Can we talk about the Harassment, please?
- Thread starter The_Darkness
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What I don't really understand is that not too long ago everyone was advised NOT to post their personal data on the internet (being a public space with all the consequences that brings), and now pretty much every social site recommends or even forces you to include name and address, which are usually public unless you go out of your way to make them private.
Doxxing is usually treated like some terrible crime that only the worst haxxors can do, but really, anyone can google your username/mail and get a bunch of info that you yourself posted publicly on the net. There are very few cases where people actually got "hacked" and their personal information stolen.
Doxxing is usually treated like some terrible crime that only the worst haxxors can do, but really, anyone can google your username/mail and get a bunch of info that you yourself posted publicly on the net. There are very few cases where people actually got "hacked" and their personal information stolen.
Unfortunately, the only way to really deal with harassment seems to be to revoke anonymity on the internet for either some or all, something I will never endorse.
I think in America a lot of it has come radio talks shows and TV pundits some of whom think that because she or he is on TV and/or radio that as long as they obey the rules of a network that isn't consequence from saying stupid, mean, offenisive. And don't understand what the 1st admendent means: that only the governement can't censor you as long as you say something that leads death or destruction, but it doesn't say that you get millions of dollars a year to be a jackass, and that people can't challenge you or call you out if you're wrong or lying.The_Darkness said:
This may not be a popular opinion:
Don't talk about being harassed, don't publicly tell people how it affected you, how you called the cops, affcts your family/health, lost sleep and am "literally shaking"
Drawing attention to these things tells people that it works. You may be going through all of those things but expressing them will not elicit sympathy from the harassers. Your friends and peers may be kind and "support" you. But talking about it validates their motivation for doing it. I have been harassed in life and giving them nothing but an empty vessel to pour these behaviors into actually works. Delete the emails, hang up the phone, don't read the letters. Certainly contact authorities. But do not talk about it publicly. It's fucking hard, trust me. But it works. They get bored very quickly and move on. Think about what motivates these people and you can easily fight them. You need an iron stomach to do it. BUT IT WORKS. (it did for me anyway)
Don't talk about being harassed, don't publicly tell people how it affected you, how you called the cops, affcts your family/health, lost sleep and am "literally shaking"
Drawing attention to these things tells people that it works. You may be going through all of those things but expressing them will not elicit sympathy from the harassers. Your friends and peers may be kind and "support" you. But talking about it validates their motivation for doing it. I have been harassed in life and giving them nothing but an empty vessel to pour these behaviors into actually works. Delete the emails, hang up the phone, don't read the letters. Certainly contact authorities. But do not talk about it publicly. It's fucking hard, trust me. But it works. They get bored very quickly and move on. Think about what motivates these people and you can easily fight them. You need an iron stomach to do it. BUT IT WORKS. (it did for me anyway)
You're aggrandizing the act of harassment, in theory this results in more harassment.
You also run into the issue that by becoming too absorbed into the issue, you're subjecting yourself to more pain and suffering.
If you don't want to propagate harassment do the following:
Make the news coverage as boring as possible, sticking to the facts and localizing the occurrence.
Don't get emotional and tell others how much this is affecting people, or how big of an issue this is.
Don't put the harasser on some sort of twisted pedestal.
As an individual take away the power of the harasser, follow procedure and contact local law enforcement and do not show alterations in your life from the harasser's attacks (Although you should always follow the advice of local law enforcement).
Are these the right things to do? I can't tell you. Given our understanding on harassment behavior these steps should result in fewer instances. It certainly doesn't give victims much cathartic release by telling the internet just how badly harassment has affected their lives, it's actually quite cold and calculating, but honestly IMO these actions would be one of the few ways to stop harassment.
On the side of us as bystanders, our only actions would be:
Do not aggrandize the harassment, when posts open up about how bad harassment is simply ignore and do not post in them.
If someone you personally know is suffering from harassment take the steps to make sure they are safe, contact local law enforcement if needed.
If it is someone you do not know personally then do not do anything, if you have pertinent information pass it along to local law enforcement. This does not mean to ostracize the harassed, but if you have training in consoling then it's best to keep it short and avoid talking directly about the issue.
If you fear the individual might self-harm then contact local law enforcement, trained doctors are on call to help in these situations.
Once again these are just my opinions.
You also run into the issue that by becoming too absorbed into the issue, you're subjecting yourself to more pain and suffering.
If you don't want to propagate harassment do the following:
Make the news coverage as boring as possible, sticking to the facts and localizing the occurrence.
Don't get emotional and tell others how much this is affecting people, or how big of an issue this is.
Don't put the harasser on some sort of twisted pedestal.
As an individual take away the power of the harasser, follow procedure and contact local law enforcement and do not show alterations in your life from the harasser's attacks (Although you should always follow the advice of local law enforcement).
Are these the right things to do? I can't tell you. Given our understanding on harassment behavior these steps should result in fewer instances. It certainly doesn't give victims much cathartic release by telling the internet just how badly harassment has affected their lives, it's actually quite cold and calculating, but honestly IMO these actions would be one of the few ways to stop harassment.
On the side of us as bystanders, our only actions would be:
Do not aggrandize the harassment, when posts open up about how bad harassment is simply ignore and do not post in them.
If someone you personally know is suffering from harassment take the steps to make sure they are safe, contact local law enforcement if needed.
If it is someone you do not know personally then do not do anything, if you have pertinent information pass it along to local law enforcement. This does not mean to ostracize the harassed, but if you have training in consoling then it's best to keep it short and avoid talking directly about the issue.
If you fear the individual might self-harm then contact local law enforcement, trained doctors are on call to help in these situations.
Once again these are just my opinions.
Many of your recent posts involve posting articles and complaining about strawman versions of the contents. Like when you used that Leigh chick's admittedly terrible rant piece as an example of OMG PEOPLE THINK GAMERS ARE ALL STRAIGHT WHITE DUDES even though that's not remotely close to what she said.Thorn14 said:
How are these responses any different than the people you're ridiculing.
You must have me confused with someone else, I only posted that link once.Zachary Amaranth said:
There's also the #DescribeAGamerIn4Words hashtag that went around at the same time. Someone asked me for proof of someone stereotyping gamers and I posted that article by Leigh, which did exactly that. Am I missing something?
I don't think that works against, say, doxxing or hacking.Westaway said:
Also... Okay, someone sends you an insulting message. Great, you block them. You still got the insulting message. Maybe you can ignore it, but not everyone can.
And now, let's take things up a level. Multiple people are harassing you. First it's, say, a dozen messages from a dozen or so people. You block each of them. But the messages keep coming, from new accounts, more people. What do you do? Lock down your profile? Block everything except for stuff you trust? Great, but things still got to the point where locking down your profile was the appropriate point. That can't feel good.
And now they've found your email address. Now you've got to clean out your email inbox, and add a filter that sends the harassment straight into the bin. Your filter probably won't be perfect though, so important messages may get binned as well, and some of the harassment may still get through.
And then someone posts your home address online. Complete with death threat. And you only hear about this from a friend, because you've just walked away from the internet.
There are people that have gone through all that. And they shouldn't have to. And blocking didn't help them.
Blocking is hardly a silver bullet.
Sweet. Remind me how the block function will undox me, again?Ramzal said:
I mean, it must, or this would be a specious solution. But since it's = win, it must undox you and such.
Yes, on an individual level. But we are only having this discussion because people spoke up about the problem. The severity of the issue has been mostly off the radar, only recently it seems that people are thinking that something should be done.Lono Shrugged said:
Now, sure, I can't blame someone for keeping quiet about it, it's their choice. But there is a lot to be said for speaking out against it, and standing in solidarity with other victims.
And this is why I have no twitter, tumblr or facebook.1Life0Continues said:
Seriously, I have plenty trouble getting a job on professional grounds alone, no need to give them more reasons to reject me through other means.
SacremPyrobolum said:
An idea that I've been toying with in my mind - An email network that requires you to supply personally identifiable information in order to sign up. (Yeah, we'd need a trustworthy organisation running this, and that's a problem by itself.) The catch would be that you can only receive emails from other people on the same non-anonymous network. A sort of voluntary lack of anonymity.Daverson said:
That way, if something did get out of hand, anonymity wouldn't be protection for the person who said or did whatever...
... But even having just written that idea up, I don't like it. And I can't see the internet as a whole adopting something like that.
You never know...Daverson said:
You are supposed to use your real name on FB...but they don't enforce that too well.Combustion Kevin said:
In the US, there was a thing a while back about potential employers demanding FB accounts and passwords of people they were interviewing. With unemployment such a concern, people couldn't really refuse.
Too bad you can sue your boss for such demands in the EU, since they have no right to your personal information, and demanding it in that way equals coercion, which is very illegal.thaluikhain said:
also, firing people over their ideological beliefs is also illegal, since that is Political Discrimination, which is covered by our "ground law" (closest thing we have to US amendments), somebody should break that to the whole GG discussion front. ^^
Theft of personal information can be a form of harassment. The two aren't mutually exclusive.CrackBabyBurnout said:
And many people don't choose to be a celebrity, so you can hardly blame them for not being prepared. Especially when decent knowledge of the risks of the internet... isn't really something the public at large is good at.