Have you heard of KeyWiki? A far-right new-zealander many years ago started a wiki to compile data on anyone to the left of joseph McCarthy. Not only communists, but even mildly social democratic orgs. It has thousands of entries, I know people that have been listed on there.
It has since grown into the largest doxxing website of activists in history, listing every personal detail they can find, from connected orgs, locations, where they went to school, even who they’re in a relationship with. Its impossible to know how many people have been targeted or attacked as a result of KeyWiki, but the site has been deemed legally protected by the NZ government.
Its example tells us that if we give the far-right any technology, even something as innocent as a wiki, they’ll use it for nefarious purposes. Social media is likely even worse, since they can actively use these platforms to organize attacks, hate crimes, and target groups they hate. An anti-islam group could easily use a self-hosted fediverse service to organize an attack on a mosque for example.
I agree obvi that providing an alternative to corporate-controlled services is good in the long run ( since corporate power has more of an interest than anyone at spreading racism ), but its also extremely dangerous to give the far-right any platform to organize in the interim.
I havent heard of that, and I dont think its acceptable for anyone to do something like this. But I think the responsibility here is clearly with the New Zealand government. If they protect the site, then its necessary to put pressure on them. The only other way would be for all open source devs to make their software proprietary, but that would have a lot more negative effects than positive ones.
Have you heard of KeyWiki? A far-right new-zealander many years ago started a wiki to compile data on anyone to the left of joseph McCarthy. Not only communists, but even mildly social democratic orgs. It has thousands of entries, I know people that have been listed on there.
It has since grown into the largest doxxing website of activists in history, listing every personal detail they can find, from connected orgs, locations, where they went to school, even who they’re in a relationship with. Its impossible to know how many people have been targeted or attacked as a result of KeyWiki, but the site has been deemed legally protected by the NZ government.
Its example tells us that if we give the far-right any technology, even something as innocent as a wiki, they’ll use it for nefarious purposes. Social media is likely even worse, since they can actively use these platforms to organize attacks, hate crimes, and target groups they hate. An anti-islam group could easily use a self-hosted fediverse service to organize an attack on a mosque for example.
I agree obvi that providing an alternative to corporate-controlled services is good in the long run ( since corporate power has more of an interest than anyone at spreading racism ), but its also extremely dangerous to give the far-right any platform to organize in the interim.
I havent heard of that, and I dont think its acceptable for anyone to do something like this. But I think the responsibility here is clearly with the New Zealand government. If they protect the site, then its necessary to put pressure on them. The only other way would be for all open source devs to make their software proprietary, but that would have a lot more negative effects than positive ones.
imagine putting any effort into making something like that. it’s just sad.