Internet’s Biggest Troll Loses His Job Over Gawker Investigation

The internet troll known as violentacrez is also now the real world troll known as unemployed. Michael Brutsch — the Reddit moderator known for posting barely legal pictures of girls, grim pictures of death, and various other topics that generated Reddit buzz — was fired from his job this week. The termination was all thanks to Gawker’s Adrian Chen, the man who exposed Brutsch’s really name.

The Arlington, Texas resident announced on Saturday that the financial services company he worked for had chose to fire him despite the claim that he has a disabled wife who relies on his health insurance. The couple also reportedly have no money in savings accounts.

The Gawker story included an interview with Brutsch in which he admitted to posting content in such Reddit subgroups as /picsofdeadkids, r/nazi, and r/jailbait.

Brutsch wasn’t just a Reddit moderator; he was a mentor to many other moderators, helping train them and ultimately pushing Reddit in the direction it has taken today.

In his interview, Bursch told Chen:

“My wife is disabled. I got a home and a mortgage, and if this hits the fan, I believe this will affect negatively on my employment. I do my job, go home watch TV, and go on the internet. I just like riling people up in my spare time.”

Reddit ultimately banned the Gawker article from its network, claiming it violated site policy by providing personal information about a user. Unfortunately for violentacrez, the damage was already done, and now he’s jobless without insurance.

At one point, violentacrez was in charge of 400 different subreddits; now he’s just looking for a job while paying huge premiums for COBRA coverage.

[Image via Gawker]