Recently, Alexander Rhodes, the guy who created this website (and, of course, the corresponding subreddit), was forced to file a federal lawsuit against defendants who have orchestrated a campaign of defamation, likely in retaliation for his efforts in running this website and raising awareness about porn addiction. The defamation campaign was getting so out-of-hand that Alex started suffering from frequent stress and insomnia, had to spend most days mitigating and dealing with defamation as a full-time “job,” and gained 30 pounds in just a year. As Alex shared on Twitter, “This is a very serious situation. It isn’t frivolous or a Twitter spat. There has been a sophisticated and coordinated disinformation campaign to destroy my life and ability to continue operating this website – orchestrated by entities who are very cozy with the porn industry.”
Unfortunately, federal lawsuits are very expensive, so we launched a crowdfund on November 11, 2019 to help out with Alex’s legal expenses. Supporters immediately flooded the crowdfund with donations, raising over $30,000 in just 24 hours. By February 20th, just over 3 months later, it exceeded $100,000 (US dollars). Reaching the 100k milestone seemed to motivate people since the crowdfund already is about to break $108,000 at the time of this article is being published.
Staci Sprout, a therapist from Seattle, originally offered to host the crowdfund herself. But after concerns of censorship were brought up (since then, as predicted, there have been multiple unsuccessful efforts to take down our crowdfund), we decided to host it ourselves and Staci ended up filming a video to support it. Staci Sprout felt motivated to do so because she alleges that she was also subjected to “harassment” from the same entities who have targeted Alex. Staci Sprout is also a named victim-witness in the federal lawsuit and provided sworn testimony in the form of a declaration. In the video, Staci Sprout describes the close ties that the defendants and their associates have to the porn industry, sharing her opinion that “this is like alcohol distributors trying to shut down Alcoholics Anonymous.”
Despite raising over $100,000, we’ll have to raise significantly more if we, as a community, want to fully take care of Alex’s legal bills. Federal lawsuits can easily cost well into the six-figures. Every donation matters. The average donation is $42.12, but even chipping in 5 dollars is greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for all of your support. Alex made it very clear: “Despite the defamation and misinformation spread by the defendants, activists, the porn industry, those cozy with it, and its paid collaborators, this website will not go offline. We will continue to stay online to raise awareness about porn addiction and help people to recover.”