Activists in Brazil are using geolocation tracking to track down people who use Facebook and Twitter to send ignorant and hateful messages. This campaign, known as “Racismo Virtual, Consequencias Reais” (“Virtual Racism, Real Consequences”), is helmed by a civil rights group called Criola. Their aim is to hold people accountable for their offensive online comments.
After using geolocation tracking to figure out where the tweets originate, Criola purchases advertising space near the location and publishes billboard-sized versions of the original post. While the perpetrator’s faces are blurred out, it still drives the point home.
Jurema Werneck, the founder of Criola, explained to the BBC that the campaign began after weather presenter Maria Julia Coutinho was subjected to ignorant comments and an alarming amount of verbal abuse on Facebook.
Click the images below to view (via Twitter).
“Those people think they can sit in the comfort of their homes and do whatever they want on the internet. We don’t let that happen. They can’t hide from us, we will find them,” Werneck said.
Virtual racism. Real consequences.
Racist trolls in Brazil get publicly shamed in their own neighborhoods:
https://t.co/cgaBvZMsz8
— AJ+ (@ajplus) December 1, 2015
Featured image via Twitter
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