An anonymous website has been set up in Russia and is ‘outing’ protesters who attended the anti-corruption demonstrations in Moscow and other Russian cities set up by Kremlin opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, and his organization. Navally himself has been the target of violet attacks, one of which cost him vision in one eye.
The demonstrators are being identified by facial recognition software and other ‘doxing’ techniques; their social media pages are being posted as well to provide personal details. The consequences in Russian society could be dire as those ‘outed’ may lose jobs, education, or worse, reported the website Meduza, which fled Russia several years ago and is now based in the Balkans.
Video of 2017 Demonstrations in Moscow
“We have carried out a large amount of work, dug through a lot of sources, took apart gigabytes worth of photo archives and used different means to identify the faces,” a message on the front page of the website reads. “Here is the result!
“Give up hope – we’ll find you, too!” says the website.
The site, called ju suit Maidan, a reference to the Maidan Revolution in Kyiv, Ukraine, which outed pro-Russian strongman, Viktor Yanykovych, has identified hundreds of people who attended the recent rallies as well as those in 2012.