4 ms·

Bottom line: doxing is doxing no matter who does it. It isn’t about “rights” but about the right way to live. Pseudonymous posting may have been that lady’s cry

• colinmhayes 5y ago
  Maybe the right way to live is to not spread hatred and laughably false conspiracies? Maybe the right way to live is to call out those that do. Peer pressure is an incredibly powerful force, and if she wrote that comment about muslims the educational environment at Temple is better now that she's gone. Even if she didn't, I believe that most journalism students would not want to be taught by someone who can not tell fact from fiction.
  • colpabar 5y ago
    > Temple’s own student news site backed Viola’s right to say what she thought: “We don’t believe she should be removed for her alleged comments, although we condemn them.” To be fair, I don't know how representative the student news site is of journalism students. But I also don't really think you can make a "right way to live" argument for someone who admitted to and apologized for wrongdoing.
    • colinmhayes 5y ago
      > But I also don't really think you can make a "right way to live" argument for someone who admitted to and apologized for wrongdoing. Of course I can. Just because he apologized doesn't mean he was wrong.
      • colpabar 5y ago
        If you really think it's ok for someone to abuse privileged access on a supposed "anonymous" commenting platform to dox someone because they didn't like their comments, then I don't think our discussion is going anywhere. edit: commenting platform of a _journalism_ organization! Journalists should know better than _anyone_ how important anonymous communication is. If you want to argue that he was just doing what he thought was right, fine. But I think that they should update their organization's website to include something along the lines of "we think journalism is important, unless we disagree with what you're saying."
        • minsc__and__boo 5y ago
          This case isn't a question of morality - Francesca Viola has openly admitted to spreading the false conspiracies and the other comments. She also appealed to her position of authority at the university in her own comments. She's claiming that Benton misattributed the Islamophobe comment "Scum. Deport them. They hate us. Get rid of them.” to her, despite it being from the same disqus account. If you want to drag morality into it to take the moral high ground, at what point does making bad faith arguments in civil court cross the line too?
          • colpabar 5y ago
            I wasn't arguing anything related to the lawsuit. The comment that started this thread stated that doxxing was wrong, and morality was dragged in in the comment I responded to, which said that doxxing people is ok if you feel it's morally justified ("the right way to live"). I personally think the university had every right to fire her. I also think that what Benton did was extremely unethical, especially because he works for a journalism organization.
        • colinmhayes 5y ago
          Sometimes two wrongs make a right. I really think people have gotten far to comfortable with anonymity on the internet. If you want to say something that could cause you to face significant social/political/economic backlash you should have to think twice about how to ensure no one will trace it back to you.
      • adolph 5y ago
        Are you saying the apology of two years ago was coerced or are you calling him a liar or something t?
  • adolph 5y ago
    It’s be nice to be a saint, wouldn’t it? Must be hard to ward off pride in one’s contnual righteousness. (And excellent spelling!) I’d agree that engagement with folks offering disagreeable ideas is the right thing to do when done in the moment with a spirit of empathy and learning. But doxing ain’t calling someone out. It’s more akin to gossiping behind someone’s back and acting as if a person at their worst was all there was. She got canned, he got sued, lawyers won.
• renewiltord 5y ago
  Is doxxing illegal, though? It kinda depends on the circumstances.
  • shadowgovt 5y ago
    It's rarely illegal in the US. There are exceptions, but as a rule of thumb, US law leans heavily in the direction of "more truth is better." That includes the truth of who someone who'd rather speak pseudonymously actually is. Exceptions tend to center around safety of the speaker and massive and obvious power imbalances. For example, in this case the claim on the table is one of the statements attributed to Viola was not made by her. She hasn't sued over the rest of the statements attributed to her and she hasn't sued over the university's right to terminate her.
    • renewiltord 5y ago
      Thanks. It feels reasonable to sue based on a false attribution of what she said. Saying she was this ID doesn't seem bad except for when it's not true that she was this ID.
      • threatofrain 5y ago
        She already admitted to being the account holder, she just says that some of the comments made under her account weren’t made by her. Specifically the comment about how some Muslims hate the country and should be deported.
  • adolph 5y ago
    The legality is superfluous. Most everyone breaks some laws some of the time. Nobody always does the right thing. Doxing that lady was a mistake and the dude apologized for it. Unfortunately the bell can’t be unrung and the story continues to the dreary part where nobody wins but the lawyers.