Christopher Bouzy (born May 22, 1975) is an American tech entrepreneur known for founding Bot Sentinel, a Twitter analytics service that tracks disinformation, inauthentic behavior and targeted harassment. In 2023, he launched Spoutible, a social media platform.
Christopher Bouzy | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 22, 1975 |
| Known for | |
| Children | 2 |
Early life
editChristopher Bouzy was born on May 22, 1975.[1] He grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn,[2] in what he described as a lower-middle-class upbringing, with his mother, a single parent.[3] His mother was a Black immigrant from Panama, and worked for the New York Telephone Company.[2] Bouzy and his mother shared a residence with his grandmother, two aunts and two cousins.[3]
Bouzy started coding on a Mattel Aquarius computer his mother bought him when he was nine years old.[3][4] He graduated from high school in 1992.[2]
Career
editFollowing his graduation from high school, Bouzy joined the IT department of the New York City Department of Education, using contract coding jobs to supplement his income.[2]
According to his LinkedIn page, Bouzy started out as a computer service technician and founded several firms prior to setting up Bot Sentinel.[4] In the 2000s, Bouzy developed the encryption software Cloak, which Avanquest Software acquired in 2006. Bouzy then developed Nexus Radio, a free platform for recording and playing back radio streams, which was later acquired by an investment group.[3] Bouzy also ran a dating website called IfSolo and a "peer-to-peer rewards network" known as Bytecent.[2]
Around 2016, Bouzy started teaching himself about machine learning algorithms.[3] He founded Bot Sentinel in 2018,[5] being inspired to do so by the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[3]
Bouzy gained significant public attention through his appearance in the 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, which chronicles the relationship of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, from their early courtship to their decision to step back as working members of the British royal family and their subsequent activities.[4][6] In the docuseries, Bouzy asserted that Bot Sentinel found that there were coordinated online campaigns against Markle, with a significant proportion from a small number of highly active accounts, including organized troll networks and bot accounts.[7][6]
In February 2023, Bouzy launched Spoutible, a Twitter-like social media platform.[2]
Legal issues
editIn October 2022, attorney and YouTuber[3][2] Nathaniel Broughty (also known as NateTheLawyer) sued Bouzy for defamation in Hudson County Superior Court in New Jersey, alleging that he had been incorrectly flagged by Bot Sentinel.[8] According to Broughty's complaint, Bouzy tweeted that Broughty "went from being the son of two crackheads, a drug dealer, a cop, and a prosecutor, to attacking journalists and me on social media", falsely asserted that he was not a real lawyer, derided him as a "Twitter troll and YouTube grifter", and alleged he had admitted to planting evidence on a suspect when he worked as a police officer. Bouzy filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.[2] The lawsuit was dismissed in August 2023, with the judge ruling that Broughty's complaint had failed to allege he had been intentionally lied about with the intention of harming him.[9] The lawsuit was dismissed for a final time in April 2024.[10]
In 2023, Bouzy was a co-defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by conspiracy theorist Jason Goodman. The lawsuit stemmed from Bouzy allegedly insinuating that Goodman might be guilty of sexual assault.[2][11] The allegation arose after Goodman admitted in a recorded phone call that someone had accused him of sexually assaulting a model. The case was dismissed with prejudice in 2024, and the judge imposed a filing injunction barring any future filings by Goodman against Bouzy in the district without first obtaining leave of court.[11]
Personal life
editBouzy lives in North Bergen, New Jersey, with his wife and son.[2] He also has a daughter.[3] Bouzy and his family have received harassment due to his work on Bot Sentinel.[3] In November 2022, an anonymous tipster emailed the North Bergen police, claiming that a child was screaming in Bouzy's home; the officers dispatched to investigate concluded that Bouzy was the victim of a false report.[2]
Bouzy's mother died in 2021 after being infected with COVID-19 while dealing with cancer. Bouzy said she was afraid to take the COVID-19 vaccine because "she had just heard so many different things [online]", and has cited her memory as part of the reason for being proactive with getting Twitter and other platforms to remove misinformation from their platforms.[3]
Views
editIn March 2024, Bouzy said that Kate Middleton looked "markedly different" from paparazzi photos published earlier that month.[12] Bouzy was one of many people suggesting that a video of Middleton leaving a farm shop at Windsor Castle was a fake or of someone besides Middleton.[13][14] Bouzy later denied promoting conspiracy theories about Middleton, saying, "I am speaking for myself, not Harry or Meghan. These are my opinions based on publicly available information."[13]
In July 2024, Bouzy endorsed Joe Biden for the 2024 United States presidential election, two days prior to Biden dropping out of the race.[15]
References
edit- ^ Christopher Bouzy [@cbouzy] (May 22, 2021). "BREAKING: I turned 46 today and Matt Gaetz is going through some things" (Tweet). Retrieved December 27, 2022 – via Twitter.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Koerner, Brendan I. (June 6, 2023). "'Building a Platform Like Twitter Is Not Difficult'". Wired. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
This earned him the wrath of several pro-Depp partisans who were attracting big audiences by commenting on the trial. Among the enraged was a YouTuber named Nathaniel Broughty, a lawyer and former police officer who dismissed Bot Sentinel as "a paid propaganda" firm in Heard's employ.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lucas, Jessica (October 14, 2022). "'Sometimes You've Got to Fight Fire With Fire': A Vigilante Coder Goes to War Against Misinformation". The Information. Archived from the original on October 14, 2022. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
One anti-Heard YouTuber, NateTheLawyer...
- ^ a b c Wace, Charlotte (December 7, 2022). "Who is Christopher Bouzy in the Harry and Meghan Netflix trailer?". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
- ^ Hays, Kali (August 22, 2022). "In the midst of its battle with Elon Musk, Twitter threatens to revoke Bot Sentinel's data access after founder suggests Twitter has more than 5% 'bots'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
- ^ a b Cockerell, Isobel (December 14, 2022). "Meghan never stood a chance against the internet". Coda Media. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
- ^ "Christopher Bouzy appears in "Harry & Meghan" Netflix docuseries". Hello! Magazine. December 8, 2022. Archived from the original on May 25, 2023. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
- ^ Toutant, Charles (November 4, 2022). "An Attorney Who Was Labeled a 'Twitter Troll' Has Lawyered Up". New Jersey Law Journal. Archived from the original on January 3, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
- ^ Maher, Jake (August 7, 2023). "'Nate The Lawyer' Loses NJ Defamation Suit Over Trolling". Law360. Archived from the original on May 16, 2024. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
- ^ Karp, Jack (April 23, 2024). "'Nate The Lawyer' Loses NJ Defamation Suit For Good". Law360.
- ^ a b Analisa, Torres (February 8, 2024). "Case 1:21-cv-10878-AT-JLC" (PDF). Bot Sentinel. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 16, 2024. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
- ^ Barton, Alex (March 19, 2024). "BBC's Sonja McLaughlan says woman photographed with Prince William was 'lookalike'". The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ a b Ross, Martha (March 21, 2024). "Top Harry and Meghan supporter defends pushing fake-Kate Middleton theories". The Mercury News.
- ^ "Meghan Markle, Harry's pal challenges Kate's farm shop video with shocking proof". The News International. March 20, 2024. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
- ^ Cohen, Joshua A. (August 16, 2024). "When Will the Biden Dead-Enders Admit They Were Wrong?". The Nation.