![]() ![]() Personal communications immediately became a target for criminalizing abortion seekers and providers after the reversal of Roe v Wade. For many of these groups and individuals, Slack is an absolutely vital communication tool, but it could also become the basis of government targeting, repression, censorship.įor years, law enforcement has monitored marginalized groups-including BIPOC, immigrants, social justice activists, women, and sex workers-through their online communications and through other forms of surveillance. In the US and around the world, governments are using data and digital communications to target human rights defenders and people exposing human rights violations, including political nonprofits, activist networks, journalists. Safety should be a built-in feature of all technology, so we are calling on you to protect your users by providing the option to enable end-to-end encryption for messages to protect our privacy, and to add blocking, muting and reporting features to help protect users from harassment. Slack has put the security of our communities in danger by not taking steps to ensure user safety. We are activists organizing for change journalists who communicate with sources and about sensitive stories nonprofits providing care and support for our communities companies that need to streamline our processes and share ideas students, creators, gamers, alumni, artists, athletes, and other communities that use the Internet to connect with people all over the world. We are businesses, organizations, communities, and individuals who depend on tools like Slack to connect online. ![]() Companies, organizations, communities, and individuals: sign the open letter to Make Slack Safe. With enough pressure, we can get Slack to make these common sense changes to protect users. Most tools we use to communicate have a way to block people. End-to-end encryption is already spreading across messaging systems: Facebook is planning to make it the default for Messenger, it’s been discussed at Twitter, and WhatsApp and Signal are already encrypted by default. While Slack has shrugged off requests to implement end-to-end encryption in the past, we can make the company change if enough people demand improvements to the safety of the platform. Slack should add a block feature to give people the ability to stop abusive messages from reaching them and a reporting feature so those that start new Slack servers or are the main admins can more easily support users in their servers to be as safe as possible. A reporting system for Slack would help harassment victims more easily, in real time, document harm, with necessary information on what happened. Administrators on these platforms are able to see harassment reports with time stamps, and contextual information, like descriptions, of what happened from reporters and take actions to mitigate this harm. And platforms like Mastodon, Discord, and even Twitch have the ability to report abusive messages. We’re able to block phone numbers, text messages, and DMs over Instagram or Twitter. This is especially serious given existing structures that lead to victim-blaming and the downplaying of sexual abuse. No one should have to put up with abusive communications in order to use Slack for work or to connect with communities online. Harassment over Slack:ĭespite the fact that online harassment of workers is on the rise (especially since many people moved to remote work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic), Slack refuses to add a tool to allow people to block other users or report content. Pregnant people – as well as LBGTQ+ people, racial justice activists, women, Black and brown people, immigrants, journalists, and others who have been disproportionately surveilled and targeted by law enforcement historically – all benefit enormously from end-to-end encrypted messaging. ![]() All of these repressive laws will be prosecuted using unencrypted messages. States are also criminalizing gender-affirming healthcare and other acts of bodily autonomy. The privacy of our messages has become extremely critical in a post-Roe US, where dozens of states are passing or considering laws criminalizing all kinds of activities-not just getting an abortion but helping a friend get one, helping someone access abortion pills, and even sharing information about how to get an abortion. These messages could be used to harass users, union-bust, repress political activism, or to criminalize abortions. Without this security, Slack employees, hackers, your boss, and law enforcement can all gain access to your communications, and could share them with others. Slack doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption to protect your messages. You might think your personal DMs over Slack are private, but they aren’t.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |