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Aram Westergreen, a construction worker idled last month in the COVID-19 pandemic, filled out an online Washington state form recently to report a pawn shop open despite a ban on nonessential businesses.

Westergreen lives in Tacoma, Wash., less than an hour from the nursing home where the first COVID-19 death in the United States was reported in late February. With more than 900 deaths statewide since, and a stay-at-home order in place since March 23, Westergreen, like many of his neighbors, has suffered from lost income, but regards social distancing as critical to slow the spread of the pathogen.

To his alarm on Thursday, he opened his email to find a message entitled Lowlife scumbag whistle-blower snitches. It was sent from a stranger to about 100 people, informing them that their names, reports and identifying information had been released by the government and shared on social media.

All you cowards who reported businesses as being open ... guess what ... social media is about to reign fire on you, the message said. How can you live with yourself when the REAL DOCTORS have already come out and stated that social distancing is making matters worse? Every one of you slimeballs must only get your news from CNN.

The emailer was correct in one respect. The Washington Military Department, which is coordinating state response to the pandemic, had responded to public records requests by releasing spreadsheets containing more than 7,600 reports of suspected stay-home violations, including email addresses and phone numbers of those lodging complaints.

Westergreen and many others did not immediately realize that Washington State Three Percent, regarded by civil rights organizations as a far-right militia organization, had joined another militant group opposed to state coronavirus lockdowns in posting the reports on Facebook and other sites. Some of those listed in the spreadsheets say they are now being harassed, including receiving death threats.

Such public naming and threats are among the latest tactics being employed by far-right, neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups seeking to exploit the pandemic, according to organizations that track their activities.

Extremists have been spreading hate and misinformation on social media while encouraging members to attend reopen rallies such as one Saturday at the state Capitol in Olympia, according to Western States Center, a Portland, Ore., organization that tracks white nationalist and alt-right groups.

Methods vary depending on ideology, analysts say.

White supremacists from accelerationist groups which seek to weaken the political system that they believe has been diluted by multiculturalism have sought to weaponize the deadly virus, calling on members to engage in direct attacks in order to expedite the collapse of society, said Joanna Mendelson, a national expert on extremism at the Anti-Defamation League.

Accelerationist groups have also been organizing coronavirus-related discussions online around the word boogaloo. Usage of the word in far-right context emanated from an unlikely source: the 1984 break-dancing film Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo. The word is now being used by extremists as a way to refer to what they believe is a looming civil war. Other shorthand references to the word that extremists use is the boog.

There is an enormous indoctrination effort in order to expand their base, and the majority of that recruitment takes place in the virtual space. We have seen them using memes in order to express hatred, targeting Jews, Mendelson said.

Lindsay Schubiner, a Western States Center program director, said she first noticed the coronavirus report information posted Thursday on Washington State Three Percents Facebook page. The organization is an armed paramilitary group that promotes anti-government conspiracy theories and seeks to undermine local democratic institutions, she said.

Posting this public information incites and encourages harassment and even possible violence, she said.

Complainants whose names were exposed, and who were since contacted by The Times, reported receiving hostile messages, emails and phone calls.

One voicemail said, You called on March 30th at 9:15 p.m. to report a nonessential business ... massage parlor. When you did that, you triggered a chain of events which made it known that you were the kind of person who would stomp on the rights of people who are trying to run a business, and that you believe yourself to be superior to them.

The caller said he hoped that the complainant would do something to prove that she had changed her mind. If not, have fun with the, you know, whats going to happen next, he said.

The woman in her 40s who received the call, who works from home in Arlington, Wash., said in an interview Saturday that she had no intention of changing her mind about the importance of nonessential businesses remaining closed. Speaking on condition that her name be withheld, she described her personal experience with COVID-19.

My uncle contracted it, she said. He went to the hospital and was intubated almost immediately, and died days later.

Matt Marshall, Washington State Three Percent president, said Saturday that his organization posted the reports not to incite threats but to expose those who filed them for having turned in business owners trying to maintain livelihoods. They need to know that their neighbors have the right to face their accusers, he said.

Marshall, a Republican running for a seat in the state Legislature, said that he was provided the reports by one of the political partys county officers, whom he declined to identify. That person had obtained the spreadsheets by submitting a public records request one of two dozen people to have done so, according to Chelsea Hodgson, a spokeswoman for the state agency coordinating coronavirus response.

Marshall spoke at Saturdays protest in Olympia, along with Joey Gibson, leader of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, and state Rep. Matt Shea, a far-right lawmaker suspended from the GOP caucus last year after an investigation accused him of planning and participating in domestic terrorism. The rally drew about 1,500 people, roughly 500 fewer than a similar protest last month.

In early April, the FBI sent out an intelligence report from the New York field office saying white supremacists and neo-Nazis were encouraging the spread of the coronavirus to law enforcement officers and the Jewish community.

The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council a coalition of 40 nonprofit groups that provide health, job counseling and other social services started an online reporting center tracking hate reports. The organization recorded 670 complaints of hate crimes during the week of March 19, the first week it kept track. By the end of the second week, the group had received 1,100 complaints and were averaging around 100 a day. Some 32% of those incidents occurred in California, the council said, and included incidents in grocery stores, big-box retail shops and pharmacies.

What you have is Charlottesville on steroids, said Erroll Southers, a former FBI special agent and currently director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at USC, referring to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, where violent clashes broke out and a woman was killed.

Charlottesville had Klan members, League of the South confederates, neo-Nazis and nationalists, all who typically dont play well together. What you have now is all those groups plus your Boogaloo, anti-vaxxers, your Trump supporters, who have nothing to do with either group, all out there ... and its made for an incredibly dangerous situation.

Far-right groups have long sought to exploit global crises to expand their ranks and drive a wedge between them and those who disagree with them.

A May 2020 study conducted by researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank titled, Pandemics Change Cities: Municipal Spending and Voter Extremism in Germany: 1918-1933, found a correlation between deaths in the years after the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago and subsequent support for right-wing extremists blaming minorities and foreigners for the pandemic and economic hardships that followed.

Peter Simi, a professor of sociology at Chapman University, said Western nations are likely to experience a similar situation now.

This crisis could strain the political system, Simi said. You have people who are experiencing heightened levels of emotion, resources being utilized in different ways and people who are being stretched thin. As a result, it does create more opportunity for extremists to mobilize around.

I would expect youll have an exacerbation of certain economic, social pressures, he added, and youre going to have changes in emotional temperament, heightened levels of depression and anxiety, which are ripe for fascist, far-right movements to take advantage of.

In Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee has spoken out against attempts to exploit the pandemic for political gain as he extends his stay-at-home order to May 31, gradually lifting restrictions on some business sectors while maintaining social distancing. The Democrat seeking a third term is being sued over aspects of the order by a Republican gubernatorial candidate and four GOP state legislators.

In an interview in Olympia on Friday, Inslee called the posting of the reports by Washington State Three Percent and a group called Reopen Washington State, which could not be reached for comment, really unfortunate.

That kind of harassment and intimidation just wont stand. I dont think itll work, either. I think Washingtonians are a little too stalwart for that.

Read reported from Seattle and Etehad reported from Los Angeles.

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Far right outing those reporting coronavirus violations - Los Angeles Times

Shoutout to my haters, sorry you couldnt phase me Nicki Minaj

Among the things I planned on doing in college, writing for The Hullabaloo was not one of them. Writing for The Hullabaloo and amassing a cult following of haters was certainly not one of them.

I stumbled into college journalism by accident. During my freshman year, I was weirdly surrounded, both physically and socially, by many students who were passionately involved in the student newspaper. Just out of courtesy, I entertained their gossip and talk about what was going on in The Hullabaloo and the challenges they were facing. I could care less about what was being written; my passion was in activism.

Yet, in my second semester at Tulane, I quickly myself huddled over the long wooden table in The Hullabaloo basement office, bearing witness to the newspapers dedication to the voices of marginalized people and the birth of Intersections. I was in awe of then-Editor-in-Chief, Canela Lopezs leadership and understood that this could be a vehicle for change in our university.

F*** I look like, h*e? I look like yes and you like no Nicki Minaj

As I dispersedly wrote articles up until my senior year, I was surprisingly met with unusual engagement. And by unusual, I mean hate. Readers physically mailed essays to the Hullabaloo office on how much they despised me. Beyond just the comments section, my inbox on every social media was filled with personalized attacks and random critiques.

I really could not believe that people cared that much.

When I stepped into the role of Intersections editor my senior year, I knew that I wanted to make this section mean something. We had a track record of shining light on dark places and I wanted to accelerate that. I cant help being a Leo, but it makes me drawn to controversy. I tried to write pieces that would represent my values, stir the pot, and push people to interrogate the normal around them. But as the hate kept coming and kept coming and really did not stop coming, I got so tired.

Do a show for Versace, they request me by name and if they dont get Nicki, it just wont be the same do I even need to say who it is

And it wasnt just me. I sat with countless writers this semester, listening as they shared their cyberbullying experiences. More writers wanted to write something, but feared the online retaliation. Writing something for your college newspaper and having it posted online to all your peers is incredibly different from writing that same idea for one of your classes. It is vulnerability to be public about the hardships you have faced. That is what I admire most about each of the writers in our section.

It was jarring to me that the more vulnerable I became in my writing, the attacks that I would receive would dramatically increase. I thought I hit a breaking point in late January when my article on business professionalism launched a seemingly never ending series of hate. I had entire Reddit threads dedicated to my demise. Alt-right media sites assigned a writer to monitor every thing that I posted. I couldnt even look at any social media without being reminded about how much people disagreed with me.

I really could not believe that people cared that much. I realized that if my articles were truly making this many people mad then maybe the subjects I was writing about were really pushing people to think about the world around them. Maybe this was the activism I had dreamed of way back when freshman year.

And it was easy to tell myself this time and time again, but it was still incredibly hard to read these comments over and over again. I do truly believe that there is a compassionate human behind every one of the comments thrown at Intersections this year. I also believe that there are some deep insecurities these people have about social justice issues and frankly, its not my job to solve it for them.

There are so many people to thank for the incredible year that Intersections has had. I promise myself to extend my gratitude to all those people that I can. However, there is one person who has taught me to deal with haters better than anyone else ever could.

And Im all up, all up, all up in the bank with the funny face and if Im fake, I aint notice cause my money aint Nicki Minaj

Nickis principles have really guided my college experience. She pushed me out of the closet, cured my writing block, and probably had some inspiration in any thing that I have ever written.

Intersections has had an amazing year. We were consistently the top section with the highest amount of views and highest amount of articles trending. We rocked two amazing front-page stories. Our Black History Month edition of The Hullabaloo brought real conversations to our administration. We beat all the haters who were waiting for our downfall.

Each of our writers Cliff, Jewell, Ren, Maiya, Meredith, Wash, Harmonii, Emilie, Josh, Ori, Juju, Hugo, Shay, Kennon, Sanjali, Apoorva, Frederick, and Kia you all continually impressed me with your writing and dedication to justice.

Meg, you were the best co-editor I could have asked for. Thank you for embodying everything Nicki stands for. I know Apoorva and Ori will continue this work and make us proud.

Thank you to everyone who has kept up with our articles, especially the people who disagree with us. If anyone ever feels the need to reach out to me, well just ask the people who write the hate comments, they sure know how to get into every social media inbox I have.

All love,

(Former) Intersections Editor, Shahamat Uddin

This one is for the Barbz!

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Letter from the Intersections Editor: Haters keep us famous - Tulane Hullabaloo

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 20-year-old Cleveland man is in federal custody after authorities say he planned to place a fake 911 call in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to ambush the park rangers who responded, steal their weapons and start an armed uprising, according to prosecutors.

Christian Ferguson, who authorities believe was trying to form a militia, is charged with attempted kidnapping. He has been in custody since May 8 and made his initial appearance Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen B. Burke.

The Cleveland FBI became aware of Ferguson in March, after a tipster informed them about violent and extremist social media postings Ferguson made on Discord, a communication app that allows users to communicate directly or in groups via text message, voice or video, according to a release. The app became an essential communication tool for far-right groups and white supremacists, including in the run-up to the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In the messages, according to a complaint filed Tuesday by an FBI agent, Ferguson discussed his plan to ambush cops and said to shoot to kill because they will, and discussed ripping communication gear from cars.

Its too risky to take the cruisers so throw the bodies in and light em up, he wrote, an apparent reference to putting dead officers in their police cars and setting them on fire to destroy the evidence, the complaint said.

Ferguson posted the messages under a username that the complaint does not disclose due to ongoing investigation.

Investigators tied the screen name to Ferguson in part because police stopped him in 2019 outside Valparaiso, Indiana, in a car that had a vanity license plate number that matched the name, the complaint said. He fled the traffic stop and led police on a chase that ended in a crash and his arrest. He faced a felony charge of resisting arrest. The complaint does not include a disposition in the case.

The FBI sent a confidential human source to join Discord chat rooms and communicate with Ferguson, the complaint said. In the weeks that followed, Ferguson honed the details of his plan, which included using a woman to call the police and report a domestic violence incident in a remote area, the complaint said. He said the attackers should clean off their bullets to remove fingerprints from the casings, and discussed throwing ammonia and bleech [sic] at police.

When you shoot go for the arms and legs but if they pose a lethal threat go for the head, he wrote, the complaint says.

Ferguson referenced the 75th Spartans, which investigators believe is the name of a militia that Ferguson either had formed or was in the process of creating to carry out the attack and the subsequent uprising, the complaint said. Ferguson, in another message, referenced leaving a calling card with the Spartans name at the scene of a first small claim with the cops, the complaint said.

Once the media gets a hold of our card, well spread like wildfire and other militias will get up, the complaint said.

The appropriation of Spartan imagery is commonplace among many alt-right groups, including The Oath Keepers militia, which, in 2018 created so-called Spartan Training Groups to combat antifa and the far left.

Ferguson and the confidential informant also communicated with another Discord user whose identity the FBI agent said is known but was not disclosed in the complaint.

Ferguson suggested using homemade mustard gas and pipe bombs during an attack, but said the group would need money from a sponsor before they could buy high-grade, military-style ammunition because he barely has enough money to buy a pistol, the complaint said.

Ferguson also discussed using the attack to recruit members of his militia. He said that killing police officers and letting one live "with our calling card may be necessary to get media coverage of the attack from outlets including Fox News, the complaint said.

We still are building numbers but this will get patriots and future Spartans interested, he wrote, the complaint said.

The two FBI sources and Ferguson agreed to meet up on May 2 at the Camp Belden Wildlife Area in Lorain County to practice drills and exercises to prepare for the attack, according to the complaint. Ferguson brought an AR-15 rifle and ammunition to the meeting, which was recorded by one of the FBI informants on a video camera, the complaint said.

The group agreed to meet again on May 8 in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to carry out a dry-run, and hiked into the woods to discuss the plan, according to the complaint. The informant wore an audio recording device that captured the conversations, the complaint said.

Ferguson said that once the officers respond and his militia ambushes them, they give police 10 seconds to drop their weapons, the complaint said. Once they dropped the weapons, the militia members should point guns at each officers head while they take their gear, starting with the bullet-proof vests, the complaint said.

[I]f they try anything, anything, one in the head there are 29 more right for you and another goes down, and another, for any movement below the nipple, Ferguson said, according to the complaint. [B]ut leave one to limp home and tell law enforcement that the Spartans are out here hunting us.

The group then placed a hoax 911 call as they hid behind tree stumps to gauge the response time, the complaint said. Four park rangers showed up and left after a few minutes of looking around, the complaint said.

The group walked back to their cars, and Ferguson said that if that many officers were to respond to the ambush, then they would have to kill them all, the complaint said.

FBI agents and Park Rangers then arrested Ferguson.

Ferguson admitted to investigators after his arrest that he was planning an attack to kidnap and rob police, but denied ever wanting to kill them, the complaint said. He eventually said that he would be willing to kill the officers if he had to, the complaint said.

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Cleveland man planned to ambush law enforcement to steal weapons for armed uprising, feds say - cleveland.com

Every Thursday at 8pm, I go outside my house, blow a whistle, clap, hit a frying pan for the NHS and smile meaningfully at my neighbours. We all look at each other with what people like to call Blitz Spirit.

I think that translates as, we never normally talk to each other except to bitch about binmen and Thames Water but were in this together now.

All over the globe, a community spirit has transformed a normally cynical, individualistic world. We are all suffering the miserable and terrifying consequences of Covid-19 and, for most of us, this has suddenly imbued us with a sense of collective responsibility in real life. A bit of - you know- niceness.

But is this trickling online? Has a pandemic forced humanity to clean up its digital act? Just as we are living in a new normal, it looks like the internet is experiencing its own readjustment, reaching its own new normal. And it might be .dare we say it.nicer? The internet- maybe, just maybe- getting a bit of its own blitz spirit.

It couldnt come fast enough as - thanks to this pandemic - our URL lives have become our IRL lives.

Because, as much as we love the internet, here are some hard truths about it. Twinned with our day-to-day dependency, has long been the dark side; ugly trolling, hatred spreading fast and unchecked online, from bullying to cancel culture. Its facilitated everything from the rise of terrorism and the alt-Right, to the myriad editing filters that have proven the catalyst for negative body image.

But dont just take it from me. The founder of the internet, Sir Tim Berners Lee, earlier this year claimed that his creation had become an unsafe space for many.

In an open letter, published on his own Web Foundation site on the 12 March to mark the 31st birthday of the internet, he said: The world has made important progress on gender equality thanks to the unceasing drive of committed champions everywhere. But I am seriously concerned that online harms facing women and girls especially those of colour, from LGBTQ+ communities and other marginalised groups threaten that progress.

The data to back this up is depressing. Since 2010, the year that birthed instagram, depressive symptoms in girls have risen by 170%. A survey by Berners-Lees own Web Foundation, showed that more than half of young women have experienced violence online, including sexual harassment, threatening messages and having private images shared without consent. A government survey from 2019, showed that 1 in 4 adults in the UK have experienced some form of cyberbullying.

But The New York Timess tech columnist Kevin Roose, said the internet had during the crisis of the last few months, become better. He called it pro-social, meaning it was actually being used for many of the wonderful things it was originally intended for, as opposed to just a tool for online nastiness and trolling, which he claims has diminished. Connection- that great promise of social media- has never felt more vital than it does now. Think how many of us are relying on the internet now, to let us see our friends and family.

A sliver of light has slipped into our online world. Much like the reports weve seen of nature fighting back at this time, the ducks seen by the Opera in Paris - once a traffic-clogged thoroughfare- and the goats wandering through villages in Wales. So too has this pandemic perhaps dimmed the noise of ugly voices clogging up the internet, and allowed a little kindness to creep in.

The new normal of the internet may be one where the severity of Covid-19 and its threat to our very existence has made the dark side of the internet go quiet. It has encouraged the trolls to slither back under their rocks, bringing a more benevolent side to the surface.

Our social conversations are dominated largely by messages of hope and love at a terrifying time. Humour and compassion have largely overridden snark and meanness. Anyone tempted to troll or message negatively, may well be too daunted by the new online climate to even try. Trolling was never big, nor was it clever, but it seems even smaller and stupider now, when faced with the enormity of the global situation.

Instead, people are thirsty for positivity. Memes, which rely on accepted, shared truisms for their humour, have never had so much potency. The Mindy Kaling meme from The Office Its just some of us are taking this seriously sums up exactly how we feel when we see people still having parties. The Sex and the City Movie meme, of Carrie (as 2020) beating Big (us) with her wedding bouquet, is pretty much how we feel this year has treated us. This is a golden time for the comedic community spirit of the online world, in which memes are our choice weapon against misery and boredom.

Good news stories, like singing from balconies and the heroic Colonel Tom, are dominating our feeds. Campaigns and fundraisers are now ubiquitous. We are using the online world to help, not harm. The sense of a greater evil at work - Covid-19 - of a united empathy for each other at this time- seems to have quieted the trolls.

Tessy Ojo, CEO of The Diana Award says they have noticed a surge of positivity, particularly among millennials and Gen Z online.

Young people are facing monumental changes in their lives right now and in the long-term they are likely to be one of the biggest victims of this crisis. Despite this, The Diana Award has seen a surge of positivity online, she says, Our recent research proves this with nearly three quarters (70%) of these generations saying they are more engaged than ever with social and community action and its a high priority for them. Its heartening to see millennials and Gen Z meeting online to discuss their work, inspire others and share the positive and negative experiences theyve encountered on their mission to change the world.

What we are seeing creeping in, is a brief chink of light, a snapshot of how the internet should and could be...but there are still unpleasant vestiges or the internets former mean streak.

Charlotte, 22, is a student and feminist activist. A lot of her tweets are- naturally- battling misogyny and promoting gender equality. This has long made her a target for online trolls.

I spend a lot of my time online- on twitter especially, she says, While on the whole I have seen a downturn in trolling, in people being mean for no reason, I still receive the same level of backlash for anything I post that is feminist.

How does she account for that?

I think the internet has definitely become a bit more level. The people who only occasionally troll, are now only engaging positively online. But the people who were always really devoted trolls, the really angry ones, they still have all the time in the world- maybe even more so now- to spew hatred online.

Last week, a feminist tweet of Charlottes had her engaging in a twitter beef with thirty trolls.

That is pretty much the same level as I would normally get, she says, Once a hardcore misogynist, always a hardcore misogynist, pandemic or no pandemic.

Ive seen trans activists I follow online still receive their fair share of pointless, ignorant internet hatred. The youre ugly or youre not a real woman variety. I have seen celebrities I follow still receive backlash- even of the non Corona variety (more on this later)- and Ive been shocked to see the online argument over whether Karen is a racist slur against white women, actually picking up traction at this time, and not in a constructive academic way either...

Pandemic or not, discourse online is clearly still combative. But what I have seen, is that the nature of this online anger, has largely been Coronavirus related.

Many influencers and celebrities have found themselves with targets on their backs at this time. The worrying #Guillotine2020 hashtag- referencing the overthrow of the rich and powerful during the French Revolution- has gone viral online with tens of thousands of tags and counting. When Jennifer Lopez complained about not going to a restaurant and instead eating in her massive garden with a pool- one person replied on twitter we all hate you.

American influencer Arielle Charnas found herself in the middle of a social media hate storm after a truly awful sequence of events that she -naturally- published all over her social media to her 1.3m followers. After testing positive for Covid-19 (a test she procured- many say-dubiously) she then travelled to her second home, with her nanny and family, and posted images of her going for daily walks- all within her supposed quarantined period. The backlash was severe, with many trolling her online as a covidiot and truly selfish arsehole. Arielle was forced to tearfully apologise in an emotional video on instagram.

Where once we followed them precisely for their lavish, escapist lifestyles, those mansions, second homes, yachts and privilege are now proving major sticking points in a time of global crisis, when many are forced to self-isolate in one bed flats or refuge centres. Their self-isolation ivory towers are suddenly super unrelatable and making people extremely angry.

I ask influencer Katis Snooks, who boasts a following of 74k, if she has seen a reduction or increase in trolling at this time.

Though I am normally lucky to have a wonderful following online who are supportive and don't bully me, I feel I have actually experienced more trolling and negativity during Coronavirus, she says, I feel more pressure to say the right thing, the risk of offending people is higher and people have more free time to be judgemental towards me and my content.

She agrees that the divisions in society at this time- between those privileged to be isolated in big houses and those struggling to survive- has been the main fuel of this online anger. Influencers and their perceived privilege, have become targets for this fury.

Ive been feeling that whatever I do, people will still pick what Im doing apart and that I cant really do anything right without judgement; people have opposing views and arent afraid to voice them and tell me Im doing things wrong, she says, I get negative DM's if I order a food delivery, but I also get judgement for going to a supermarket - so I can't really win either way.

The potential of the internet as a forum for debate - healthy or otherwise - is therefore clearly still alive and kicking. The pandemic has not vanquished the trolls for good, rescued the princess and made the internet a utopia of pleasantries. But now, just as most of our news is consumed with the virus, so is online backlash and discord - reserved for those who cut holes in masks, protest lockdowns or hoard toilet paper.

The angry twitter rants and insta stories I see are mostly Corona-related. They focus on the lockdown protests, the people breaking social distancing rules, the people boasting about their smug isolation locations. People are still angry online, it's just this online fury seems to have taken a completely different direction. Its not as pointless, mean and indiscriminately hateful as it once was.

Essentially, the youre ugly online comments may be decreasing, but the youre not social distancing comments are not.

Perhaps this sense of niceness online will only be temporary. Perhaps the length of lockdown will start to erode compassion and replace it with anger and frustration and those part-time trolls will begin anew.

Perhaps the internets fresh new attitude will only last as long as the pandemic and lockdown itself. But, like so many other things- from finance to friendship, this pandemic has proven itself a mammoth priority shifter and let us hope the lessons we learnt being nice online, the moment we had blitz spirit on the internet..will long outlast Covid-19.

Link:
How Coronavirus Silenced The Trolls - GLAMOUR UK

An unapproved police trial of controversial facial recognition software conducted dozens of searches for suspects in New Zealand.

Photo: AP

This week, RNZ revealed police did not have any of the necessary clearance from their bosses, the government or the Privacy Commissioner to test American software Clearview AI. Police conducted a short trial between February and March, but decided not to use the technology.

Clearview, which is used by hundreds of law enforcement agencies in the United States and around the world, is effectively a searchable database of billions of images lifted from the internet that can easily identify people once their photos are uploaded.

During the New Zealand trial, a police team in the 'high tech crime unit' tested Clearview by uploading images of officers and suspects.

Police national manager of criminal investigations Tom Fitzgerald said its use was limited to about 150 searches of police volunteers, and roughly 30 searches of persons of interest. This only involved about five suspects, but each generated several searches.

Police national manager of criminal investigations Tom Fitzgerald. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

Fitzgerald said police only got one successful match for a person whose photo was already in the media.

"We've proven Clearview didn't work," he said, adding that it would not be used in the future.

Official emails released to RNZ show how police first used the technology: by submitting images of wanted people who police say looked "to be of Mori or Polynesian ethnicity", as well as "Irish roof contractors".

Fitzgerald said those people were targeted in part because they wanted to test if the software, like some other facial recognition systems, struggled to identify non-Europeans.

"The test included that and confirmed it didn't work," he said.

In its first contact with police in January, Clearview pitched its product as a solution to counter-terrorism.

Fitzgerald said as part of that pitch, the company claimed to have made a successful match when it ran the photo of the Christchurch mosque attacker through its system.

"While obviously our technology was not available at the time, this may help highlight how Clearview can be used for counter-terrorism to quickly and accurately identify suspects and build up investigations," Marko Jukic, a Clearview employee, told police in an email obtained by RNZ.

Jukic was reportedly fired after it emerged he held controversial views.

Fitzgerald confirmed to RNZ that police understand Jukic is a member of the alt-right in the United States. He said this did not come up during due diligence checks on Clearview.

He said the police team undertaking the trial were well-meaning but in hindsight they should have sought approval first.

"I think they've all realised that would be easier to do that earlier before any conversation, rather than seeing if it's fit for purpose first."

Fitzgerald said facial recognition software still had the potential to assist police operations, but they were not actively considering any other options following the conclusion of the Clearview trial.

Andrew Chen, a researcher specialising in facial recognition at the University of Auckland, said it was not surprising Clearview was so ineffective for police.

"It's still a US company, it's largely looking at US sources. If New Zealanders aren't in that dataset it's not going to recognise New Zealanders very well."

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Police searched for suspects in unapproved trial of facial recognition tech, Clearview AI - RNZ