Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Twitter users are revealing the identities of Charlottesville white supremacist protestors

The @YesYoureRacist Twitter account is leading the way.

Ku Klux Klan Protests Planned Removal Of General Lee Statue From VA Park
Ku Klux Klan Protests Planned Removal Of General Lee Statue From VA Park
Chet Strange / Getty
Jason Del Rey
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.

If the white nationalists and supremacists at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., were looking to be noticed, mission accomplished.

A group of Twitter users — most notably the @YesYoureRacist account — have been publishing photos of the protestors on the social networking site and asking followers for help identifying them.

One of the first to be identified on Saturday — a 20-year-old college student named Peter Cvjetanovic — told the Channel 2 news station in Reno, Nevada that he “did not expect the photo to be shared as much as it was.”

“I understand the photo has a very negative connotation,” he said. “But I hope that the people sharing the photo are willing to listen that I’m not the angry racist they see in that photo.”

Cvjetanovic traveled to the Unite the Right march to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee, he said, because “the replacement of the statue will be the slow replacement of white heritage within the United States and the people who fought and defended and built their homeland.”

Simply identifying someone by name from a public photo does not appear to violate Twitter’s policies, but publishing private information such as a phone number, home address or social security number typically would.

The day of protests ended in a fatality when a 32-year-old local resident named Heather Heyer was killed by a protester who drove his car through a crowd, injuring 19 others. The police have arrested James Alex Fields Jr., an Ohio resident, and charged him with second-degree murder in the attack.

The tragedy in Charlottesville comes amid a tense national discourse over prejudice and racism that has been enflamed by the election of President Donald Trump, who has received support from certain hate groups.

At the same time, the tech industry continues to struggle with its own racial and gender issues, where white men still vastly outnumber all others. Last week, Google fired an employee who authored a controversial memo that suggested there are fewer women in tech because of biological differences between them and men.

The firing has been seized upon by the alt-right, including favorite son Jack Posobiec, who has mounted a campaign against the company with a possible protest later this week.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh