UT-Austin asks AG for 'legal remedies' after threat of conservative student doxxing
One leftist student group recently took to Twitter, where it threatened to release the personal information of incoming freshmen seeking to join conservative groups.
The University of Texas-Austin says it has contacted the Texas Attorney General's office about recent threats against conservative students.
The University of Texas at Austin says it has contacted the Texas Attorney General’s office regarding one leftist group’s recent threat against incoming freshmen seeking to join conservative campus groups.
As Campus Reform previously reported, the group that calls itself the Autonomous Student Network threatened to release students’ personal information if they chose to become part of a conservative campus group in the fall. The same group previously released the personal information of students who publicly supported then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
”Hey #UT23! Do you wanna be famous? If you join YCT [Young Conservatives of Texas] or Turning Point USA, you just might be. Your name and more could end up on an article like one of these,” the group tweeted in June, referencing its previous doxxing efforts.
[RELATED: Incoming Texas freshmen threatened with doxxing if they join conservative campus groups]
UT-Austin responded to Campus Reform in a statement at the time, saying, “no members of our community should be targeted for their affiliations or political beliefs,” but appeared at that time to stop short of taking any formal action.
Now, weeks later, UT-Austin spokesman J.B. Bird has confirmed to Campus Reform that the university has taken further steps.
”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,” Bird said. “We have in the past spoken out against this group’s actions to dox our students and members of our own staff.”
Referencing the group’s doxxing via Twitter in fall 2018, Bird said the university complained to the social networking site, resulting in the Autonomous Student Network’s account being suspended.
[RELATED: Communism sympathizers post numbers, jobs of pro-Kavanaugh protesters]
”This time around, we have once again reported to Twitter the new account that threatened to dox UT students. The threat of doxxing is a violation of Twitter’s terms of service,” Bird added.
At the time of publication of this article, the Twitter account that threatened to dox incoming conservative students was still active and the tweet in question was still visible.
In early 2018, Twitter banned the account of Revolutionary Student Front, an Antifa student group claiming to be affiliated with UT-Austin, after the group said “bricks belong best thrown at pig heads” and targeted students with mental illness for recruitment.
Neither Twitter nor the Texas attorney general’s office responded to requests for comment in time for publication.
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