Award-winning economist and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, declared on Wednesday that his IP address was used to download child porn. An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two main functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing.
Paul Krugman is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and is a known vicious critic of US President Donald Trump. Some have alleged that he suffers from the Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). The bombshell he dropped on Wednesday came without any prior warning and left netizens across the political spectrum bewildered.
Krugman said, “I’m on the phone with my computer security service, and as I understand it someone compromised my IP address and is using it to download child pornography. I might just be a random target. But this could be an attempt to Qanon me. It’s an ugly world out there.”
Weirdly enough, Krugman proceeded to blame QAnon, an online conspiracy theory on the fringes of the American rightwing that even most rightwingers believe to be false. Later, he proceeded to declare that NYT was investigating the matter. Subsequently, he said that the NYT reckons it was a scam.
Deleted original tweet. Times thinks it may have been a scam. Anyway, will have more security in future
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) January 9, 2020
There is still a lot of confusion over the matter. It appears rather bizarre that Krugman would choose to announce such a thing on Twitter instead of reporting to relevant law enforcement authorities if he were innocent. Child Pornography is an extremely serious crime and attracts severe punishment, therefore, it is bewildering that Krugman would want the NYT to investigate the matter instead of those with the necessary tools to track down the perpetrators of the crime.
Many believe that Paul Krugman is guilty of downloading child porn and downloaded or watched something that he should never have done and is now playing the victim card as an act of defence against any allegations that might surface in the future. Furthermore, the recent case of Jeffery Epstein has demonstrated that pedophiles occupy extremely high positions within the political establishment of Western countries. Therefore, people are much less inclined to give Krugman a free pass.
It remains to be seen whether American law enforcement authorities would get involved in the matter. One would also expect Krugman to clarify at some point in time in the near future what he meant when he said that NYT thought it was a scam and why he believed NYT was the best institution to investigate the crime instead of the relevant authorities.
