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# WikiLeaks Task Force doxing concerns: is Twitter verification making you a target?
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2017/01/wikileaks-doxing-twitter-verification/
- Published: 2017-01-09T14:39:45.000Z
- Updated: 2017-01-09T14:43:08.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: ethics, Journalism, security, Social Media, X (Twitter), verification, verified users, wikileaks

Remember when I was amused by [Twitter deciding that I’m not a journalist](http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/archives/2016/11/journalism-social-media-arbitration.html?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) or in the media? Well, now I’m profoundly glad. Why? Well, this little Tweet from a WikiLeaks-affiliated group went out on Friday:

![WikiLeaks Doxxing](https://i2.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2017/01/C1gc1H9XAAArUss.jpg-large.jpeg?resize=552%2C290&ssl=1 "C1gc1H9XAAArUss.jpg-large.jpeg")

Of course, many, many screenshots had been saved before it got pulled down:

> why did you erase this tweet? [pic.twitter.com/10eYKTcr6f](https://t.co/10eYKTcr6f?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)
> 
> — Anna Masera (@annamasera) [January 7, 2017](https://twitter.com/annamasera/status/817703819438096386?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=onemanandhisblog.com)

WikiLeaks itself tried to distance itself from the tweet – rather unconvincingly:

> [@wikileaks](https://twitter.com/wikileaks?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) have you read your profile? [pic.twitter.com/QQOTxwwKq1](https://t.co/QQOTxwwKq1?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)
> 
> — Richard Lawler (@rjcc) [January 7, 2017](https://twitter.com/rjcc/status/817558352536317952?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)

And even the original account tried to walk it back:

> Dishonest press reporting our speculative idea for database of account influencing *relationships* with WikiLeaks doxing home addresses.
> 
> — WikiLeaks Task Force (@WLTaskForce) [January 6, 2017](https://twitter.com/WLTaskForce/status/817470461529427968?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=onemanandhisblog.com)

That’s a rather disingenuous reply, because the original tweet specified “family/job/financial/**housing** relationships” (emphasis mine). To track housing relationships, you need to track addresses. And for an organisation as committed to releasing information as WikiLeaks and its supporters have become – that inevitable raises the spectre of doxing – the politically-motivated release of personal information about people.

Inevitably many of my journalist friends on Facebook – the verified ones working on mainstream national publications that is – were nervous about this, mainly because of the mention of family. Most mainstream journalist accept that there is an element of risk in their work – but bringing families into it is frankly sinister.

Here’s a thought: has the little “verified” tick, originally intended to increase trust in Twitter, by making it harder for people to be fooled by fake and imposter accounts, actually proving counter-productive? It makes a really handy target marker for those perceived as “important” – and in these populist times, that makes them targets…