The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-02)

A16 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, MAY 2 , 2022

BY DANIELLE ABRIL

AND HEATHER KELLY

Hate mail, death threats, dox-
ing, lewd images and garden-vari-
ety insults. If you’re active online,
there’s a possibility that one day
you could find yourself on the
receiving end of harassment. That
risk is higher for people more
likely to be targeted because of
their race, gender, sexual orienta-
tion or gender identity.
It’s a huge problem and one
that needs to be addressed
through moderation, filters and
social media policies. However,
there are some things individuals
can do to protect themselves in
the moment. Here is a checklist to
get you started.
Turn on Twitter filters. If
you’re receiving unwelcome
tweets and replies, there is a quick
way to make them invisible to you.
On Twitter, go to Settings and
Privacy Privacy and Safety
Mute and Block Muted Notifica-
tions. Check all the boxes here you
think you need.
Turn on TikTok safety fea-
tures. If the harassment extends

to TikTok, go to Settings and Pri-

vacy Privacy. S et y our account to

private or turn off comments, al-

low only friends to mention you

and set your following list to “only

me.” If you leave comments on, set

comment filters, which allow you

to block comments based on key

words.

Block, mute, repeat. If you’re

dealing with harassment from

specific people on social media

sites, messaging apps, text, phone

or email, you can block them so

their messages don’t come

through. Muting is another op-

tion on sites such as Twitter, and it

means you won’t see what they

say and they won’t know that

you’ve muted them. Perhaps that

could prevent them from seeking

out other methods to contact you.

Set social media accounts to

private. One of the easiest ways to

avoid online trolls is to set your

social accounts — including your

profile on LinkedIn — to private

so that only the people you are

connected to can see your posts.

You can often select a setting to

keep even those limited profiles

out of search results.

Turn off comments and close

DMs. If you want to stay public-

facing, most social media sites

have options for turning off or

limiting comments. On TikTok

and Instagram, you can turn off

the ability t o comment on individ-

ual posts. On Instagram, you can

also hide comments for all posts if

they contain offensive words or

custom phrases. On Twitter, you

can make it so only people you

follow or people you mention can

reply to a tweet.

Use an anti-harassment tool.

Third-party apps such as Block

Party can filter your notifications

even further, including sending

harassing messages and tweets to

a separate folder for later review.

Ta ll Poppy is a similar anti-harass-

ment tool companies use for em-

ployees.

Email filters. Set up email fil-

ters that are triggered by harass-

ing terms or words. You can re-

route messages to a separate fold-

er to keep your main i nbox harass-

ment-free.

Ask someone else to screen

your messages. If you block, mute

or filter harassing messages, you

can designate someone to read

the messages in case any contain

real-life threats or imminent dan-

ger, while sparing your mental

health.

Avoid posting personal infor-

mation. Once the online harass-

ment begins, be cognizant of ev-

erything you post during that

time. Don’t post photos that may

show identifiable information

about where you live or pictures of

loved ones, or anything with loca-

tion data.

Ask Google to remove sensi-

tive information. G oogle r ecently

added an option to request the

search engine remove personally

identifiable information from re-

sults or its own pages, such as

credit card and social security

numbers. It won’t remove public

records and will ask if you’re be-

ing threatened when considering

some removals.

Remove any visible connec-

tions to family and friends. On-

line trolls will often go after your

loved ones during a harassment

campaign. You can protect the

people in your life by removing

profile links to members of your

family, spouses and children from

social media accounts such as

Facebook. Be sure to hide your

friend lists and even temporarily

unfriend those who share your

last name.

Untag all photos of yourself.

This will prevent trolls from ha-

rassing people that appear in pho-

tos with you or from finding imag-

es of you to use in negative ways.

You can change settings on most

social media sites to prohibit peo-

ple from tagging you without per-

mission. Also, make sure your al-

bums on online photo services are

set to private, including those you

may have forgotten such as Flickr.

Erase your details from the

Internet. Manually removing all

that sensitive data can be time-

consuming, if not impossible.

Consider a paid service like

Delete Me or Kanary, which regu-

larly check data-broker sites and

delete the information they have

on you.

Report all threats. You can re-

port social media posts to those

services and to your employer’s

security team, if they have one. If

you have received messages

threatening harm to you or your

loved ones, or if your address has

been exposed, it is time to alert

law enforcement.

Document all harassment.

Keep a record of all harassing

messages you receive, whether by

saving emails or taking screen-

shots of direct messages or tweets.

You may need the evidence to

alert authorities or your employ-

er. To ensure the original version

is available, archive instances of

harassment in online forums and

on social media using sites such as

archive.org.

Have a plan for relocation. If

your personal address has been

compromised and you receive a

dangerous threat, you may need

to relocate. Make sure you have a

place where you can go until the

danger subsides.

Share safety tips with your

family. Make sure those closest to

you know that they may also be

targeted and that they should take

similar steps to protect them-

selves.

Taylor Lorenz contributed to this

report.

Filters and safety features among tools to protect against o nline harassment

gas companies t o take advantage of

new drilling opportunities. The In-

ternational Energy Agency last

year said that “there is no need for

investment in new fossil fuel sup-

ply in our net zero pathway,” if the

world is going to stick to the goal of

limiting global warming to 1.5 de-

grees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit)

above preindustrial levels.

Shell and the South African gov-

ernment have said that oil or gas

production would bolster the

country’s energy security and eco-

nomic development, including lo-

cal job opportunities.

“This is the least developed

province,” Gwede Mantashe, a

longtime ANC stalwart who is now

the country’s energy minister, said

in a phone interview. “If we are too

liberal about development, inves-

tors won’t w ait, and we will remain

poor.” H e has also opposed an inter-

national plan to wind down coal-

fired power plants and replace

them with renewable sources.

But those arguments have failed

to persuade people living along the

Wild Coast, the country’s poorest

province, where few, if any, have

the skills required to work in the oil

sector.

Instead, most residents fear the

end of fishing and tourism as their

livelihoods. Though Shell says seis-

mic surveys would be 12.5 to 44

miles offshore, residents envision

oil spills riding the undersea cur-

rent here — the world’s second

swiftest — down the coast and into

nutrient-rich Antarctic waters in

one of the planet’s last truly un-

touched places.

“This ocean is our life, so it is

nothing less than that which Shell

would destroy,” said Zingisa

Ludude, 62, who protested the

blasting by writing slogans in the

sand along the beach where she

harvests mussels for a living. “Ev-

erything we need comes from the

ocean.”

Shell has long been one of the

world’s top oil companies. Built in

the late 1800s by a tightknit family

from east London, Shell now oper-

ates in 70 countries. It has survived

world wars, pandemics and mar-

ket shocks, and recently said it

might write off as much as $5 bil-

lion for exiting Russia.

Shell produces about 2.4 million

barrels a day of oil and natural gas

equivalents. It has helped keep

SEE SOUTH AFRICA ON A

BY MAX BEARAK

AND STEVEN MUFSON

wild coast, south africa —
The public notification from Shell,
the oil giant, was clear: In one
month it would send a ship to con-
duct a seismic survey, using deaf-
eningly loud sound waves to map
more than 2,300 square miles of
geology beneath the deep waters
off this stretch of South Africa’s
coast.
Shell says that there have been
35 seismic surveys conducted off-
shore near South Africa over the
past decade, each one lasting about
three months. “Our assessment
was that we could conduct a simi-
lar acquisition in a safe and respon-
sible manner,” said Bill Langin,
senior vice president for deepwater
exploration at Shell.

But this time was different. Ev-

eryone from fishers to surfers to

eco-lodge owners, both Black and

White, joined to protect the pris-

tine coast, home to legendary mi-

grations of whales, dolphins, sea

turtles and sardines. In December,

they took the London-based multi-

national corporation to court —

and won. The seismic s urvey vessel

that Shell hired, the Amazon War-

rior, left.

Shell had argued that the com-

plaints about harm were “of a spec-

ulative nature,” but G.H. Bloem, a

judge on one of South Africa’s 13

regional high courts, declared “The

expert evidence establishes that

there is a reasonable apprehension

of real harm to marine life.” He

added that the court had “a duty to

step in” and protect people’s c onsti-

tutional right to be consulted.

South African activists

prevail over Big Oil

t o halt a drilling project

After decades when the promise

of economic development drove

decisions about when to permit

drilling and exploration — espe-

cially in the developing world —

the outcome was a victory for the

people living along the South Afri-

ca coast who opposed the explora-

tion. And it was a setback for Shell

at a time when concerns about

climate change have made it in-

creasingly difficult for large oil and

MAX BEARAK/THE WASHINGTON POST

Activist Sinegugu Zukulu, 51, a t the mouth of the Msikaba River in

South Africa, where people make their livelihood from fishing.

2022

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