Vapers in Power note with concern that our press officer, Martin Cullip, was recently the victim of a doxing attack initiated by a notorious public health activist. We find it extremely disturbing that this sort of harassment is apparently, judging by the lack of condemnation from the perpetrator’s colleagues, regarded as acceptable by many who claim to have the best interests of the public at heart.
For several years now Mr Cullip has written a very popular blog centred around libertarian and lifestyle topics; if you’re a vaper it’s very likely you’re familiar with it. However, you are probably not familiar with the name Martin Cullip. Like many bloggers he writes under a pen name to preserve a degree of privacy and anonymity, as is his right. Online, we can all use any identity we choose; if we prefer to keep our real identity private, this should be respected. Revealing someone’s personal details against their will – doxing – is rightly regarded as a form of cyber harassment and most decent people see it as unacceptable.
Sadly, many opponents of vaping can in no way be described as decent people. We regret to say that one of this disreputable crew, an Australian pensioner by the name of Simon Chapman, recently uncovered the link between Mr Cullip and his nom de plume and saw fit to broadcast it to his 9,800 Twitter followers. This was a gross, and completely unacceptable, invasion of Mr Cullip’s privacy.
ViP regret that unqualified people like Mr Chapman – a retired sociologist – are lobbying against our freedom to vape in the first place; we particularly regret that they are using such obnoxious and underhanded tactics to do so. Therefore we call on the public health industry to condemn behaviour such as that of Mr Chapman and to disassociate itself from extremists of his ilk. Public health have no right to criticise vapers and the vaping industry when they have so conspicuously failed to put their own house in order.
Vapers In Power 