A visibly emotional Nathan ‘Acid’ Vandergunst quickly left the criminal court of Bruges on Thursday morning. He would later say that he felt “naked” in front of the judge, and was actually “just exhausted”. A few minutes earlier, the judge sentenced him to three months’ suspended prison sentence, a fine of 800 euros and a contribution to the victims’ fund of 200 euros. Vandergunst will also have to pay 20,000 euros in compensation for the time being, a company auditor will still have to calculate how much he will ultimately have to cough up.
Just under a year ago, Acid, Vandergunst’s YouTube name, dropped a video entitled ‘My top 5 Reuzegommers’ on the video channel. The day before, 18 former members of the Reuzegom student club had been convicted for their role in the deadly student baptism that claimed the life of Sanda Dia in 2018. They received community service orders, between 200 and 300 hours, and fines of 400 euros. The country was furious. The sentences were too light, people said. A consequence of class justice, they continued. The established audiovisual and print media refused to mention the names of the convicted Reuzegommers for ethical reasons. However, to protect them, a section of public opinion ruled.
Shaming en doxing
Vandergunst went along with the popular anger. In his video he decided to reveal the identities of four ex-Reuzegommers. And where they work, who their parents are, what they do… The people deserved to know everything, was the reasoning. But two of the mentioned Reuzegommers were not directly involved in that fatal baptism. Still, Vandergunst felt they deserved his attention, just like the restaurant owned by the parents of one of them. The video would only be on YouTube for a few hours and then be removed due to a violation of the platform’s privacy guidelines. But the consequences were great. The restaurant was bombarded with negative reviews on the internet, with false reservations for which no one showed up, with hate mail and telephone calls. The family did not leave it at that and dragged Vandergunst to court via a direct summons.
The judge now agrees with the family. By making such a video, Acid is guilty of online ‘shaming’ and ‘doxing’ (publishing private information to intimidate someone). According to the court, the right to freedom of expression must be weighed against other human rights, such as the right to respect for private, family and family life. Videos like Acid’s are viewed en masse, “and if they are taken offline somewhere, they reappear somewhere else”, sometimes years later. According to the court, that makes what Acid did just as “harmful and malicious”, because there is no way to erase those images and what was said in them from the internet.
Addictive urge for views
According to the judge, it could have been done differently. The court would have liked to give him community service, but Vandergunst refused in advance. The sentence will now be added to his criminal record and he will have to comply with the imposed conditions for three years. Otherwise, he may be required to serve the prison sentence. According to the court, Acid could also have made his point without revealing private information. And the reasons why Vandergunst did what he did “can never be any justification for taking the law into his own hands.” “The defendant has a blind and addictive urge for followers and views, with a view to attention and profit, resulting in abuse of his reach,” it continues.
Harsh words that Vandergunst had not yet heard during the hearing. They are included in the verdict, while the judge in the hearing room only read out the sentence. “I would have preferred to give that 20,000 euros to Sanda’s family,” the young man told the many gathered cameras afterwards. “You see, money always wins.”
But he has no regrets, and he certainly has enough material for his next videos. “They’re not going to get me down. I spoke for society, for young people, for Sanda Dia, for his family.” It remains to be seen whether Vandergunst will appeal. He didn’t seem to feel like it anymore on Thursday morning: “I’m relieved that it’s over. And you shouldn’t underestimate how expensive everything has been so far. Maybe that doesn’t make sense anymore.”