Portland Professional Skateboarder Receiving Death Threats After the Internet Falsely Identifies Him As Antifa Protester Harassing a Widow

Charlie Wilkins was confused and alarmed by the death threats he woke up to this morning.

The professional skateboarder, who lives in Portland with his wife Victoria, says he's been falsely identified by right-wing social media users as an antifa protester who slung hateful remarks at a woman during the city's most recent political brawl.

A video captured during the Oct. 13 protest—which saw Proud Boys and anti-fascist protesters maul each other in downtown Portland—shows a man who resembles Wilkins berating a woman whose husband, a police officer, died in 9/11.

That video was published this morning on the far-right news outlet The Daily Caller. Amateur internet sleuths quickly got to work attempting to identifying the antifa protester.

But Wilkins wasn't at the protest. Victoria says that on the day of the protest, she and Charlie were at a pumpkin patch and that, as a couple in their 40s, voting is the extent of their political activism.

Victoria guesses right-wingers pinpointed her husband because of his celebrity skateboarding status, which makes him easily identifiable online. Wilkins has been skating professionally for over two decades and has scooped up sponsorships from companies like Powell, Transit and Etnies and been a judge at the X-Games in that time. 

Victoria says what at first seemed like a small case of mistaken identity quickly snowballed into death threats and calls from her husband's employer and sponsors.

"At first it was funny," she says, "but it quickly became not funny at all. People were being really vicious. I get it—what the guy [in the video] said was awful. It's an unfortunate resemblance, but people don't do their homework. Now we're scared to leave the house, friends have been calling to ask if we're safe. It's definitely an invasion of privacy."

Search Charlie Wilkins on Twitter and you'll find hundreds of call-out posts, some of which demand Wilkins' sponsors drop him.

In response, for most of the day, Wilkins and friends have been attempting to stop the viral doxxing.

In a video Wilkins filmed of himself and posted online, he notes "I've been grossly misidentified. I was never at a protest and that's definitely not me. My wife and I are now being threatened and harassed. Please help clear my name and find the real guy. Thank you."

She says she and Charlie aren't interested in enacting revenge by finding the real subject of the video, they'd just like to clear Wilkins' name.

"For all the merits of the internet and social media," she says, "it has made people really lazy. And they hide behind this shield. Communicating with these people directly and them realizing they are affecting real people, and then they back pedal, tells me this is a really dangerous tool for people who aren't willing to take the time and do their homework before they jump on the bandwagon."

The couple say they are considering installing security cameras at their home.

Here's a sampling of messages sent to Charlie and Victoria today: