The poster became news when Trump tweeted the thing, and when the official POTUS Twitter account re-tweeted it.
His first reaction was to brag, because POTUS tweeting a thing you did is pretty cool. How it got into Trump's hands is probably an interesting tale on its own (and the administration ain't talking). In any case, the poster quickly realized the problem, likely helped by articles which delved into his posting history, and he started nuking said posting history.
Kids - what you do on the Internet is just like what you do in Las Vegas - recorded from every imaginable angle, the good, the bad, the ugly and all, and for all to see. Anonymity is a myth.
Interestingly, the moderators of the sub-Reddit removed the apology from the poster.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/5/15923 ... -trump-gifIn a now-deleted post on Reddit’s r/The_Donald, Solo later apologized for his behavior. “I am in no way this kind of person, I love and accept people of all walks of life and have done so for my entire life,” he wrote. “I am not the person that the media portrays me to be in real life, I was trolling and posting things to get a reaction from the subs on reddit and never meant any of the hateful things I said in those posts.”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/04/politics/ ... index.htmlThe apology came after CNN's KFile identified the man behind "HanA**holeSolo." Using identifying information that "HanA**holeSolo" posted on Reddit, KFile was able to determine key biographical details, to find the man's name using a Facebook search and ultimately corroborate details he had made available on Reddit.
On Monday, KFile attempted to contact the man by email and phone but he did not respond. On Tuesday, "HanA**holeSolo" posted his apology on the subreddit /The_Donald and deleted all of his other posts.
[...]
In his apology on Reddit, "HanA**holeSolo" sent a message to his fellow anonymous posters.
"To people who troll on the Internet for fun, consider your words and actions conveyed in your message and who it might upset or anger," he wrote. "Put yourself in their shoes before you post it. If you have a problem with trolling it is an addiction just like any other addiction someone can have to something and don't be embarrassed to ask for help. Trolling is nothing more than bullying a wide audience. Don't feed your own self-worth based upon inflicting suffering upon others online just because you are behind a keyboard."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/05/busi ... tweet.htmlIn another tweet, Mr. Kaczynski said the Reddit user had called him after the story’s publication and told him: “I am in total agreement with your statement. I was not threatened in anyway.”
The bottom line is, CNN would have done better to not include the line, "CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change." They could have kept it to, "We talked to the guy, and guess what, he was trolling! Wow! Apparently, it's a thing! And now he! feels! shitty! because! his thin veil of anonymity has been rudely torn-off! Holy smoking Jaysus!" Likely, nobody would have a problem with that. It doesn't change the fact that CNN does know who the guy is, and isn't telling... but it would change the fact that they know who the guy is and said they aren't telling, for now. In other words... it would change... erm... let me check... nothing? Oh, it would change perception, which is everything!
On the other extreme, to remove any perception of blackmail, they could have just published the guy's identity. "We talked to Chad, and he's really sorry, ya'll."
But, on the other-other side, if buddy decided to go public saying, "CNN blackmailed me, they did!"... oh, wait... the Internet is doing that for him.
Eh, screw it - reality is perception, yadda, yadda, the Matrix.
A quantum state of signature may or may not be here... you just ruined it.