Always important to have situational awareness of where one’s enemies are...
A new interactive tool created by activists is attempting to track the physical location of trolls affiliated with the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, a step-up in the simmering online war between anti-fascists and the so-called “alt right.”
[...]
On the other hand, they are making their views known in a public space, the internet. “You’re going into today’s modern town square, the internet,” said Levin. “When people make pronouncements under that oak tree in the town square, their anonymity rights are limited.”
FashMaps, not FashMap
Aggregating information that was already publicly available without nefarious intent isn’t a problem, said Levin. “It’s perfectly ethical to expose someone with a screen name like ‘white power forever’ who is spreading fake information about race studies,” he said.
[...]
With Fashmaps, Simon and his team only publish information that was already publicly available, even if they’ve also been able to glean additional information from reading or participating in forums, such as relationship status or employment. In most cases, Fashmaps is only providing screen names or badges awarded by moderators such as “Banned from X-Box Live for Racism,” “Germanic Death Cult Member,” or “Savior of Aryan Princesses.”
[...]
He also concedes that Fashmaps is not providing proof of neo-Nazi activity. “We do worry about people doing stupid things without doing deeper research,” said Simon.
But he is trying to force the groups into a catch-22. If they want to recruit new members, they have to be public. But leaving discussions public also leaves them vulnerable to discovery by Fashmaps.
