An Open Letter to the Admins and Owners of DU [View all]

[BrotherIvan]

This discussion thread was locked by EarlG (a host of the General Discussion forum).

To the Admins & Members of Democratic Underground:

It has been brought to my attention that some serious problems have arisen on DU and I urge you as a community to put a stop to it immediately.

As you may know, Catherina said goodbye to DU. Whether you agree with her views or not is immaterial to this discussion. What you may not know is that she has been the focus of personal stalking through social media by members of DU. On Saturday she received the following Twitter messages:



Here is a link to the actual account, though I have no doubt it will be removed once the owner sees this post. https://twitter.com/FFewafew

This account was created solely to harass her and while it could be argued that it’s just some internet troll, any honest person will immediately see this is someone with a personal grudge. Someone who knows her twitter ID. Someone who read her post on DU and the next day decided to send her these threats.

To the person who wrote these things:

Take a step back and think about what you’ve done. This kind of despicable language over message board discussions is so far from sane behavior, it should concern you as much as anyone. How could you get so wrapped up in team battles that you would write something like this to another human being? There is NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING that could ever be said on DU to warrant this kind of attack. NOTHING. EVER.


To the Admins:

Apparently doxxing has become a problem on DU with groups targeting individuals and searching for personal emails or Facebook accounts, even sending letters through the mail. This is a dangerous practice with only one motive: to inflict punishment upon another member in real life. Some posters have tried to make you aware of the situation and have requested you step in, but your inaction so far has allowed things to escalate to the point that members are now receiving the above messages.

You must put a stop to it right now. You must make it very clear that any indication of this type of behavior—on this site or any other—is grounds for immediate and permanent banning. Other sites have faced doxxing and threats before and this was the only course of action that put a stop to it. Reddit has been working on it; with 20x more members, if they can, you can. If not, DU deserves a reputation of “enter at your own risk” because if someone disagrees with you, you may have your personal information splashed all over the internet or you may be threatened.


To the members of DU:

I can only hope that you will do all you can to make sure that this type of behavior is not allowed. NEVER. Members should fully reject personal threats and bullying of any kind, no matter which candidate the person supports. Doxxing and bullying can have very serious implications for the victim in real life, so it is up to you to protect your fellow members. Things may get heated, but to turn a blind eye to any kind of stalking or harassment is cowardice. And if the administration does not make an effort to stop it, I urge you to find somewhere safe. If a website cannot maintain the basic rules of civil behavior and safe posting, then it is prudent to seek somewhere else.

Yes, this is meta and I have no doubt it will be alerted. But I do urge you to read and discuss it and hopefully to come up with ideas in order to ensure that members are safe.

Thank you,
Ivan