In the real world, Joshua Alayon worked as a real estate agent in Pompano Beach, Fla., where he used the handle "SouthFloridasFavoriteRealtor" to urge buyers on Facebook to move to "the most beautiful State."
But online, data revealed by the massive hack of Epik, an Internet-services company popular with the far right, signaled a darker side. Alayon's name and personal details were found on invoices suggesting he had once paid for websites with names such as racisminc.com, whitesencyclopedia.com, christiansagainstisrael.com and theholocaustisfake.com.
The information was included among hundreds of thousands of transactions published this month by the hacking group Anonymous that exposed previously obscure details of far-right sites and launched a race among extremism researchers to identify the hidden promoters of online hate.
After Alayon's name appeared in the breached data, his brokerage, Travers Miran Realty, dropped him as an agent, as first reported by the real estate news site Inman. The brokerage's owner, Rick Rapp, told The Washington Post that he didn't "want to be involved with anyone with thoughts or motives like that."
09-26-2021, 02:57 PM
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