#especially after seeing the level of misinfo and the danger to people whose pics had been stolen and used like holy fucking shit

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

seeing a lot of misinfo posts surging in the wake of Site Owner's Tantrum but there's a single point i keep seeing over and over that i really want to address:

tumblr banning users posing as black activists who were actually paid workers for the russian "internet research agency" is not some shit they made up to ban black activists

that was a very real psyop across multiple social media sites, and there were multiple governments and investigation orgs involved in tracking them down.

do not put actual black activists in the same fucking category as political catfishers who used uninvolved peoples' photos (putting them at risk of personal harm) while intentionally spreading misinfo and attempting to disrupt anti-racist and anti-fascist action, among other things

#i do not fucking trust anyone spreading that 'oh they were actually legit accounts' shit and neither should you #especially after seeing the level of misinfo and the danger to people whose pics had been stolen and used like holy fucking shit #if you care about queer people and people of color you need to care about people impersonating them for ill intent #and not sit there and go 'well the ceo is an idiot therefore we've been lied to this whole time about Absolutely Everything' #lemme be perfectly fuckin honest with you: im not even sure he was telling the truth about the mod selling moderator actions #it could be true. it could also be him trying to make up something big that he thought would make him look totally-not-transphobic #so like. broadly speaking i do not and will not take his word for Anything At All Whatsoever. BUT. i follow a lot of staff and ex-staff #(many of whom were fired or quit) and i believe what they agree on and corroborate across multiple accounts-- #especially the ones who got fired. they don't have any reason to lie or cover anyone on current staff's ass. #and i have yet to see any of them speak out on the veracity of that particular moderator's existence so i'm withholding judgment on it #but i did see many of them (+news outlets) talk about the russian troll accounts & evidence after the mass ban. so i believe that #anyway all i'm asking is for y'all to consider your sources--and their possible motives/sources/biases--and do research on your own #rather than rolling with what feels good to believe or what you think justifies your anger. arm yourself w/ facts whenever possible.