Leftists are threatening to dox incoming freshmen students at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), claiming they will release the students’ personal information if they are caught joining conservative groups on campus, namely the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) and Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
“Hey UT23! Do you wanna be famous?” tweeted an account allegedly operated by leftist students, “If you join YCT or Turning Point USA, you just might be. Your name and more could end up on an article like one of these. So be sure to make smart choices at #UTOrientation.”
The tweet also contained two links from an anarchist blog called “Austin Autonomedia.” The blog posts include personal information — such as the names, phone numbers, and emails —belonging to the school’s YCT and TPUSA members.
The term “dox” refers to the disclosure of personal, private information — such as a phone number or home address — belonging to a specific individual, which is typically posted to the Internet or in a public area for others to use with malicious intent.
“Over the past months, we’ve gathered lots of data connecting various parties within the YCT and telling us more about their activities,” reads one blog post published last October, “So far, we have 4 articles published on this site about the YCT — we’re putting out this compilation of all of the information on all of the YCT members we currently know of.”
“Two weeks ago, the new chapter of Turning Point USA at UT hosted their first meeting,” states a second blog post published a week later, “It was interrupted for a while by a fire alarm, forcing the meeting to move outside — where it was easy to see and overhear their conversation.”
“We’ve gathered intelligence about what exactly happened at this meeting, who is involved in TPUSA, and what TPUSA’s emergence on campus means,” continues the blog, “We encourage you to share this article with your professors, TAs, classmates, and other networks.”
The blog goes on to actively encourage the harassment of conservative students, stating that it is “extremely important to get organized early, while this [TPUSA] group is in its infancy.”
“Building connections and sharing information between students and professors will be essential to solidarity campaigns in case of targeted harassment,” reads the blog, “Disrupting their organizing, slowing down their recruitment, and shutting down their larger events will make their efforts both uncomfortable, infeasible, and unprofitable.”
“They should be organized against accordingly,” affirms the Austin Autonomedia blog.
The following month, when the school’s TPUSA group held an event on campus, leftist students attempted to shut down the event. One of the groups involved in organizing the protests was the “Autonomous Student Network.” Two leftists were arrested as a result of the protests.
Moreover, the same group had also harassed and doxed pro-Kavanaugh students on campus. In the fall 2018 semester, leftists at UT Austin surrounded conservative students during a pro-Kavanaugh demonstration, where they shouted obscenities and destroyed signs expressing support of the judge.
The next day, the pro-Kavanaugh students were doxed in yet another blog post by the same “Austin Autonomedia” website.
According to the recent tweet, it appears the leftists are preparing to dox incoming freshmen who dare to join conservative groups on campus — and given their track record, it doesn’t seem as though it is simply an empty threat.
“Students should never be targeted or face harassment for their affiliations, political beliefs or any other reason,” said UT Austin spokesperson Shilpa Bakre to Breitbart News, “The anonymous group behind this doxxing is not affiliated with the university, is not a registered student group and should not present itself in that way.”
“As they did last fall, University Police are continuing to work to ensure the safety of any targeted students and monitor for any potential criminal acts,” added Bakre.
Update — A UT Austin spokesperson has provided an additional statement to Breitbart News: “No members of our community should be targeted for their affiliations or political beliefs. The university has reached out to the Texas Attorney General’s Office for guidance on the scope of legal remedies that may be available to protect our students, faculty and staff from these outside threats.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.