- Not all of members knew they had been added to the group at first, and many didn’t participate in the conversations that resulted in the leak.
- Last week, a transcript from the group chat was leaked and uploaded onto social media by pro-Palestinians, including the writer Clementine Ford.
- The leak gives rise to a complex tangle of contemporary ethical issues, including concerns with privacy, doxing, free speech and “cancelling”.
Read more:
Israel-Hamas war: What is Zionism? A history of the political movement that created Israel as we know it
Privacy and public interest
- The WhatsApp group was a private one, where group members would have had a reasonable expectation that their conversation would not be made public.
- Violating people’s privacy (especially through leaking information onto the forever-searchable internet) is always a moral cost.
- But sometimes that cost must be paid, particularly if the exposure is in the public interest.
- It could be argued that revealing the WhatsApp group’s activities was in the public interest.
The ethics of doxing
- It is usually done without the person’s consent, and aims to expose or punish them in some way.
- A statement from those behind the release asserted no links had been made to members’ addresses, phone numbers or emails, which were all deliberately redacted.
- However, the release of people’s identities is still a form of doxing and a serious moral concern.
- Read more:
What is doxing, and how can you protect yourself?
What was the WhatsApp group doing?
The WhatsApp group conversations were wide-ranging, and some members made statements many might find offensive or upsetting. One part of the group’s activities involved organised letter-writing, including to the employers or publishers of writers or journalists they felt crossed the line into anti-Semitism.
- Letters can be used to raise awareness of ethical concerns, to share information and ideas, and to persuade.
- But letters can also do other things, and an innocuous practice can sometimes gradually progress into more fraught territory.
- They can also try to get people to act in ways that are morally concerning — such as having someone sacked for their political views.
Should artists be protected?
Before the story broke in the media, but after extracts from the group chat began circulating on social media, the Australian Society of Authors Board published a letter noting its “growing concern” that artists and authors in Australia were facing repercussions for expressing their political positions publicly or in their work. The society stated its commitment to freedom of speech (within the limits set by law) and its opposition to attempts to silence or intimidate authors.
- The society also opposed attempts to intimidate or silence people through hate speech, explicitly noting antisemitism, and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab rhetoric.
- Hate speech, racism and bigotry, and harmful disinformation or stereotyping, should be stopped, and speakers should face the consequences of their wrongdoing.
- What we perceive as dangerous misinformation or harmful speech (like antisemitism or Islamophobia) will inevitably be coloured by our cultural, political and moral worldviews.
- But it is precisely those who think differently who will disagree with us about what counts as harmful or wrongful speech.
Ethical worries
- Punishing, undermining and silencing others on the basis of our political beliefs gives rise to two potential ethical worries (both arise with respect to the modern phenomenon of “cancel culture”).
- Each side declares: “We are a support group nobly taking a stand against harmful bigotry and hate.
- Now, I have reason to push back against you – to no longer tolerate your speech.
- Tragically, some isolated individuals – not necessarily connected to the pro-Palestinians – felt justified in going further, even to threats of violence.
Hugh Breakey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
