A group of Twitter terrorists are reporting ex-Muslim LGBT women and vocal LGBT sympathizers to the authorities in the Middle East. In countries such as Kuwait, where homosexuality is prosecuted through “debauchery” laws, death is the most extreme form of punishment outed individuals could face at the hands of the government. The identities and locations of these women are traced through social media accounts (typically anonymous for safety reasons) with the intention of publicizing their real information, a process known as doxing, and sent directly to the police or government. As a result, the personal safety of these women is endangered. They face imprisonment, physical punishment, possibly even death — and this is entirely legal.
According to The Daily Beast, a Twitter user known as @old_gaes devoted their account to bringing ex-Muslim women supporting LGBT rights to the attention of both government and police. One of their victims, a 16 year old Kuwaiti girl known simply as @Pharaohoe, subsequently Tweeted “they fucking found me,” “im gonna puke,” and deactivated her account as a result.
Since this incident, numerous Twitter users have expressed concern for @Pharaohoe’s well being. One asked Twitter Support to intervene and seek confirmation that she is safe, as the site provided a platform for women such as @Pharaohoe to be targeted. At present, there is nothing to suggest their questions have been answered. Twitter says that “we do not comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons.”
The @old_gaes account, at least, has been banned.
Some Twitter users have expressed approval of the way in which @old_gaes targeted her. One response reads: “hope they do catch you and you get f— 🙂”
Twitter user @iBxdr said that “Arab gays and atheists live amongst us, but if every person got up and defended his faith and spread Dawah [education] to every gay and atheist, they would disappear from Twitter.”
This tactical doxing is not simply the work of “trolls,” though, as some have called them. There is a marked difference between harassing women online and potentially sending women to their deaths. These actions have severe real-world consequences for the women targeted. It is a campaign of strategic intimidation designed to silence the protesting of human rights violations, to quash support for LGBT rights.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, one anonymous Twitter user explained that “this tactic is not new at all. Many Arab atheists, political dissenters, and LGBQT [Twitter users] are doxed into silence. That’s why you find many of these accounts are anonymous, so that if they are targeted, their identity won’t be revealed.”
To dismiss this pattern of behavior as mere trolling is to ignore the consequences beyond the computer screen. To ignore the extent of the harm directly caused is to deny the value of the lives of queer Arab women and girls. It is the ultimate insult to those like @Pharaohoe who are brave enough to speak out and challenge the status quo. In 2012, Hamad al-Naqi was sentenced to a decade in prison for “blasphemy” on Twitter — the threat is very real.
As one Twitter user observed, “They’re not ‘Twitter trolls’, they’re murderers and homophobes who are sending Arab queers to their deaths.”
