In the summer of 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic and mass Black Lives Matter protests across the world following the horrific death of George Floyd, I posted a tweet on my personal Twitter account criticising Fox News coverage of the protests. Within the hour it gained quite a lot of attention, with thousands of likes and retweets, most were from likeminded people offering support and agreement. However, for every few hundred positive comments there were a few negative ones..
I was targeted by some far right anons from the US, they began criticising my appearance and intelligence, nothing massively insulting or worrisome at the time. As the day went on, more and more likes continued to flood in, anonymous accounts frequently replied to the tweet attacking the way I look and calling me an outspoken stupid Brit.. I decided to turn all notifications off and put my account on private.
A few days later I received a message request on Facebook from a woman informing me that she had found a profile of me on a website called 'FemFax'. I was initially unbothered as I assumed she was a fake account or a virus that was being sent around. I replied asking for her to explain and for more information.
It turned out she had messaged a long list of women who had been posted on this website, essentially with the purpose of shaming them for interracial dating/marriage - or in my case supporting other races with their bid for equal treatment. It specifically targets these women with the purpose of 'warning' other men of dating them because they have been with men of other races.
I clicked on the link she had sent me and low and behold there it was. A 'profile' of me with my Twitter profile photo, links to my account, screenshots of my tweets, videos I'd posted of my friends. Topped off with a delightful 'the rundown on her..' section calling me a "politically active thot from across the pond" as well as a "race traitor" and making various comments about my appearance and claiming to have slept with me. I was mortified. I couldn't believe that someone had gone through the trouble of creating this and saying these awful things about me.
After further research, I found hundreds of other profiles like mine using racial slurs such as "mud shark" and "coal burner" to describe white women who sleep with black men. Many were far worse and had much more information about these women. Each post had been submitted 'by Anonymous.' No accountability. No chance of identifying them.
So, after have a bit of a cry and a panic, the journalist in me took over and I knew I needed more information. I googled and found that what had happened is known as "doxxing" which refers to publishing someone's personal information online with malicious intent - such as to incite harassment or abuse. I found that there was a similar site known as CoalFax which had been taken down and recreated various times, this seems to be a much more popular and dangerous site with more personal details posted and various violent threats towards the women.
I signed a petition to have the new CoalFax and FemFax removed but it didn't feel like enough and it definitely didn't make me feel any safer.
I contacted the police via their non emergency website and heard back the next day. They, as I suspected, were unable to assist in any way because the website is US based (although forums suggested it was actually on a Russian server) and under the US First Amendment Right to Free Speech, I and anyone else is powerless.
Flash forward to September 2020 and I was back at uni beginning to think of ideas for my big final year project and my google alert that I set for "doxxing" informed me of a mention on a news site. This got me thinking about what happened to me and about the fact that it actually happens all the time in various forms. People often don't realise they are being doxxed or have doxxed someone because it isn't a well known practice, unless it's your hobby which it seems to be for some people.
From there it started to fit together, after hours of research and finding sources I started asking around for interviews and desperately trying to find victims of doxxing. After pitching the idea to my supervisor and getting great feedback I was ready to start creating my project in my chosen specialty of radio (something I've always loved since first year).
So, I chose to do my documentary about doxxing because I was doxxed and I want to find a way to spread awareness about the dangers of it and help people if it happens to them but mainly how to avoid it in the first place.
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