7 Tips to Keep You Safe From Online Doxing

"Over the past 10 days, dozens of faculty and staff members have had their personal contact information, photos and sometimes addresses broadcast online by anonymous right-wing social media accounts seeking to punish them for comments they allegedly made about the death of conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk. This public campaign of online harassment and intimidation, known as doxing, is "off the charts" right now, said Heather Steffen, an adjunct professor of humanities at Georgetown University."

"Steffen is also the director of Faculty First Responders, a group created by the American Association of University Professors in 2020 to track and help faculty members targeted by right-wing media. Doxing has been on the rise since protests over the Israel-Hamas war fractured campuses in 2023, but educators are increasingly coming under attack in "ideologically motivated efforts" to silence dissent, according to an August report from the National Association of Attorneys General."

"While the attacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated, higher ed employees can take steps to minimize the risk of doxing, as well as the damage incurred if it does happen. 1. Keep your personal and work accounts separate. Remove employers' names from all of your personal social media accounts-if it's in your bio, take it out, Steffen advised. "You can state in your bio on social media that your views do not represent your employer, and you don't need to name the employer in order to do that," she said."

Dozens of faculty and staff had personal contact information, photos and sometimes addresses broadcast online after alleged comments about Charlie Kirk. The campaign of online harassment and intimidation, labeled doxing, has surged and been described as "off the charts." A group called Faculty First Responders tracks and helps targeted faculty. Doxing rose following campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war in 2023 and is increasingly framed as ideologically motivated and coordinated. Higher education employees are advised to separate personal and work accounts, remove employer names from bios, avoid using work contact for personal business and consider services that remove personal data from the web.

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