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The existing harms of social scripts we ran while in smaller, geographically-constrained groups are being amplified due to network effect. Tiny unchecked errors, scaled, become large harms as people find ways to exploit them, in life just as in software. - Meredith

Weaponized Social is a series of events, discussion, action, and surrounding community to examine the network effects of human interaction, to encourage the healthy and to deweaponize the powerful tools at our fingertips. We welcome you to join us at an event, on our mailing list, or to hold space as well.

Events

Past

• 2015 March San Francisco
• 2015 February New York City
• 2015 January Berkman Center

Upcoming

• 2015 April Nairobi
• 2015 May San Francisco

Tentative

• 2015 August Berlin

Groups

Groups we admire / are relevant to what we're working on.

• Facing History : Facing History and Ourselves provides ideas, methods, and tools that support the practical needs, and the spirits, of educators worldwide who share the goal of creating a better, more informed, and more thoughtful society.
• Women, Action, and the Media : WAM! is a people-powered independent nonprofit dedicated to building a robust, effective, inclusive movement for gender justice in media.
• The Online Abuse Prevention Initiative : OAPI is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing and mitigating online abuse through:
  • the study and analysis of abuse patterns
  • the creation of anti-harassment tools and resources
  • collaboration with key tech companies seeking to better support their communities

Projects

From Weaponized Social events

Guide for Supporting Activism

Self-Awareness Checklist

How to Critique Me

Wielding the Privilege Sword

External Awesome

Please either reach out to these folk directly, or indicate your interest via User:Willow's talk page.

HeartMob

HeartMob is a platform where you can safely report your harassment and request support from a community of kind people who want to help.

• Looking for: Amplification of the project, Testers (practical implementation)

Countering Online Harassment Support Guide

COHSG is everything we collectively know about how to protect yourself from online attacks, in one handy guide.

• Looking for: Testers (practical implementation)

WAM!'s Twitter Reporting Project

In November 2015, we ended the reporting phase of our Twitter project. We’ve received almost 700 reports in 3 weeks, which has given us plenty of data to analyze, and we’ve managed to help over 100 people get action from Twitter along the way. We’ve also driven widespread media attention to the issue of gendered harassment on social media. Now we’re going to focus on analyzing the data, with an eye to producing a report early next year, and then using it to press Twitter for changes. We're in the final stages of research analysis, and will be releasing a report in the coming months.

We’ll keep you posted, so follow us on social media, or join our email list to stay connected.

• Looking for: Amplification of the project

Block Together

A web app intended to help cope with harassment and abuse on Twitter.

https://blocktogether.org

External Resources

Shaming on Twitter

Should Mom-and-Pops That Forgo Gay Weddings Be Destroyed?

If their Yelp rating goes down by a star does the punishment fit the "crime"? Is there a financial loss at which social pressure goes from appropriate to too much? How about putting them out of business? Digital mobs insulting them and their children? Email and phone threats from anonymous Internet users? If you think that any of those go too far have you spoken up against the people using those tactics?

Security Lockdown: A Lay Person's Guide to Baseline Privacy

This episode led me to ruminate on how dehumanizing the Internet can be, how deeply socialized gender is, and how elusive privacy has become.

This write-up also includes a fantastic list of online safety resources.

What to do if Trolls have doxx'd you

if trolls have doxx'd you, let your friends and family on Facebook know there may be fake accounts impersonating you for information