Dr. Damien P. Williams, Magus

The Atlanta city council and mayor just doxxed and targeted over 100,000 people who signed a petition to put the stop cop city referendum on the ballot.

100k people who were literally just like "the citizens of Atlanta should have a say in this" now exposed via the state to harassment & violence.
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/names-more-than-100k-who-signed-petition-against-atlanta-public-safety-training-center-now-public/HF4VD4NTC5FFLAC3IXAB3F6NUU/?outputType=amp

Names of more than 100K who signed petition against Atlanta public safety training center now public

There are more than 25,000 pages of signatures that list names and addresses.

WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta
Oct 1, 2023 at 7:02pmWeb
Show threadDr. Damien P. Williams, MagusOct 2, 2023

If your takeaway from this is to argue a point that "technically, home addresses are public data so this is perfectly legal," then let me say it plain:

Home addresses. Should not. Be considered. Public.

Not ever, not once, never before, but especially not in a time of increasingly normalized political violence should a private citizen's home address where they and their families sleep and eat be considered or treated as "public data."

People petition "against" cops (not really what the petition was, but that's how the ATL City Govt is painting it), and then the city makes a huge show of releasing petitioners' names, numbers, and addresses out into the world.

If you're a person with knowledge and experience of this world as it currently is and has for some time been, and you don't see that for the threat it is, i really don't know what to say to you.

Show threadDr. Damien P. Williams, MagusOct 3, 2023
Muting this thread now because some of you legit weary me.
Show threadch0ccyra1n is leaving fedi soonOct 2, 2023
@Wolven
This is why I refuse to sign petitions, ever.
Show threadSame guy as last timeOct 2, 2023
@ch0ccyra1n @Wolven At some point in time, people have to stand up for their beliefs. (Not saying this data release is right).
Show threadch0ccyra1n is leaving fedi soonOct 2, 2023
@PSJ_MG
Nah, not when it's a serious threat to safety, especially for marginalized people.
Show threadNetuxOct 2, 2023
@Wolven very cool thing work that is the claim that cops and government officials addresses would be public, even if they are "supposed" to be private.
Show threadFoolishOwlOct 2, 2023
@Wolven I've seen governments singling out individuals or small groups for intimidation often enough, but trying to intimidate over a hundred thousand people at once is beyond what I've seen before. I'm hoping it's overconfidence. But in any case, it's a deliberate statement that the city government is directly opposed to democracy.
Show threadnovatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️Oct 2, 2023
@Wolven Yes, and the thing is that it's not really the home addresses being published by themselves that is the reason this is bad — it's the fact that the city was publicly making known who specifically had voted a certain way on that petition *and* where they lived, when otherwise votes should be (and are) completely private affairs, and so even if those people's addresses had been public before, the way they had voted on the petition wouldn't have been known and associated with their addresses, and now it is. That's the key, that's what makes this so dangerous: it ties specific people and their homes *to* a contentious political thing
Show threadAndrea, Automancer, Sapphimancer ⚧️♾️Oct 2, 2023

@Wolven Especially given when the same tactic is used of noting publicly available addresses of powerful public officials (for nuance sake, we're considered private citizens, not equivalent as they're making it out to be). For the purposes of organizing protests on public streets and sidewalks (where it is legal) outside their homes?

They liken us to terrorists. Funny how one directional their logic always is.

Show threadShadSterlingOct 3, 2023
@Wolven one of the many ways we discourage voting is that voter registration names and addresses are public. If you have a stalker it’s not safe to vote.
Show threadBill, organizer of stuffOct 3, 2023
@Wolven I think a lot of it is also context. An address being public, especially if optionally, as in phone listings, is relatively innocuous. Not perfect, and not immune to abuse, but generally manageable. There is a stark contrast between "Bob Smith lives at 123 Main St" and "Here are the homes of people whom we, a paramilitary force in charge of you, believe to be a threat." Just like "I spit on the sidewalk occasionally" is a long ways from "I am unemployable because of a gene variant"
Show threadBill, organizer of stuffOct 3, 2023
@Wolven This is also why I believe that the data privacy laws we have today are too focused on access and portability, and leave the implications of the use of that data largely up to the markets - a recipe inescapably riddled with possibilities for abuse. Data privacy regulation should, in my opinion, also restrict the use of any identifying or personal data from being used in a way that, if understood by the subject, would cause even the perception of harm.
Show threadpeter_timusk (he/him/il/lui)Oct 3, 2023
@Wolven there were Bell Canada white pages where this info was public in the past.
Show threadMaximilian Overdraft, Esq.Oct 3, 2023

@Wolven

It's a threat for sure. And if they weaponize this information, they shouldn't complain if the public weaponizes it *right back.*

Governments have us all doxxed. But we know where they live too. Power is a two way street.

Show threadconfusion matrix   Oct 1, 2023
@Wolven This is awful.
Show threadrexiOct 1, 2023

@Wolven
if I were a young hacker in Atlanta, the thought of doxxing back would certainly come to mind.

when one side blows through a an ethical barrier, the other will question the balance.

Show threadno more strolls for empressesOct 1, 2023
@rexi
https://web.archive.org/web/20230930222059/https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2023/09/30/they-doxxed-us-we-dox-them/
@Wolven
They Doxxed Us, We Dox Them – Scenes from the Atlanta Forest

Show threadJaymie MooreOct 1, 2023

@Wolven Government by the people…but not like that!

I feel sorry for the mayor come Election Day. I hope they kept their resume updated.

Show threadNonya Bidniss 🥥🌴Oct 1, 2023
@Wolven This is exactly why I don't do petitions, I don't know what's going to happen to my information or how my position will come back to harm me in a future sociopolitical panopticon. But this is the first time I've heard of it actually happening.
Show threadBen CurthoysOct 2, 2023

@Wolven I always thought the whole point of petitions was that they were public and verifiable?

That they didn't just say "we have 100,000 anonymous people who think X" which is basically just an opinion poll, but the much stronger "we have 100,000 named identifiable people who are prepared to publicly say X".

Show threadDr. Damien P. Williams, MagusOct 2, 2023
@bencurthoys Home addresses should not ever have been and definitely should not currently be considered "public" information.
Show threadJulesceltOct 2, 2023

@bencurthoys @Wolven The physical address is 'public'...however, who resides there should not be. Even if in this day and age of search engines one could possibly find out.

This was an attempt to 'out' those that supported the petition and have bullies do the intimating for politicians. We're currently being bullied to death.

Show threadMontessori Space Programme 🛸Oct 2, 2023
@Wolven What a massive dick move. I have no words
Show threadKevin Teljeur ❄️Oct 3, 2023
@Wolven Oh shit!