The internet archive blog Wayback Machine denied MSNBC anchor Joy Reid’s claims that hackers put homophobic posts on her old blog.
After new homophobic posts were discovered on Reid’s old personal blog, “The Reid Report,” Reid accused hackers of fabricating the posts and manipulating the Wayback Machine to make them appear as if they were hers. (RELATED: Joy Reid Blames Bizarre ‘Hack’ For Homophobic Posts — And Now They’re Gone)
“Now that the site has been compromised I can state unequivocally that it does not represent the original entries,” Reid said. “I hope that whoever corrupted the site recognizes the pain they have caused, not just to me, but to my family and communities that I care deeply about: LGBTQ, immigrants, people of color and other marginalized groups.
However, the Internet Archive said in a blog post that they could find no evidence that archives of Reid’s blog were manipulated.
“When we reviewed the archives, we found nothing to indicate tampering or hacking of the Wayback Machine versions,” Chris Butler, an employee of the Archive, wrote. “At least some of the examples of allegedly fraudulent posts provided to us had been archived at different dates and by different entities.”
“We let Reid’s lawyers know that the information provided was not sufficient for us to verify claims of manipulation. Consequently, and due to Reid’s being a journalist (a very high-profile one, at that) and the journalistic nature of the blog archives, we declined to take down the archives,” he continued. “We were clear that we would welcome and consider any further information that they could provide us to support their claims.”