WASHINGTON — A new blog that exposes racial slurs on social media about President Barack Obama’s re-election could draw the attention of the U.S. Secret Service, even though most of its subjects — two of whom are from Maryland — appear to be of high school and college age.
The website “Hello There, Racists!” which has only existed since Nov. 11, had “outed” 77 subjects by Thursday afternoon. Its creator, who has not been identified, did not respond to an electronic request for comment.
The blog, which is hosted by the popular microblogging platform Tumblr, welcomes its visitors with a challenge:
“The (un)official motto of the GOP is ‘personal responsibility’ — so with publicly available information, let the words, names, and faces of these racists be documented so that they may be responsible for them,” the message reads.
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While the people behind the racial slurs may find themselves in legal trouble, the website’s creator may be treading on ethically unstable ground.
“If all this stuff is publicly available, and they’re taking the information without using any illegal methods, it’s fair game,” said Bradley Shear, a Bethesda lawyer specializing in social media and Internet law. “Everyone has a right to state their opinion; however, people also have a right to be held accountable.”
Shear said social media users need to be aware of the dangers of reckless tweeting, but suggested the lesson could serve as a teaching moment — however bruising the lesson may be.
via Website Calls Out Authors of Racist Anti-Obama Posts | CNS Maryland. Note the the blog described here has already been taken down.