounting a spirited defence of MacMaster's conduct in posing as "Amina", a lesbian Syrian woman, was traced by fellow users to the same IP address in Edinburgh that he used for the Amina hoax.

The Guardian has seen screengrabs of the IP data, emailed by one of the site's hosts Adam Horowitz, that show the post originated from the address 188.74.64.53.

Journalists, bloggers and web users unmasked MacMaster earlier this month as the unlikely hoaxer behind the Amina blog, in part after its posts were traced to the address.

In an email, later posted on the site, MacMaster acknowledged that "Miriam Umm Ibni" was a fake identity, but denied being behind it, saying a "friend of mine who would really like to remain nameless" had posted the comment in his defence. It came from the same IP address because she had been staying with his wife and him, he wrote.

"Like many of my friends, many of whom are committed pro-Palestinian, anti-war and anti-colonialist activists, she was outraged by some of the slanders made against me online. And, like many of my friends, she's been urged by me to defend me. She did so. She's that kind of person."

MacMaster said he had received death threats after being exposed as the Amina blogger, who shot to international attention after he wrote a post, posing as the blogger's cousin, saying "she" had been kidnapped by Syrian security forces.

"Some people, I suppose, are angry at the uniqueness of their experience being called into question when someone can successfully impersonate that voice. Others question the 'right' of a simple non-Arab goy [a Jewish name for a non-Jewish person] to speak on these issues in any form. Still others have trouble understanding the concept of fiction."

He added that he had "signed an agreement forswearing all use of sockpuppets".

Contacted directly by the Guardian, MacMaster declined by email to explain the circumstances further, saying only that he was "committed to maintaining all confidences that were given to me in either personae and will continue to do so".

He also declined to elaborate on the details of the "agreement" or why he considered it binding.

Mondoweiss describes itself as "a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective".

The post on which the comment appeared argued "that western audiences will only embrace Arab gay movements if those movements attempt to mimic western gay movements", and described MacMaster as "vile".

The author of the post, "Seham", told the Guardian by email that he used a pseudonym to retain his anonymity "given my work on Palestinian issues".

In response, "Miriam Umm Ibni" wrote: "MacMaster, misguided though he may have been in his actions, _did_ [sic] highlight real issues ... He misguidedly placed himself in the guise of an Arab woman but he did so from real compassion.

"He is (or was) a real ally (though considering how so-called progressives are calling for his blood I wouldn't be shocked if he's turning into a rightwinger)."

After MacMaster's exposure, a second supposedly lesbian blogger, "Paula Brooks", founder of the US site LezGetReal.com, was revealed also to be a man.

Last week, MacMaster updated the Gay Girl blog with a post entitled: "That kinda sucks: Not that anyone cares."