The “doxxing” of DataRepublican

Last Tuesday I did a report about a Deaf person on X (Twitter), DataRepublican, who is a computer whiz that’s got the attention of Elon Musk and his DOGE team for uncovering “wasteful” government spending. She did several interviews with news outlets and podcasters and tried to keep her name anonymous.

Last Tuesday night, DataRepublican said she was “doxxed.” She then said her name is Jennica Pounds and explained she resigned from her job to pursue DOGE-adjacent efforts full-time.

[Image showing @DataRepublican: “I have been doxxed. Rather than let others control the narrative, I am addressing this directly.

My name is Jennica Pounds. I recently resigned from my job to pursue DOGE-adjacent efforts full-time. While my background check is still in progress, my ultimate goal is to work with the Administration to cut waste and improve efficiency.”

What is doxxing? It’s when someone shares your private information online without their consent.

Who “doxxed” DataRepublican? It was Ricky Taylor, who is a controversial Deaf blogger/vlogger that operates under the online name Ridor9th.

[Image showing Facebook/Ricky Taylor saying, “But I know who she is. She is from Florida – her name is Jennica Pounds. Jennica thought by helping Musk, she’s protecting this country – but in reality, she’s harming the country and in the process, harming the disabled people including Deaf people. Shame on Jennica Pounds. Cheers, R–”

Is this actually doxxing? I want to share my perspective. I don’t think it is doxxing because DataRepublican/Jennica Pounds appeared in multiple interviews about her work and revealed that she is a Deaf person and uses sign language.

[Three quick video clips of Pounds giving interviews to three different outlets]

It was inevitable that someone within the Deaf community would recognize her. I also don’t think it’s doxxing because Jennica is working in alignment with the Trump administration / Elon Musk / DOGE. She’s now a public figure and is subject to more scrutiny. For example, the New York Times recently identified 50 people who are working with DOGE.

[Image of NY Times article identifying people working at DOGE]

Maybe you agree or disagree that this is or is not doxxing, but let’s continue with this story.

After Jennica said she was doxxed, a federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, said, “Please contact me or my office.”

[Image showing U.S. Attorney Ed Martin saying, “Please contact me or my office.” DataRepublican responds, “We have established contact.”

Ed Martin tweeted that he considered the doxxing situation “wrong and illegal” and a “threat to a federal worker.”

[Image showing U.S. Attorney Ed Martin saying, “.@datarepublican We are here for you, Jennica, just like you are here for America when we need you most. It is wrong and illegal to threaten anyone, and we will not tolerate a threat to a federal worker.”

So, this is a federal prosecutor putting a target on Ricky Taylor after he revealed DataRepublican’s name.

Ricky explained in his vlog that he got many angry comments and ended up experiencing doxxing — because his home address and Venmo transactions were shown online.

I saw some comments wishing Ricky to go to prison.

[Images showing several comments directed towards Ricky Taylor. They say, “Is there prison for deaf people or will you be in with the general population?”

“LOL, probably the most comments and interaction you’ve ever had on any platform. To bad it ends when the cops show up!”

“He’ll never even hear ‘em coming lmao.”

I reached out to Ricky.

[Begin interview]

Alex: I wanted to ask why you felt it was important to reveal her name?

Ricky Taylor: I had three friends who lost their jobs through DOGE. They are very upset. Two of them don’t want to share their names but one already announced it. They are very hurt. It messed up their lives and it’s impacted their families. So I feel empathy. And I happened to see Jennica. Really, it started when my friend’s sister contacted her to say that she should be like Jennica. My friend told me but I didn’t care at the time. I thought, “Whatever.” Later on, another friend told me that they knew who Jennica was and they met in Florida. So I have two pieces of information. I checked with another friend in Florida if they knew who Jennica is. The friend said she is relatively known in Florida. So that’s when it started. I’ve never communicated with her. I’ve never emailed her. I’ve never talked with Jennica. I’ve never made threats. Many people out there said I threatened her, but I’ve absolutely never done that. None of this happened. All I did was reveal her name. That’s it. And this story took its own life. I can’t handle it. Oh well.

Alex: How do you feel about the federal prosecutor looking at you?

Ricky Taylor: Okay. The night before Ed Martin accused… He pointed a finger and everyone knew that he was referring to me. The night before, I admit that I called the police. I asked for an interpreter because I refuse to have an office in my home without an interpreter. It took a while and finally an officer came with an interpreter. I explained and showed everything. They looked at it and we talked through the interpreter. They looked at where I first mentioned her and all of the information. They said I didn’t break Idaho law. They asked me if I contacted Jennica and I said I never did. I have no reason to do that. So they said no laws were broken. They warned me that I may have my windows broken or my car damaged. So I had to go outside and take pictures. The officer said they would patrol the area a bit to make sure all is okay. The next day, I still felt uneasy. I saw that Ed Martin made his comment. I decided to call my personal attorney. I had to pay him, yes, but anyways I talked and showed him everything. The attorney said there’s nothing. They asked if I contacted Jennica and I said, “Nothing. I just named her.” The attorney said they had no case and if I was approached (by the prosecutor), to contact them immediately. Also, in the past few days, I got contacted by several attorneys who said they were willing to support me. So I’m okay. I know they don’t have any case. So far, I have not received any type of letter or email from Ed Martin. I think it’s all talk. That’s all.

[End interview]

Thanks, Ricky, for sharing.

I reached out to DataRepublican/Jennica’s representative for an interview to explain why they felt it was doxxing and on other topics, but they responded that they’ve stopped all interviews for the moment. So no comments.

There is an article by Rolling Stone that goes into detail of who Jennica Pounds is. It said Pounds is a “Deaf, female software engineer from Utah” who last worked as a senior software engineer at an AI lending company called Upstart and prior to that at Snap Inc., eBay, and Amazon.

[Image showing Rolling Stone article. Its headline is, “Who is the anonymous data expert telling Elon which cuts to make?” and an excerpt saying, “Before becoming DOGE’s favorite anonymous expert, Pounds ran a Github that analyzed election data in Florida and North Carolina, two states she has lived in. Prior to her role at Upstart, Pounds worked at Snap Inc., eBay and Amazon. Pounds and her husband, who worked for a decade at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also own a distillery in Salt Lake City.”

There is also an article on Bustle.com from 2022 that features Jennica Pounds and her work with Snap to create augmented reality tools to teach users how to finger spell in ASL.

[Image showing article from Bustle with the headline, “Why This Software Engineer Believes The Future Of AR Will Be Deaf-Led.” There is an image of Jennica Pounds smiling and an image of Snapchat’s AR ASL features]

So, it was not like Jennica Pounds was an extremely private person and avoided media interviews — in fact — it’s the opposite.

Now, everyone knows who she is and like I mentioned last week, it’s very interesting that we have a Deaf person working with Elon Musk and his DOGE team.

Jennica/DataRepublican tweeted several times in recent days about Deaf-related topics. She wants to see ASL become an official language of America, and this was after President Trump signed an executive order to make English the official language.

[Image showing @DataRepublican’s post on X: “A bit disappointed that ASL isn’t also an official language of America - but we’ll make it happen.”

She also spoke out about language deprivation and the need for technology to show sign language interpreters on TV.

[Image showing @DataRepublican’s post on X: “The average hearing baby is exposed to over 4 million spoken words per year. A Deaf child, without early access to a fully accessible language like American Sign Language (ASL), receives none. This deprivation during critical developmental years leads to neurological linguistic deprivation, permanently affecting language development.”

[Image showing @DataRepublican’s post on X: “And, so, closed captions aren’t sufficient because language regions never developed (sign language is adjusted to that). I’ve been advocating for the same federal standard change which brought us captions in the first place - a toggeable, optional dual camera stream for TVs, which can show an interpreter (or extra content). Apple and Android are independently doing this, so there’s a demand. We just need the federal government to match the demand.”

So there’s definitely someone within earshot of the White House and President Trump who’s saying, “Make ASL another official language” and “provide ASL interpreters!”

So, it’s a lot to take in. That’s all I have to share on this topic for now.