Local Webcasters Confront Facebook 'Smut List' Poster

There’s nothing ironic about reporting that a so-called smut list has gone viral. In past decades, the vile practice of making hateful high school lists was relatively contained. For decades, poison pen lists have circulated on loose leaf sheets between students in high school hallways, maybe you called them slam books.

Soon enough, however, a teacher or principal would confiscate the illicit lists. Feelings would be hurt and reputations damaged; fallout might even extend to nearby schools as gossip spread by telephone. But the number of people who heard about a particular list could be counted in units of a hundred.

An incident unfolding over the last three days is showing the power of social networking to exponentially increase the impact of malicious gossip and its careless repetition. A defamatory list of names has gone from the misguided mind of whomever thought it up to over 7,000 views on Facebook overnight Tuesday because of a powerful mix of youthful bad judgment and access to technology.

According to several reports, the began as a BlackBerry Messenger forward of 20 names. The list was sent from smartphone to smartphone with the touch of a button on Monday night. That was not instantaneous enough for one young Yonkers man who decided to put the list on Facebook so his friends could see it more quickly. Then the list was discovered Tuesday by a group of local webcasters.  

Sergio Siano, an 18-year-old from Yonkers, claims to have posted the “Westchester Smut List"—of approximately 100 female students from high schools in the Westchester County and Connecticut area—on a Facebook fan page Monday night. Siano denies creating the original list, but said, on Facebook, that he posted the names online after he received several requests for the names from friends.

"I didn’t make the list. I made a Facebook page with the list on it because people kept asking me to message them the list and I got tired of it. If anyone is mad at me because of this, then be angry because I’m not apologizing," the indignant Siano posted on the Facebook page of Zedalza New York. 

Zedalza New York is the next part of the story. This group of young entrepreneurs webcast from their Port Chester entertainment studio every Tuesday and Thursday. During their last show, one of their interns brought the “Westchester Smut List” to their attention while they were on the air and they decided to discuss it. 

Frank Valbiro, and his partners, brother Anthony Valbiro and Michael Alonzi, started their webcast in 2006 while they were students at Manhattanville College. They usually discuss entertainment and music news on their show, but decided to go with the flow when the smut list came up.

“Tuesday the lid blew off,” said Frank. “By the end of the night we had 1800 local viewers [on the webcast]. The screens lit up.”

Frank said he had never seen anything like what happened Tuesday night in all the years they’ve been webcasting. Based on the traffic spike to their site, they were convinced the numbers were local.

At first, their discussion of the list was light-hearted, but that changed as more callers expressed their outrage about the list.

“We think it’s really cruel,” said Frank. “For these girls to have their images destroyed like this is just cruel.”

Frank said he watched in real time as the number of people “liking” the Facebook page increased Tuesday night. “It was viral.” 

One of the callers was personally affected by the list. Amanda Mickatavage, 18, of Port Chester first heard about the “Smut List” when she received it as an unsolicited BBM on her smartphone around 11:30 Monday night. 

“It was just a forward,” Mickatavage said. “People said it was sent to them and they were just forwarding it.”

The first list she received had no more than 20 names on it. She has no idea who wrote it. “I know on the original list, I recognized a few names of people who are seniors now. But their were a lot of names  of people who were younger that I didn’t know.”

By Wednesday, Mickatavage had received a second list of about 50, more familiar names. Hers was one of them. This list had names specifically from Port Chester, with malicious annotations. 

“I mean, first I was in shock—very upset and angry,” she said. “The one sent to Port Chester also had descriptions as to why they were smuts. The things that were listed were completely false.” 

Amanda said she was receiving so many BBM messages about the list that she finally deleted the contact list from her phone to stop them. Then she found out from her cousins Frank and Anthony Valbiro that the list had been posted to Facebook.

“I don’t think its right, that it started on BBM is horrible enough,” said Amanda. The thought of people forwarding the messages aggravates her. “If you’re not part of solution, you’re clearly part of problem. It makes the situation so much worse.”

Mickatavage, who graduated from Port Chester High School last year, said she has heard from friends still enrolled there that girls on the list are being taunted.

“Girls are being called by their number on the list. It’s so degrading and disgusting.” 

The role of BBM and Facebook is nothing Amanda has ever seen.

“I have been attacked by rumors before, but I’ve never seen a list like this before.”

Amanda called into her cousins’ show on Tuesday after seeing the list on Facebook had grown to more than 100 names.

After the Tuesday show, Frank tracked down Sergio Siano, who claims responsibility for posting the list to Facebook. He invited Siano to call into the Thursday show.

Frank bristled at the suggestion the webcast had a negative influence on the situation.

"We didn't blow this up," Frank said during the Thursday webcast. "Our show isn't responsible for making this big." 

The list and Facebook page were already in circulation when Frank found about them. He said his webcast has given young people already talking about the incident a forum.

"We opened our lines so people could discuss it," he said.

They continued that discussion on Thursday with Siano, who called into the webcast via Skype. Siano was quickly confronted.

"What you did was stupid," said web host Vinnie Brusco. The group then took turns peppering Siano about his judgment and lack of sensitivity.

Siano offered no coherent explanation of his actions.

"It probably wasn't a good idea," he admitted about his decision to publicly post the list he said he received by BBM. In the next breath, he backpedaled from posting an apology.

"This is dead and gone," Frank Valbiro said. "Anyone who brings this up after the weekend is beating a dead horse."