Dear Politicians: At Least Close Those Porn Tabs Before Sending Out Your Campaign Screenshots

from the pron dept

We all know the internet is for porn, right? But the implication in that age-old internet commandment is that it’s for porn and nothing else. But that’s not true! The internet is also for cats, for business-ing, for Techdirt, and for political messages. But what you really shouldn’t do is mix any of those formers with the latter, which it appears is what congressional candidate Mike Webb did on his Facebook page.


What you might miss if you’re not really paying attention is the open tabs Webb included in his screenshot: “Ivone sexy amateur” and “Layla Rivera tight booty.”

Some might point out that those tabs could be anything, which would be both silly and easily refuted. Both are porn. And, hey, maybe they are good porn. After all, it’s not like the revelation that an aspiring politician enjoys nudity should be shocking to us. Still, this is usually when said politician would go into run-and-hide mode, deleting posts and claiming hacks and whatnot. To his credit, Webb is not doing any of this. He actually re-posted the image in an updated post. However, he explains away the open porn tabs in terms that essentially amount to him being the Sherlock of porn-related malware.

The explanation is 2,000 words long. It does not make a huge amount of sense, but apparently blames the pornographic images on an experiment Webb was performing to see whether or not someone was using malware embedded on porn sites to infect electoral candidates with malware that would prevent them from filing their candidacy before the deadline.

Maybe. It’s honestly hard to parse. Webb writes, in part: “Curious by nature, I wanted to test the suggestion that somehow, lurking out in the pornographic world there is some evil operator waiting for the one in a gazillion chance that a candidate for federal office would go to that particular website and thereby be infected with a virus that would cause his or her FEC [federal election commission] data file to crash the FECfile application each time that it was loaded on the day of the filing deadline, as well as impact other critical campaign systems.

Sure, okay. You weren’t jacking it, you were testing out a theory of malware delivered specifically to congressional candidates through weaponized porn videos. I’ll give Webb credit: my head is spinning after trying to put the logic together that would make any of his explanation possible.

It’s probably a wasted effort. Mr. Webb, just mind your browser tabs next time, mmkay?

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Comments on “Dear Politicians: At Least Close Those Porn Tabs Before Sending Out Your Campaign Screenshots”

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33 Comments
Uriel-238 (profile) says:

I dream of the day...

…when even a politician in full candida could admit Yes, I look at naked women. And I choke the bishop. And I call him “your grace” when I do. and it would be about as scandalous as George H. W. Bush not liking broccoli.

Of course I still want it to remain scandalous if a politician is rude to a prospective lover.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: I dream of the day...

The fact that he views porn really isn’t a shock. You can pretty much assume any male over age 14 has done it.

The issue is that he’s a moron for outing himself this way. The lack of attention to detail and obliviousness is not something most people want from their ideal politician.

Also he does it so often while working that it’s no big deal and nothing that he is cautious about

SteveMB (profile) says:

The explanation is 2,000 words long. It does not make a huge amount of sense

It seems to have finally been pulled from his page, but of course nothing that catches people’s attention ever truly disappears from the Internet. Behold, a serving of word salad that makes Sarah Palin look like Daniel Webster:

Curious by nature, I wanted to test the suggestion that somehow, lurking out in the pornographic world there is some evil operator waiting for the one in a gazillion chance that a candidate for federal office would go to that particular website and thereby be infected with a virus that would cause his or her FEC data file to crash the FECfile application each time that it was loaded on the day of the filing deadline, as well as impact other critical campaign systems. Well, the Geek Squad techs testified to me, after servicing thousands of computers at the Baileys Crossroads location that they had never seen any computer using their signature virus protection for the time period to acquire over 4800 viruses, 300 of which would require re-installation of the operating system. We are currently awaiting their attempt at recovery of files on that machine accidentally deleted when they failed to backup files before re-installation, a scenario about which Matthew Wavro speculated openly to me before we were informed by the Geek Squad that that had indeed occurred. Generally, the circumstances in which I have been involved in a life with over 30 years of leadership, I cannot just shoot from the hip, like reporters in this town who could not even get my campaign history straight, an incumbent who believed that 7000 Americans died because of global climate change, a nomination rival who assumed that a “conservative surge” was just going to magically appear in November like it did on Super Tuesday, had they not been Dump Trump Democrats in fact, or who now is being called silly by the incumbent for not doing his homework on Metro. I don’t just like being right wing, I also like being right.

But, now let me tell you the results of my empirical inquiry that introduced me to Layla and Ivone. Around Powerball lottery time, January 9, 2016, I calculated the odds that my friend Rev. Howard John Wesley and I working independently arrived at the same prayer plan, and I was able to determine that there was about a one in a billion chance that that could have occurred in the way that it did. (www.facebook.com/…). Well, as much as folks like Duffy Taylor want to hope that the Devil is waiting for Christian candidates on a particular pornographic website to infect his or her FEC data file is even more improbable than my Paul and Silas story, and I know that Duffy Taylor is not a man of faith belief; so, I don’t know how he empirically arrives at his conclusion. I couldn’t see the probability or possibility without a RAND computer.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

Good idea, I just did a google search of “Layla Rivera tight booty” and behold!, it looks like K`Tetch was correct, the actual tab name is “Layla Rivera tight body” and it’s a 5 minute video of the lady. Haven’t bothered to watch the video (truthfully, after all, I’m more into BDSM myself and this looks vanilla.)

Brazilian Guy says:

Well, at least in America your politicians aren’t flagrantly watching porn in middle session, or sketching nude girls, or giving congressional access passes to Hookers and having them giving BJs in a nearby bathroom while you have in the next room the session of the presidential impeachment committee.

Or a substitute Senator that gets a lot of influence by lending his Yatch, colloquially named “Love Boat” – in English – for his peers to spend some leisure time with escorts paid by lobbyists. And then, while maintaining the worst kept secret, go around championing a platform of defence of the family and Christian Morality.

We had a Bachelor President in the 90’s that went to Carnival, and hanged out with a Model that was using only a T – shirt. Nothing else. And journalists took pictures of them from bellow.

I’m waiting the day some political figure here pulls a Wiener or a Lord Sewel. Won’t surprise me at all.

crade (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Sorry probably shouldn’t use html comments in my post. second try:
I’m still waiting for a politician, when caught in something like this, to actually own up.

“Yes, I was watching porn. Sorry I should have been more careful to close the tabs before posting anything publicly. “
— Guy I would be proud to vote for!

“Those tabs were put there by aliens “
— Guy I am forced to vote for instead

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