In America, rape is evidently now considered a less serious crime than hacking now based on the case of Deric Lostutter, the hacktivist better known as KYAnonymous, a former Truthdigger of the Week. Lostutter helped expose the cover-up of the infamous Steubenville rape incident, in which a 16-year-old was sexually assaulted by two star high school football players in the small Ohio town. For that, he deserves to be thanked. Instead, the government wants to send him to prison for 10 years--roughly five times longer than the sentences handed down to the two teens convicted of raping the girl.

It was recently revealed that roughly two months ago, the FBI raided the 26-year-old Lostutter's Kentucky home in connection with an Anonymous hack that resulted in the leak of information about the Steubenville rape case.

Since the news broke that Lostutter may face more prison time than the rapists, an online petition has been started on the website Ultra Violet asking the Department of Justice not to prosecute him.

PoliticusUSA: Lostutter told Mother Jones in an exclusive interview that Steubenville officials are behind the FBI investigation, “They want to make an example of me, saying, ‘You don’t [expletive] come after us. Don’t question us.’” He also told Mother Jones that he chose to intervene because “I was always raised to stick up for people who are getting bullied.” In Lostutter’s case, he had no choice but to expose the corruption to the public and media, because the very government officials he was exposing were refusing to do their job. Much of what he revealed were tweets and Instagram photos first published and later deleted by the Steubenville football team, in which they were mocking the victim. ...Lostutter didn’t set out to hack innocent people for kicks, or to further a political agenda. He didn’t do it for revenge, and he didn’t do it out of spite. He did it to right a clear and obvious wrong. It’s outrageous that he faces more prison time than two convicted rapists. Lostutter isn’t the person who chose to attack a young girl, record it, laugh about it, and share it with the world. He is the person who captured those moments when the police were pretending there was no evidence. Read more

HuffPost Live has more on the case:



