The threat of Coronavirus means many of us must continue to support Black Lives Matter online.
Unfortunately, fighting social justice issues online isnt always a risk-free protest in itself.
Are you looking for a way to stay safe as you continue to fight for Black rights online?
Well, dont worry.
People across the internet must take action by persisting with the crucial message of BLM.
Targeting someone because of their opinion is simply not acceptable.
Harassers might comment on your social media posts with hateful language to disparage what you say.
Consider keeping at least two separate public and private accounts on any social media.
A friend, colleague, or family member may suddenly expose themselves as hostile and bullying.
Youll get called a snowflake or ridiculed for cancel culture.
Dont trust strangers who approach you online
This one seems obvious, but its vital.
However trustworthy they may seem, they could have very sinister intentions.
From here, they could launch cyberattacks or other forms of abuse.
That way, you’ve got the option to prevent the threat of strangers with ulterior motives.
A VPN is a program that encrypts your data and masks your IP address.
Antivirus is another critical piece of software youll need in your tool kit for online activism.
Antivirus prevents, detects, and removes malicious software from infecting your box.
This filters traffic to your site and blocks certain users that seem unsecure or suspicious.
Firewalls essentially prevent anyone from gaining unauthorized access to private information on your machine.
To avoid such risks, create a separate email account that you use exclusively for these activities.
Leave it completely blank, with no personal information listed.
Dont use the email address to join any other platforms not related to supporting BLM or other causes.
You wont be vulnerable to threats, online abuse, and cyberattacks if a hacker accesses the email list.
You’re also protected in case whatever youre signing is a hoax, too.
Use encrypted messaging tools and email.
Encrypted messaging and email tools keep your messages safe and secure.
They basically stop any outside sources from monitoring your online conversations.
Why is this important?
Platforms like Signal, Telegram, and Viber are great apps that keep your messages safe and secure.
They could even steal information about a protest or demonstration from your communications, disrupting the event later on.
Once again, a VPN is ideal here.
Even on a public WiFi connection, it will encrypt your data and keep you hidden.
In fact, no one else on the same online grid will even know youve connected.
Over 15 million connections to the website were attempted in one day, conducted by more than 12,000 bots.
A Geofeedia representative said one of its features covered Ferguson/Mike Brown nationally with great success.
Stories like this show the importance of encryption tools.
Geofeedias data gave police a direct source of information to crack down on BLM activity.
Ghost Squad, which is part of Anonymous, was to blame for several attacks.
In the video, they accuse BLM of anti-white racism, seemingly a motivation for the attack.
The IRA is a political hacking organization that engages in massive online influence campaigns.
The group acts in Russian businesses and politicians interests and is linked to Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Eventually, Dont Shoot Us admitted the campaign was a total troll job.
Around 29 known fake Twitter accounts were found dispersing content both for and against Black rights movements.
The tweets contained BLM-related keywords and hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter, #BlueLivesMatter, and #AllLivesMatter.
The page had grown to become the largest BLM page on the site, with around 700,000 followers.
It generated approximately $100,000 worth of financial support for the official BLM activist group.
Some of the donated money allegedly ended up in various unidentified Australian bank accounts.
MacKay had created other Black rights-related sites, including blackpowerfist.com.
Black rights groups experienced up to 20,000 malicious requests per second on a single site.
These attacks are awful, and they are not only motivated by racism.
They are also the product of opportunistic criminals, who look to target workforces while theyre otherwise distracted.
Hackers preyed on the issue of racial injustice that was on everyone’s mind in June 2020.
The email asked victims to Leave a review confidentially about Black Lives Matter and to Claim in attached file.
Trojan malware is often used to steal sensitive information.
TrickBot is traditionally a banking Trojan, which steals banking credentials or money from the victim.
Now, TrickBot can collect data from a users emails, internet tool, or installed apps.
June 2020 Cyberbullying and Racist Online Response
Another appalling response to the George Floyd/BLM protests occurred online.
In posts seen by thousands of people, alt-right 4chan users told others to infiltrate these BLM groups.
In this case, the hate group vehemently opposed Black Lives Matter.
One comment that garnered particular scrutiny came from British businessman Aaron Banks.
Interestingly, Banks is also a man with links to the fossil fuel industry.
In other words, if Greta Thunberg succeeds, men like Banks stand to lose a lot of money.
Black and Asian minority groups saw the largest year-on-year increase in severe online harassment and abuse.
50% of these people believe they were targeted because of their ethnicity.
As activism grows online, more harassers come out of the woodwork.
Thats why we must do what we can to reduce the impact of online harassers.
Gebru Case Highlights Extent of Abuse Campaigns
Timmit Gebru was employed at Google as a respected AI ethics researcher.
The event sparked a swathe of bizarre online abuse targeted at Gebru.
Whistleblower Michael Lissack and University professor Pedro Domingos spearheaded a relentless campaign of slander and defamation against Timmit Gebru.
One profile even told her to go back to Africa.
An act for which he received no lawful punishment or sanction.
Laws on Online Harassment Arent Adequate
2020s Anti-Defamation League survey highlighted the inadequacy of how online abuse is policed.
The study comes at a time where professional athletes and sports organizations are boycotting social media across the world.
There HAS to be some accountability.
Similar to the kind of abuse faced by Greta Thunberg.
In February 2021, one story broke about an incident in Vietnam.
Ocean Lotus targeted group members with phishing emails.
Online Harassment to Real-Life Extremism
Online harassment can also gather momentum to a devastating extent.
The Gamergate controversy only serves to highlight this potentiality.
In 2014, a movement online began to gain momentum that accused gaming journalists of being unethical.
Many of these women were not even gaming journalists, but still harassment persisted under the hashtag of amergate.
The issue is still prevalent today.
Years later, a similar organized online mob of extremists resulted in essentially an act of terrorism.
The storming of the capitol would not have been possible without conversations online.
Social media sites, regulators, and cybersecurity companies need to take note.
A measly 3% of top cybersecurity software companies use Twitter to educate users on racial injustices.
The plan seemed to work for this particular school by drawing attention to issues of racism and discrimination.
Malicious individuals carry out their online attacks for different reasons.
Thats why following the steps outlined in this article is so important.
Dont let someone silence your voice, and your right to support Black Lives Matter online.
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