Earlier this month, an anarchist group mainly composed of UT Austin students called the Autonomous Student Network (ASN) shared a tweet, threatening to dox students who considered joining conservative organisations such as Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) and Turning Point USA (TPUSA), during the freshman orientation.
The tweet read "Hey #UT23! Do you wanna be famous? If you join YCT or Turning Point USA, you just might be. Your name and more could end up on an article like one of these," linking to doxxing posts from "Austin Autonomedia" (AAM), of conservative students at the university. "So be sure to make smart choices at #UTOrientation."
This tweet suggests that the leftists are preparing to dox incoming first-year students who join conservative groups on campus, and given their record, it does not seem to be an empty threat.
Doxxing is a term that refers to the internet-based practice of retrieving, hacking and publishing private information about an individual or organisation, as a form of punishment or revenge.
The anarchist blogs actively encourage the harassment of conservative students, stating that it is "extremely important to get organised early while this [TPUSA] group is in its infancy." Moreover, in the fall 2018 semester, this same group has harassed and doxed pro-Kavanaugh students on campus, where they shouted obscenities and destroyed signs expressing support for the judge. The day after that event, the pro-Kavanaugh students have been doxxed in another blog post by AAM.
The AAM declares itself to be an independent and self-organised project of the ASN, who are committed to "anti-oppressive media that amplifies student voices left out by the corporate media outlets, bureaucratic regulations, University restrictions, and oppressive hierarchies." AAM members usually sneak into conservative club meetings, or guest speaker events, take photos of the attendees and post the students' pictures and names online.
Their article titled "Merry Doxxmas! A Racist Holiday Roundup" was published in December 2018, and categorised under 'Intel' and 'Research & Destroy'. The individuals subject to doxxing were identified from Katie Hopkin's speaking event on November 13, 2018. The author begins with a summary of the event, addressing when the event took place, and who the speaker was. They then mention that they will present photos of individuals who attended the event or as they put it, the "fruits of this research," and calls for help to identify unrecognised faces. Some names and faces have been identified, and it's clear that these people put much work into finding and identifying each student. They provide information regarding the identity of the person, including their name, majors, minors, what year they're in, in addition to screenshots of the individuals' social media pages, and whom they follow.
After introducing each new face, they have another section for familiar faces, and a third, where they drop pictures of individuals in hope that someone reading the article will contact AAM and give them information.
U.S. blog hosts typically de-platform doxxing pages, but since AAM is hosted on Noblogs, an Italian 'antifascist' server, it is less likely that the blog will be removed any time soon.
The College Fix reported that in January 2019, a UT Austin spokesman claimed that the Autonomous Student Network is "not any kind of registered student organisation". Despite that, it has partnerships with other clubs on the UT Austin Campus and continues to call itself the "Autonomous Student Network-UT Austin" on its Facebook page.
Not only have students been doxxed for joining conservative groups, but many have also been targeted for being spotted at lectures held by conservative speakers. Students have also been doxxed for liking too many conservative pages on social media. Reportedly, since the Fall 2018 semester, members of AAM have snuck into conservative club meetings, taken photos of the attendees and posted students' names and emails online. Many conservative students at UT Austin fear that they could be doxxed again, except with more personal information, and that AAM students could be in their classes and following them around campus.
Comentarios