It's Mom Sense: Cyber Threats and Why I Remain Anonymous

[HuckleB]

http://www.itsmomsense.com/cyber-threats-and-why-i-remain-anonymous/

"Last February I started a petition in Oregon supporting a bill that would have eliminated the non-medical vaccine exemption. I’m pretty proud to say the petition gathered almost 2,000 signatures. Unfortunately the bill was dropped (look for mention of me in that story) because the senators were unprepared for the onslaught from the anti-vax community. While I’m disappointed in the result, it was a strong learning experience for me. The reporter who covered the bill for the Salem-based paper wanted to interview me on why I started the petition, but as you all know, I don’t disclose my last name on this blog and the paper has a policy against anonymous sources. This was the one time that I really wavered on maintaining my anonymity. I was extremely tempted to let her use my last name and give her a great quote on why I feel so strongly about this issue. But, in the end, I’m glad I didn’t.

...

When I decided to start this blog, my husband was initially against it. He’s a very practical, safe, and private person. He doesn’t do Facebook and even way before I started blogging he was always slightly uncomfortable when I would share stuff about our family on Facebook. So when I proposed that I start carving my controversial opinions out there in internet stone with our family’s name attached to it, he was very uneasy. It’s not just because I say things that a lot of people disagree with. I also used to work for Monsatan – the very “evil company” that the guy in the screen shot above wants to see bombed. My husband stipulated that if I, a former Monsanto employee living in a city full of liberal minded hippies, was going to start blogging about things that get people all riled up, I was going to do it without using my last name. I agreed.

And so did my parents. After I started the blog, a long-time family friend of ours (who I’ll call Mary) told my mom I should be extremely careful. Mary should know – at the time she and her husband (who I’ll call John) lived in Hawaii and John, who used to work with my dad at Monsanto, was kind of a head honcho at Monsanto Hawaii. I know this family well – I grew up with their kids, we used to have holiday dinners together, vacation together, the whole thing. I used to eat lunch with John and my dad in the Monsanto cafeteria on occasion when I worked there. Mary and John have been on the receiving end of more cyber threats and IN REAL LIFE threats than anyone I know.

...

While some of these stories are more extreme than others, these are not isolated events – the examples I’ve given here are not unique. This is the world we live in. Cyber bullying is not something that is limited to school-aged children, it happens all the time to adults, me included. I see it daily in online forums. Sometimes it’s as benign as simple name calling, other times it’s truly threatening, but it happens. A lot.

..."


She shares quite a few examples of ugly cyberbullying. This is becoming more and more of an issue, and the acts of the bullies are becoming acceptable to far too many of among us.

What can we do to change this?

[murielm99]

1. What can we do to change this?

We can start right here, by being supportive of Bravenak, who receive a nasty letter that most likely came from a member of this forum.

We can change the tone here as well, in many ways. We can remember that we are all Democrats, and even if we disagree on candidates, some things are taken too far. They should not be.

Are we going to continue to snipe at each other? Probably. That is somewhat normal. But overt bullying is not.

[HuckleB]

2. What happened to Bravenak is partly why I posted this.

It's clear that what happened to Bravenak is not an anomoly, unfortunately.

[Sentath]

3. We are in the era that will define the limits of free speech on the internet.

What is actionable?
When do her detractors lose the right to remain anonymous?
At what point are they acting only to remove her voice from the public dialogue rather than acting in opposition to her views?

[HuckleB]

4. Lots of questions, indeed.

I think some answers are easy, however. If an individual or a group is attempting to get someone fired without any actual warrant whatsoever, that seems like it definitely crosses and ugly line, for example.