How to successfully recover from large-scale doxxing or trolling

Things to worry about:

• parents
• everything
• text messages
• phone calls
• password management
• home/physical safety
• credit rating
• people around you
• isolation
• employment
• finances
• connecting w/ people
• resurgence of maladaptive coping mechanism (addictions, mental health etc.)

How to help

How to help people when they're being harassed:

• A way people can help is figuring out how much time they have to contribute, what they have to offer, and what they can offer within that timeframe.
• If you don't know the person you want to help and don't know them personally go through an intermediary.
• Don't yell their name out loud in a public place!
• When inviting harassed people to places don't' assume they want to talk about harassment rather than their interests and specializations.
• Don't show up and ask how you can help and make the person you're helping figure out how you can help them
• Being politely persistent is possibly necessary
• One way to be helpful is to provide your address as a mail drop.
• Offering to talk about the harassment or not depending on how the person being attacked is feeling at the moment is a nice thing to be doing
• When we help people we need to keep in mind they are going through a violent and traumatic experience.
• Be sure you're referring to the person you're helping in a way they want to be described

What to do if being harassed

Strategies when you're being harassed:

• The online harassment taskforce email list is pretty useless.
• You should raise what's happening with your employer
• You should probably not trust reporters, they have their own incentives which may not align with you
• Getting people with a whole bunch of privilege to write articles is maybe helpful but not terribly scalable
• Be proactive with your privacy before you're targeted!
• Shred your email when you toss it,
• be aware about where you're connecting to the internet
• When you register domain names, you can use someone else's information.
• When you need something from someone (like breaking a lease w/ a landlord) make the framing about them and how you're protecting them.
• Create standards for people you're willing to meet.
• Find places where you can still be yourself.
• When you go to conferences don't go alone
• At some point you need to stop reading the places that are attacking you.
• Gel mace is probably better than an aerosol in enclosed areas.

We would like to know how to keep online spaces less friendly for harassment when we're moderating them?

• Coral might be good for commenting communities when it is released
• Research shows that showing community standards when users post reduces nasty stuff
• Having community standards at all is a good thing
• Prompting when people are using words that are probably not good to make sure they want to use them can help
• Charge money to allow them in to post. Trolls are cheap.
• Incremental punishment

Maintain your own platform if you can! Platforms are untrustworthy. Sadly the best way to remove content you don't want people to have is by burying it with new content.

EMDR is the process of processing traumatic experiences while using rhythmic repetitive motions while reliving the experience to help people move past point of trauma. It can be helpful!

Interaction

How do you talk to employer/family/friends:

• Focus on challenging the accuracy of the stuff trolls are putting out
• Trolls hate it when you tell them you're gonna pray for them.
• Befriending people in a one on one environment may be a strategy