A week ago, the Berkeley, California, police department tweeted out the mugshots, names, and ages of people arrested during the No to Marxism rally in Berkeley. Based on the social media profiles of those arrested, it appears that most were there to counter-protest the far-right[1] organizers, Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys. These groups are well known across the Pacific Northwest for hosting violent rallies and espousing anti-immigrant sentiments. The Berkeley police department’s actions portend new uses of oppressive law enforcement tactics online. The public outing of protestors on social networks is a chilling and silencing device.

WIRED OPINION

ABOUT

Caroline Sinders (@carolinesinders[2]) is design researcher focusing on the intersections of online harassment, violence, and the internet. Joan Donovan (@BostonJoan[3]) is the lead researcher on the Media Manipulation project at Data & Society.

Over the last two years, Berkeley has become host to a running street fight between these rival groups. Lately, local organizers from each group have taken it upon themselves to infiltrate and expose one another through doxxing—that is, the releasing of someone’s personal information in order to harass, extort, or intimidate. This is why we are concerned with the Berkeley Police’s effort to name and shame protesters. By placing the arrested in public view, these far-right groups are able to target and harass those awaiting trial.

The practice of doxxing[4] originated by Anonymous[5] as a tactic to identify police who were hiding behind the thin blue line. At its most basic, doxxing is the release of people’s names, phone numbers, social media accounts, addresses, and places of work—information made findable and shareable thanks to the internet—in order to intimidate victims. Most major social networks, including Twitter, have rules specifically against posting

Read more from our friends at Wired.com