Popehat


Popehat is a law-oriented blog. According to its tagline, Popehat is a "group complaint about law, liberty, and leisure". Its primary blogger, American attorney Ken White, writes about law, scams, and freedom of expression on the Internet. A Twitter account under the same name was later established, and has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers.

History

Popehat was established in 2004. After having a low profile for many years, the blog came to widespread attention in 2012 when it documented The Oatmeal and FunnyJunk legal dispute involving Charles Carreon. It has also covered swatting, IsAnybodyDown?, Prenda Law, scam letters, and SLAPP issues. The blog sometimes helps arrange pro bono counsel for affected bloggers including PZ Myers.
It has been repeatedly linked by Boing Boing, Reddit, Instapundit, John Scalzi, Techdirt, and others and was included in the ABA Journal "Blawg 100" in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. In 2015, Popehat was inducted into the ABA Journal Blawg Hall of Fame.
The blog was originally anonymous but White's identity was eventually uncovered. White's fellow bloggers have included Adam, Charles, David, Derrick, Grandy, Marc Randazza, Patrick, and a bovine character named Via Angus.
In January 2009, the Popehat Twitter account was established. Known for updating his handle to reflect Twitter's trending topic of the day, primary tweeter Ken White continues to comment on legal issues in a humorous but substantive way. He is generally an advocate for broad free speech rights and reform of the criminal justice system.

DPRK News Service

Two of the blog's writers, Patrick and Derrick, run a Twitter feed purporting to be the voice of North Korea. Greta van Susteren, Slate, the Washington Post, Newsweek, CNN, Reuters Australia have mistakenly identified the feed as authentic. On the MSNBC television program Morning Joe, journalist Mark Halperin cited the feed as evidence that the government of North Korea was expressing support for Donald Trump.