To be uncomfortable with the Mail Online doxing people

[NotAKnowitall]

I know I'm already being unreasonable by reading the Daily Fail, I'm sorry. I don't usually and I swear when I do it's more of a "ffs, what are the tories pushing this time". I certainly don't read it for facts.

Anyway. I've looked at the Mail Online website a few times this month and have noticed an ongoing trend of doxing people. The one I've noticed today is the women who shouted at the presenter on the news yesterday ("do you love fossil fuel more than your kids").

For those who don't know what doxing is, I've copied and pasted these definitions:

Search for and publish private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the internet, typically with malicious intent

And

Doxing (or doxxing) is the act of releasing personal information about an individual with the aim of outing their true identity, embarrassing them publicly, or taking personal or political revenge. The meaning of doxing can be traced to the term “dropping docs,” with doxing attacks seeking to expose the personal information or identity of targeted individuals.

So now we all know what doxing is.

The Mail Online have just released an article about the young woman which I feel has crossed the line (not the first time) and I just feel sick about it to be honest. They've obviously done it maliciously because of her views (which are obviously different than those of a tory paper) and to send their hate army her way. Right now, they've listed her parent's names, brother's names, where she grew up in south wales, middle name of one of her brothers, what her brother does for a living, how much the family home is worth, old university, what her job is, her past employment, her full name. I know a google search will probably show some of this information anyway but this is a full on witch hunt orchestrated by the Mail Online as punishment for her political views.

I've noticed with these tory rags, it's a constant stream of doxing individuals whose political beliefs don't align with theirs while blatantly ignoring the people who are actually doing something wrong. Where's the article about the tory donor (with links to Kwasi) who shorted the pound? The story about ERG subs paid for by the tax payer? Story about any of the corruption scandals involving any of the tory donors? There may be one article released here and there regarding those but it's never written with so many personal details or to incite this much hatred. Aibu to be this fed up of it or has it just become normalised now.

Also, and I say this as someone who doesn't agree with the way Just Stop Oil are protesting, but their message isn't even about flying on planes so I'm failing to see how she's being hypocritical ? They want the government to make a statement that it will immediately stop future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK. Nothing about flying or travelling.

Anyway, back to my actual point. This isn't the only person the Mail Online has dragged through the mud just for having different political beliefs and that's what my post is about. The constant stream of witch hunts against people who don't seem to have done anything wrong other than hold a different opinion. They just seem to be distracting and telling people who to hate while the actual bad people get away with much, much worse.

This is the "globe trotting farmer's daughter" who's travelled thousands of miles on holidays around the world yes?

"Indigo Rumbelow, 28, appears to have travelled the 9,000-mile round trip to Nepal twice since 2015
The Just Stop Oil activist apparently enjoyed breaks in Sweden, Lithuania, Croatia and other spots abroad"

I'm ok with them pointing out the utter hypocrisy here.

Are you the subject of the ‘doxing’? You seem very upset and defensive about someone who doesn’t seem to be very highly thought of on this thread, and you really can’t accuse Mumsnet of being right wing.

juststopoil.org

Rethinking how we travel is on page 1 of their own website? So pointing out hypocrisy of preaching that but being an extensive long haul air traveller is relevant. But agree shouldn’t drag in her family.

Well if she is one of the morons that glued themselves to the M25 to piss off the tax paying public she deserves everything she gets.
Oh and BTW I read the daily mail and apologise to nobody.
Free speech is still just about legal dontcha know?

I drove down the m25 today from the west London to west Essex stretch. There was a police car stationed on every bridge crossing the motorway. What spectacular waste of a resource which is thin on the ground already.

These fairweather principled hypocrites deserve to be exposed. Most of them just seem to be attention seeking.

YANBU, and I've noticed this tends to be disproportionately aimed at women, who then end up having vile abuse and threats thrown at them from pathetic human beings with nothing better to do.

It’s no better than old fashioned door stepping if people which all newspaper journalists have done for decades.

I have mixed feelings on this, while I find it uncomfortable to watch people being exposed online it's usually because they have open social media profiles which are public. I don't have any social media accounts for various reasons and that's one of them.

No. I just happened to use her as the most recent example I've seen of doxing by the Mail Online.

I do feel a bit defensive because I can see her message isn't "don't travel on planes" but people seem to think it is and are wrongly calling her a hypocrite. Separate issue and it's not the issue I started this post about.

I just happened to use a Just Stop Oil supporter as an example. What about all the other people that get unfairly dragged by the Mail Online who aren't affiliated with Just Stop Oil?

But if they "Just Stop Oil", how do you think the planes will fly? This is why the two issues are, in fact, interlinked. So she's bringing people to a halt for polluting by using fossil fuels, while she herself has no compunction with polluting by using fossil fuels.

I don't think most people believe the government prospect and drill for oil just to look at the pretty black liquid.

Can you really not see the connection at all?

And as far as doxxing goes, local rags used to publish people's street addresses, full name and age alongside any articles. It's only recently, with the age of lazier journalism, where we have become accustomed to not seeing this information in nearly every article. I think it's much better than it used to be and this sort of thing transcends political boundaries.

Who though? As I said earlier, a Tory rag will not go after tories, in the main they will print positive stories for them, and go for a negative slant for their rivals. The opposite is true for the Mirror, etc. They are just as capable of printing polarising stories, it’s just more acceptable if that’s also the way you lean politically.

Reporters have always gone digging around in people’s backgrounds; it’s just infinitely easier for them now that people put so much of themselves online. Back in the day, they used to all get on trains and turn up on people’s doorsteps (and journos of all political leanings did this). Nowadays it’s a thirty second google and Twitter check.

So they printed about a climate activist, sorry hypocrite, and we’re supposed to be criticize them?

Cross post, absolutely agree

While my original post had nothing to do with Just Stop oil (I only used a woman as an example who just so happened to be affiliated with just stop oil), I will comment on this. "Rethinking how we travel" does not equate to "don't ever fly on a plane". It could mean cycle/walk more, car share more, cut down on flying if you go on like 10+ holidays a year, use public transport more etc. It doesn't say exactly what it means so it's wrong of you to assume.

Now, back to my original point - the doxing and harassment of people who haven't actually done anything wrong other than hold different political beliefs.

Have you ever tried putting the name Indigo Rumbelow into a search engine? Try it. So much of her life is online. Had she been called something like Elizabeth Smith it would have been much trickier. If you don't put privacy controls on your social media then it's even easier.

In general I don't agree with it. But they did it to the man who held up the ambulance and he totally deserves whatever is coming his way. It turns out that insulate Britain had a point and many politicians are saying the exact same as they did.

What do you think cutting energy demand and rethinking how we travel means? That’s their own website.
Planes/trains/buses all use fossil fuel. If we don’t travel as much for work or pleasure that reduces fuel consumption. It’s like Celebrities campaigning about climate change and flying by private jet - they get called out on it. It comes across as do as I say not do as I do.

^ This.

All the paper has done is to gather all the information they can from easily available sources. Something which anybody could do if they were that way inclined.

I agree. It's as if noone is allowed to change their minds about anything, or they'll be accused of hypocrisy.

Life is more complicated than that FFS, and people should be allowed to change and mature as they become more informed about the world around them.

People should also debate the topic rather than pointing fingers at individuals, but they resort to pointing fingers when they know their argument is crap.

Newspapers should be held to higher standards than random members of the public though.

Again, not the point of my post at all but I'll go with it because this whole post has been derailed over my use of a person affiliated with Just Stop Oil anyway.

I agree their name is very misleading and they should be called Just Stop New Oil to prevent this problem. They want the government to stop granting new licences to fossil fuel companies to look for and drill for more oil. Britain is in a legally binding commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and they can't do that if they keep granting licences.

Can we get back to my actual point now?

So basically, you agree with her? And everyone else is just being mean?