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Rutgers Students Say Webcam Spy Guy Is Misunderstood
By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 30, 2010
Modified Sep 30, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 30, 2010
Modified Sep 30, 2010
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As we noted earlier, initial reports that a student at Rutgers streamed his roommate’s intimate encounter live on the Internet are not quite accurate. Dharun Ravi, who faces up to five years for invasion of privacy, did not record or broadcast footage of his roommate, Tyler Clementi, making out with another man. That doesn't make what he did (or the consequences) any less appalling, but the initial impression that Clementi's encounter was broadcast over the Internet is somewhat inaccurate. And Ravi's friends say there's more to the story, and tell the Rutgers student paper that on the first night Clementi asked to be alone in the room, Ravi spied via the webcam because he was concerned about his roommate's guest:
Students said Clementi asked his roommate Ravi to leave the room so that he could have time alone with a guest on the evening of Sept. 19. A strange, older male later arrived at the room, they said. Ravi went to Wei's room, where he used a computer to access footage of the room from his webcam, they said.
Ravi had no intention of witnessing any kind of intimate encounter between the two, but rather wanted to see if anything unusual was taking place inside his room, as he was not familiar with Clementi's guest, they said. "He just wanted to see what was going on," a student said. Upon seeing what was taking place inside the room, Ravi immediately closed the window on the screen, the student said.
And because when you're a teenager in 2010 you overshare everything, even your prurience, Ravi tweeted, "...I saw him making out with a dude. Yay." On September 21st, when Clementi again asked for the room, Ravi allegedly tried to share the encounter via webcam with friends on iChat, but this failed. Gawker finds that Ravi's attempt to humiliate his roommate further may have been unsuccessful because Clementi knew what Ravi was up to.
A person posting on a gay community message board "Just Us Boys" appears to have been Clementi reaching out for advice. It has not been confirmed that the anonymous poster "cit2mo" is Clementi, but the story he shares about a roommate spying on him via webcam is very similar to what we know so far. And on the night before Clementi committed suicide, cit2mo wrote:
so I wanted to have the guy over again.
I texted roomy around 7 asking for the room later tonight and he said it was fine.
when I got back to the room I instantly noticed he had turned the webcam toward my bed. And he had posted online again .saying ."anyone want a free show just video chat me tonight" or something similar to that .
so after that ..
I ran to the nearest RA and set this thing in motion ..
we'll see what happens
I haven't even seen my roommate since sunday when i was asking for the room the first time .and him doing it again just set me off .so talking to him just didn't seen like an option .
meanwhile I turned off and unplugged his computer, went crazy looking for other hidden cams .and then had a great time.
Police believe Clementi jumped off the George Washington bridge less than 24 hours later.
Tagged
dharun ravi
rutgers suicide
tyler clementi
webcam
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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