The behavior of this CNN writer - "...senior editor and founding member of CNN's KFILE — the leading investigation team for the social, mobile generation" per his CNN bio - reflects the very internet culture his own story seeks to uncover.  It's common in social media to issue threats as a way to coerce certain behavior or as a means to stifle certain thought.  The author did just that with his warning that CNN (i.e. himself) reserved the right to "dox" the offending Redditor if he got out of line.