Last summer, there was a feature story called "Everything is Gamergate" in the same paper edition as The 1619 Project. It's very different but just as important. If GG is new to you, it's worth tabbing over for a read. (1/n) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/15/opinion/what-is-gamergate.html

There are several articles in the series and they're all worth reading to better understand how social media usage intersects with power, race, gender, and more. This paragraph from the opening piece is especially relevant.

"Harassment influencers" is a key and important concept. They're an actual observable phenomenon and one that is relevant to EduTwitter of late. Even if they're not called that, people recognize them as such. Over the weekend, I inadvertently ended up on one's radar.

#PairedTexts
1. My mentions almost immediately ticked up to 20+.
2. I panic deleted my entirely benign tweet.
3. It got weird.
4. And then creepy.

I've been brigaded before. I locked my account, asked a friend to keep an eye on the thread, and went to bed. It was over by morning. I was no longer the target.

(BTW, if you don't know about Crash Override, they're a fantastic resource: http://www.crashoverridenetwork.com/ )

Also, I figured out the reason I ended up on the person's radar. Twitter now shows counts for quote RTs, not just RT counts. This means a user can see everyone who signal boosts a tweet. Which makes it very easy to bring them to their followers' attention.

But also, those who know someone is a harassment influencer will deliberately expose people on here to the influencer with the explicit goal of getting that person to focus on them.

I won't bore you with the details of the discourse where that happened. I will share, though, it included this *amazing* tweet and ended when he dropped my tweet into the influencer's mentions.

I know he knew the consequences of putting my tweet in front of the influencer because he told me. (If I understand correctly, I am a racist for stepping into a thread that was targeting a woman I'm mutuals with. I think. His claim was a bit unsound.)

But enough about Jenn's Adventures on Twitter! Let's talk current events!

The reason this matters and IMO, is relevant to EduTwitter is that by my informal account, at least 4 women of color who teach or talk about math have been targeted.

He's deliberately offering up math teachers to his followers.

And when the influencer decides to focus on you, there is nothing you can do. (Shelby gave me permission to share.)

The volume on the whole thing has been increasingly jacked, which means it hit more radars, including MAA's. However. (Tweet from a math educator.)

This thread from @MBarany is very mathy and is a useful response for more context on the post MAA shared. https://twitter.com/MBarany/status/1291383791148306433

I broke a rule and made a thread without knowing what action I wanted. I'm not sure if this whole thing is worthy of an @EdWriters time or attention but I do think it's notable that math educators, in particular women of color, are being targeted on Twitter.

All because I have two chickens and you have two chickens and between us, we have five eggs.

Oh! Also, if any of this makes enough sense to you that you know who the person is, check their timeline every once in a while and report posts that contain targeted harassment. For the greater good.

A few more pieces of evidence to support my claim. #PairedTexts

1. A tweet from a woman of color who writes about math education - please note the date
2. Sample replies to her tweet from the last few days

And in case you didn't notice this lovely detail, yes, it's that Scott Adams, the Dilbert guy. He is another example of a harassment influencer; people tag him into threads with the explicit goal of drawing his attention to a woman of color so his followers can harass her.

The most enraging part of all of this is women of color who dare talk about math are having to choose between their safety and being on social media. And I'm supposed to be angry about "cancel culture"? Pbbbbt.

Over the last few months, EduTwitter has served as a de facto faculty room, Teacher Center, staff meeting, planning period meeting place, and Sunshine Club. It should be newsworthy that teachers - especially women of color - face harassment on here for talking about teaching.

I have no idea if @Chalkbeat, @EdWeekTeacher, et al, or any members of @EdWriters have a beat that includes social media but IMO, there is a story here that should be covered. And I say that knowing any such piece would give the influencers what they want: attention.

Meanwhile, peeps are still tattling to their hero.

Benjamin gave me permission to share. Within minutes of this tweet, his mentions were swarmed and he had to lock down his account. Teachers can't even talk around the dude.

It feels rather ineffective to keep adding to this thread but it's a way of documenting what's happening.

So, this is more of what's happening.

Apparently, he's working his way through all of the disciplines who talk on Twitter. This week, it's physics teachers' turn. (Kelly gave me permission to share.)

It's the "Go get them, James" that's a delightful little something extra to all of this.

And this is what happened in Kelly's mentions. (It's fascinating how often someone will tattle on the person being targeted. In this case, Tom thinks Kelly reports to deGrasse Tyson?)

I really appreciated this point from @_sgilbert_ in a discussion about interactions on social media. If we treat abuse as something users should expect, there's less pressure to find ways to end it. ( https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/i7sfwx/they_were_notorious_of_moderators_of_reddit/)

But hey! Twitter isn't real life! Or so I've been told!

https://twitter.com/Laurie_Rubel/status/1293546641761468418

Another group of women who talk about math had to lock their accounts on here this morning because they were brought to the attention of a harassment influencer. Not only am I infuriated at the impact this is having on them, I'm also annoyed by his utter lack of curiosity.

FYI: He's still at it.

Still going.

Every. Single. Time. he quote-RTs a woman in education on here, she gets brigaded.

And he's supposed to be the rational, objective one.

I always wonder what people who support Lindsa's approach would advise women targeted by him do. What's the goal here? https://twitter.com/mdsteele47/status/1300622227721924608?s=19

October update. He's still going. https://twitter.com/realJ_Mitchell/status/1321039846698373120