Social media used to expose white nationalists at rally

NEW YORK — One of the social media posts resembled a wanted poster or a missing-persons flyer: Photographs of men were arranged in rows, seeking their names and employers.

But the Facebook post wasn’t circulated by law enforcement in the search for a suspect or by relatives looking for a missing loved one. It was an example of ordinary people trying to harness the power of social media to identify and shame the white nationalists who attended last weekend’s violent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A Twitter account dedicated to calling out racism identified people who attended the rally using photos culled from the news and social media and listed their places of employment and other information. The account with the handle YesYoureRacist was created by Logan Smith of Raleigh, North Carolina, who said his followers grew from around 64,000 on Saturday to more than 300,000 Monday afternoon.

“I’m a white Jewish man. So I strongly believe that white people in particular have a responsibility to stand up against bigotry because bigotry thrives on silence,” he told The Associated Press. “It requires good people standing by and doing nothing.”

A website created Sunday dedicated itself to collecting the names, social media profiles, colleges and employers of people photographed at the rally. At least one person has lost his job as a result.

Together, the efforts showed that angry online groups can be used to renounce racism as well as promote it.

“The goal with online shaming is very short term and driven by people’s desire to feel as if they are fighting back and having an impact,” said Brian Reich, who’s written several books on digital communications, behavior and political influence. “They are afraid, appalled and they want to stop it.”

But is it helpful? Reich said those behind these efforts “are arguably fanning the flames,” giving attention to a group — white supremacists — that feeds on attention.

THE END OF ANONYMITY?

Nicholas Brody, professor of communications at the University of Puget Sound, said the events show that in the age of social media, “nothing is really anonymous anymore.”

People attending a white supremacist rally decades ago may have had the comfort of knowing that their schools, employers and disapproving family members probably wouldn’t find out about their activity.

These days, not only can information be quickly and widely shared, but a lot of data is available about people on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Image searches and facialrecognition technology, meanwhile, can make it relatively easy to identify people online. Smith said he called out the people pictured in photos from the rally through a combination of tips from former classmates and others and online sleuthing.

But the method isn’t foolproof. In 2013, users of Twitter and the website Reddit wrongly accused a man of being a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing. Reddit later apologized.