Skip to content or view screen version

Suggestions for activists when using Social Media

anon@indymedia.org (Hacktivist) | 15.01.2011 10:22 | London

A very brief outline of some suggestions which social activists could use when using social media such as Facebook or Flickr.

Social Media Tactics
================

1) Organising events of Facebook is a great resource. However, the police will use the
attendance numbers to organise policing. Don't give them information about our numbers:
DON'T click 'Attending' to a protest event organised on Facebook. If you want to show
solidarity, click 'Maybe'. Leave them guessing.

2) Undercover police will join protest groups on Facebook and use profile pictures
to gain police intelligence and to help arrests; DON'T use a portrait of yourself
as a Facebook picture.

DON'T use your real name on Facebook if you're going to join protest events organised
on facebook - use a pseudonym or, at the very least, use a fake last name.

3) The police regularly trawl through social media websites for pictures of protests.
They use pictures of protesters to help identify and incriminate them. The police take
pictures all the time, but they can't be everywhere at all time. Don't do their work for them.
If you post pictures of protesters at protest, DON'T show their faces. DO blur or crop
out their faces - *especially* if they're engaged in acts of civil disobedience.


anon@indymedia.org (Hacktivist)
- Original article on IMC London: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/6912