Pepper Spraying Neo-Nazi Sets Sights on Former School Board Candidate

Last year, Wasilla resident Sydney Zuyus stepped up to run for a seat on the Matanuska Susitna School Board. It was a campaign that faced numerous challenges as it coincided with the emergence of the Mat-Su chapter of the extremist organization Moms for Liberty and an associated increase in online anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.

Throughout the campaign, far-right individuals, deeply entrenched in the lies surrounding the LGBTQ grooming conspiracy theory, smeared Zuyus—leaving deranged voicemails and comments on her social media pages that accused her of sexually grooming children simply because she supports the LGBTQ+ community.

One anti-LGBTQ extremist escalated these hateful attacks when, perhaps intending to incite something unthinkable, they posted her family's address on social media.

While much of the abuse directed at Zuyus during the campaign has since waned, known neo-Nazi Bret Maness recently set his sights on Zuyus, using multiple fake social media accounts to impersonate her and incite hateful rhetoric against the former school board candidate and her family. It's an issue that highlights the broader issue of targeted harassment against LGBTQ+ individuals and their allies on social media in Alaska.

Maness the Menace

In 1997, Maness faced charges for the killing of his Black neighbor, Delbert White. Before the incident, witnesses said they had heard Maness spewing racist slurs at White and even firing BB gun pellets at his home. Despite the racially charged nature of the incident, Maness managed to evade a murder conviction by claiming self-defense. However, he was found guilty on separate weapons and drug charges, leading to an eight-year sentence with three years suspended, although the firearm conviction was later reversed.

In 2001, while appealing his conviction, Alaska State Troopers went to Maness' home to take him into custody for a psychological evaluation at the request of his then-wife, but he fled after threatening officers. A manhunt ensued, ending when law enforcement officers shot Maness in the shoulder. He was sentenced to ten years on weapons charges.

Seventeen years later, Maness attacked a group of activists with bear spray during a non-violent protest training event in Anchorage. He was arrested and faced multiple charges, including assault and terroristic threatening. At the time, prosecutors described Maness as a white supremacist and insisted that others would get hurt if he was released while awaiting trial.

During his initial court hearing, Assistant District Attorney Hazel Blum said that Maness had a "history of posting, of being a presence on white supremacist websites, Nazi websites, anti-LGBT websites."

As reported by the Anchorage Daily News in 2018, Maness had used multiple online identities as he sought to recruit supporters to "storm" gay pride events being held that same year in Anchorage. Police said they found handwritten writings containing racial slurs. "You little weasel slime, mother f—ing Jew spew bastard. Killing all my white brothers, I can hear your laughter," one read.

Policy or Pretense? Facebook's 'Commitment' to Its Rules

In recent weeks, Maness has created numerous fake Facebook accounts bearing Zuyus' name and depicting photographs stolen from her own personal Facebook account. One such imposter account shows a noose dangling over her head.

Other posts and comments made under her name vilify her as a child-grooming sexual deviant and, as was the case during her school board campaign, employ hate speech to attack members of the LGBTQ+ community whom she supports. Some comments contain veiled threats of violence.

During an hour-long phone interview, Zuyus, a young woman and private citizen in her 20s, told me that she and others had initially reported the imposter accounts to Meta, which owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp.

"Multiple threats have been directed at me and my family," Zuyus said. "Maness has told me I deserve a bullet in the chest. He has also told me that my father-in-law, a former cop, is "gonna get it."

After reporting the imposter accounts, Facebook support responded with automated 'assurances' that the fake accounts were not actually "pretending" to be her, noting that they did not violate Facebook's Community Standards.

In fact, according to a dizzying email exchange viewed by this author, Meta's so-called "Pro Support Team" told Zuyus that they were powerless to help and victimized her further by placing the burden and stress of having the imposter accounts taken down onto her friends and family members through the act of mass reporting the accounts.

Zuyus says Maness' targeting of her feels familiar, similar to when she faced threats during her run for school board. But this newest attack, with a white supremacist behind a keyboard and using her name and photographs to smear and spread hate against a community she loved, felt personal.

"It's been an exhausting several days, and I've been losing a lot of sleep," Zuyus said of her latest ordeal.

As the days dragged on, she and her friends continued to report the imposter Facebook accounts to Meta. Still, five days later, the offending accounts remained, continuing to churn out hateful and menacing messages.

On Saturday, as I began working on this story, I emailed Facebook's public relations team. I provided links to the imposter Facebook accounts bearing Zuyus' name, the police report, her exchange with Meta's Pro Support Team, and news stories about Bret Maness.

My question, paraphrased here, was simple: 'What the hell is it going to take to shut down these imposter accounts?'

Unsurprisingly, Facebook's public relations team refused to comment about the imposter Facebook accounts being used to harass Zuyus, but within hours of receiving my inquiry, the accounts bearing her name had been deleted.

I should probably note that Facebook's policy on Account Integrity and Authentic Identity states that an individual's main Facebook profile must be under the name they use in everyday life.

Facebook insists that it will restrict or disable accounts, including pages and groups if an individual creates or uses an account that deliberately misrepresents their identity to mislead or deceive others. They also claim that the use of stock imagery or stolen photos in profiles is strictly prohibited.

On April 23rd, Zuyus filed a police report and, in supplemental reports, provided dozens of screenshots she says show Maness using her identity to make threatening and menacing social media posts, along with links to the various imposter Facebook accounts being used to bully her and harass others.

"He is threatening people's lives with my name and even admitted to it being him [doing it] in one of the comments," Zuyus wrote in a panicked text exchange with Alaska State Trooper Lloyd, which included a screenshot of the offending comment.

Zuyus, a business owner, told me she was concerned that clients or potential clients might see hateful and derogatory posts made under her name and feared they could negatively impact her business. And, given the nature of the individual behind the accounts, Zuyus says she's been cautious when venturing out to the supermarket and other local establishments.

So. Many. Fucking. Fake. Accounts.

Maness, as he did in 2018, continues to use throngs of fake online identities and currently operates under the online pseudonyms Daley Braunboi, Rick Beck, Blake Thomas, Jimbo Hannon, Whitey Privlage, Kevin Rice, Tina MarieStevens, dalhabronisabitch, jakoff dorky, and many, many others. The fake accounts often contain racist, antisemitic, homophobic, and transphobic rhetoric. Some include personal photographs Maness swiped from the social media accounts belonging to other Alaskans.

In the profile section of one such fake Facebook account is a sentence eerily reminiscent of when Maness sought to recruit supporters to "storm" gay pride events in Anchorage. This particular message, however, references Black Birch Books—a Mat-Su-based bookstore that came under attack by anti-LGBTQ extremist activists when the private business decided to host a drag-time story hour.

The date referenced in the profile's description is Flag Day, Friday, June 14th—just 44 days away.

From Fringe to Mainstream

Maness uses his pseudonymous Facebook accounts to lurk in several far-right Facebook groups that are dedicated to spreading lies and hateful rhetoric about LGBTQ+ people, their allies, and even teachers employed by the Anchorage School District. Some of his posts denigrating Anchorage educators as child "groomers" have been "liked" in the affirmative by members of Moms for Liberty Anchorage's leadership team, including their vice-chair.

Much in the same way that Mayor Bronson's Save Anchorage turd used an affiliated network of social media groups to wage a coordinated disinformation campaign during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, exclusionary Facebook groups run by individuals who laughably believe that the accounts they operate are anonymous, actively and methodically work to incite outrage against LGBTQ people. Without question, this is yet another coordinated effort directly contributing to an ever-increasing hostile online environment—which, intended or otherwise, draws the attention of extremists who jump into the fray—all too eager to help amplify dangerous narratives while turning their sights on targets deemed vulnerable.

In the aftermath of the January 6th storming of the Capitol, many dismissed the threats circulating on social media platforms as mere bluster or exaggerated rhetoric. Few took them seriously, viewing them as the inane online rantings of fringe elements unlikely to materialize into real-world action. However, this complacency underscores a dangerous precedent: the tendency to downplay or ignore threats made on social media until they manifest into tangible harm. The events of January 6th should serve as a reminder that the dangers lurking in the digital realm can swiftly spill over into the physical world.

For its part, Meta appears content in allowing far-right extremists to cultivate fertile fields for anti-LGBTQ hate and cyberbullying in its online communities where reality and fiction often intertwine.