A BLOG AIMED at getting social media users who post racist comments fired has come under fire for its controversial methods of internet vigilantism.
Racists Getting Fired was set up in the wake of a mass of racist comments made about the recent unrest in Ferguson. The blog accepts submissions of personal information about people posting racist or bigoted remarks on the likes of Twitter and Instagram, and encourages vigilantes to bring it to the attention of their places of employment–usually also by social media.
A typical post includes screenshots of the comments, followed by links to the person’s various social media accounts and the address and phone number of their place of employment. Readers then directly contact the company or message them online.
The tumblr blog has become a bit of a phenomenon, with almost 40,000 followers despite only being a week old.
What’s more–is that it’s actually working. Users have been more than willing to contact workplaces, with the blog even creating a script detailing what to say when reporting the comments.
Responses are posted under victories, which shows detailed responses from companies as well as screenshots of hasty apologies from the ‘targets’.
Take VA TRUCK DRIVER, for example. He was found to be posting statuses like this one:
He was identified through a tweet from 2013 in which he mentioned his full name, which led to his Facebook… which in turn listed his place of employment.
Soon after he was targeted, he posted this status:
While some may see these as ‘victories’, the blog has come under a lot of criticism for its methods. A lone female runs the blog, and she claims to be facing legal threats from those targeted, as well as death threats from the likes of 4chan and Reddit.
She covers her tracks by only making information public that can be easily accessed through public records. She also claims to not doxx anyone herself, but only accepts public submissions that have been checked out.
However, as reported by Gawker, the blog has already been used by a man to frame his ex girlfriend by submitting false statuses along with her personal information.
Luckily, her place of employment AMC Theatres were more thorough in their investigation once the flood of reports arrived in their inbox.
The main criticisms call into question if it’s justice or targeting those who don’t have a filter, as–unsurprisingly–once revealed, most users apologise or delete their accounts.
