as much fun as posting is PLEASE be sensible about what you say online
There is quite literally a database being compiled of full names, social media handles, and in some cases employers of people who have made fun of him or celebrated his death. Some of the submissions are screenshots of DMs or close friends stories, I’m sure many are also from private accounts, meaning whoever submitted it was not assumed by the poster to be someone who would literally doxx them in a searchable online database
This is a great time to consider setting any social media profiles attached to your real life, name, and/or face to private and remove anyone you don’t trust from your followers. Review your digital footprint and work backwards. How easy would it be, based on things you’ve said online, for someone to find your real identity and location?
cnn article about the coordinated right wing effort to ruin the lives of people who celebrate kirk’s death or refuse to express sympathy or even criticize him. The website is compiling a searchable database doxxing kirk’s critics claim they have received 30,000 submissions. some of those will be duplicates, especially when it comes to high profile individuals, and some will be troll submissions, but based on what I have seen (which is purely anecdotal, but that’s really all we have at the moment), I think most of them are not. Literal congresspeople are participating in this harassment campaign.
I have seen totally normal people on reddit asking for advice because they posted a meme on Instagram, someone reported them to this website, and now they, their families, and their workplaces are being inundated with harassment and death threats. They are confused and terrified because nothing like this has ever happened to them and they never thought it would. They’re not influencers, they’re not activists, they’re not chronic posters in niche online communities.
The goal of this campaign is not just to drive people to delete their posts or profiles, it’s to ruin their lives. As one person put it in the replies of a video game dev who was fired from Sony put it, “She’s been fired. When she finds work somewhere else, we will get her fired again, and again, and again.”
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t speak publicly about our opinions or refuse to participate in this whitewashing of kirk and his work. But we should do so intentionally and remain aware of the risks. Most of these posts people are being targeted over are not thoughtful statements, they’re off the cuff reactions or memes. We are in a state of unprecedented online surveillance at a time when many people’s real lives are also virtually inseparable from their online lives
Wondering why they’re not doing the same thing about the people who openly celebrated the UHC guy’s death?
Is it because Kirk was more explicitly pro-Republican? Or just because this one happened later and therefore is more evidence of a “trend” they feel scared of?
(Or maybe they are doing this in regard to other high-profile shootings too but not making as big a deal over it?)