On Thursday, a 4chan user linked to a massive pastebin document in a thread called “ANTIFA GETS DOXXED.”
The pastebin file has been traveling around the internet since at least April. It started as a scattered collection of names, phone numbers, addresses, and social media accounts of about 3,000 people — and now, months later, it’s grown into a massive organized database of apparently thousands more.
The sprawling document, which is still up, opens with text reading, “Someone hacked Antifa [sic], and got the entire list of people available for antifa activities.”
The list is a hodgepodge of names and personal information collected over months, but the origins of the list date back to a petition set up in April by the organization Refuse Fascism.
Refusefascism.org’s petition was a list of people who signed a letter condemning the Trump administration and accusing it of spreading fascism.
“We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America! Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime,” the petition reads. “The Trump/Pence Regime is a Fascist Regime. Not insult or exaggeration, this is what it is. For the future of humanity and the planet, we, the people, must drive this regime out.”
The petition was linked to on 4chan, with a user writing, “These fucking imbecilic ‘antifa’ have given us a wonderful gift!! They have created a list of names for /pol/ to crawl through and cross check all the hundreds of antifa sympathizers.”
A day later, 4chan users began organizing a way to look up the names on refusefascism.org’s petition by turning it into a game. Instead of usernames, 4chan gives users a number generated by the order of when they post. The original poster told users that if their post ended in 00–04, they would look up last names with A; if it ended in 05–08, they would look up last names with B; and so on.
“We will respond to this attack by exposing to the world the nature and danger posed by these fascist cowards, by defeating their attempts to destroy people’s lives, and by bringing forward even more people to stand up against the fascist regime to say: NO! We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America,” Refuse Fascism told BuzzFeed News when the pastebin file started getting compiled.
The document has grown considerably since April, easily tripling in size, and no longer simply listing the names from Refuse Fascism. The document now breaks down “anti-fascists” by perceived organization.
One section contains Facebook profiles for people associated with By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), a pro-immigration coalition.
BAMN did not immediately respond to a BuzzFeed News request for comment.
Another section is titled “AntiFa/ShareBlue” and contains 833 names of people believed to be associated with ShareBlue, a left-wing social publisher.
