Revealing the home address of public figures has become a predatory tactic among hostile political activist groups.
The Meta Oversight Board demanded that Meta-owned Facebook strengthen its policies against the sharing of private citizens’ addresses. “In its policy advisory opinion, the Board recommends that Meta remove the exception to the Privacy Violations Community Standard that allows the sharing of private residential information when it is considered ‘publicly available,’” The Oversight Board said in an early February blog post. “This would help Meta better protect people’s private residential information.”
The implication here is that even though the addresses of some famous citizens may be publicly accessible, Facebook would take a harder stance against users posting it, as a means of stopping hostile behavior. The Oversight Board went on to propose Meta “create a communications channel for victims of doxing, give users more control over how they consent to sharing their private residential information and provide data showing the amount of content removed following privacy-related government requests.”
The Oversight Board summarized Meta’s request for the board’s expertise on the issue, noting the harms of predatory doxing:
“Meta’s request noted several potential harms linked to releasing personal information, including residential addresses and images. These include ‘doxing,’ (which refers to the release of documents, abbreviated as ‘dox’) where information which can identify someone is revealed online. Meta noted that doxing can have negative real-world consequences, such as harassment or stalking.”
The Oversight Board did not acknowledge that Meta allowed radicals to target and dox several high-level politicians and school board candidates that went against the left’s narrative, claiming instead that “Harms resulting from doxing disproportionately affect groups such as women, children and LGBTQIA+ people.”
Facebook even allowed leftists to share an event to harass U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) in October 2021. Green New Deal-supporting Sunrise DC tweeted, “start the week off right by yelling at Joe Manchin.” The same tweet linked to a Facebook event hosted by Shut Down DC earlier in October. The Facebook event notice proclaimed, "We're going back to Manchin’s yacht at the Wharf," complete with a map/address.
That’s not the only politician targeted by doxing.
Newsweek summarized Sept. 21, 2020, that “Protesters on Monday gathered outside South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham's house to ‘wake him up’ over his push to quickly replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away Friday.” Facebook allowed both Shut Down DC and Sunrise DC to organize the protest via a Facebook event page. The event page that listed Graham’s purported address and called upon supporters to protest at the senator’s house has since been deleted. Meanwhile, the platform still allows both organizations to remain active.
Conservatism is under attack. Contact Facebook headquarters at (650) 308-7300 and demand that Big Tech and the left be held to account to follow their own policies. If you have noticed bias at Facebook, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
