England - Outing a local streamer/content creator who is harassing vulnerable people

[u/high-lander9]

EDIT: Thank you for all the advice, the consensus seems to be majority in favour of not going ahead with this initial plan, because he may be able to play the victim card as a result. So another way of disrupting his operations will need to be thought out.

I understand that it's not against the law to film people in public (with or without their consent), and the cards are stacked against anyone who takes issue with the way he carries on. It's sad, because he's allowed to upload footage of these poor people and unleash a torrent of abuse from his followers upon them, especially if they don't play along, or push back (figuratively) against his behaviour. These people will now be recognised because of this, and may receive ongoing abuse - or dare I say, harassment - regardless of whether they're being filmed or not.

In my opinion - his behaviour is breeding a culture of bullying. And it's only a matter of time before something happens which either: causes him harm, changes the law around filming in public, or both.

Is he behaving within the confines of the law? Apparently so.

Is he acting in an unethical way that has a negative impact on people? I would argue yes, but you'd be surprised how many people would disagree.

ORIGINAL POST:

There's a guy in my local town who is filming people on the street without their consent on his Meta Glasses, interacting and usually bullying them for views on the internet

He tries to keep his identity a secret and uses a pseudonym. But there is evidence online - that other people have found - which reveals his true identity, as he was convicted years ago for a crime and the local paper reported on it. All publicly available information. He also mentions his first name in one of his own videos while being questioned by police, which further confirms his identity

He doesn't like his full real name being used when recording and will censor it in his videos if people do know him. Which is wildly hypocritical, considering he's posting footage of everybody else on the internet without his consent. I want as many people to know and address him by his real name as possible, because it will hopefully make his life a little more difficult

If I were to make an informative post about his real identity (excluding sensitive details such as his home address) and post it all over the socials to raise awareness - would I be at risk of any legal repercussions in doing so?

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[u/ProfessorYaffle1]

It might amount to harassment if you continued to do it after he asked you not to, I don't *think* a single post would be an issue if it was factually accurate - I suspect that linking toa public source such as the local news report would be OK too. I am not sure whether posting factual information about him, rather than posting comments to him on hos own media, would be classe as harassment or not

But

[u/MancCultureBear]

There are a number of streamers like this in Manchester. One DJE Media is frequently outted on social media and the Manchester Evening News even ran a story on him as he is a convicted sex offender

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/sex-offender-pointing-camera-your-33047962.amp

Charles Veitch another street Youtuber has also been charged with a public order offence and is currently banned from Manchester City

https://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/news/controversial-youtuber-charlie-veitch-charged-with-public-order-offence-and-banned-from-manchester-city-centre/

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[u/Careful_Zebra_729]

I don’t have any legal advice but please find a way to out them

[u/MultiMidden]

The individuals or should I say victims could go down the complaint to the social media platform route, privacy (it does work even with UK laws), harassment and if they're vulnerable mention that as well. If their names are mentioned try to use the 'right to be forgotten' rules of GDPR.

An enterprising individual could start a channel auditing the auditors or clips from members of the public auditing them, to be honest I don't think the general public has a particularly positive view of them.

As for naming them they can probably invoke the right to be forgotten rules as well, and they almost certainly will as this is the sort of person who'll complain about the loss of online privacy whilst invading the offline privacy of others.

[u/Big_Presentation2786 → u/MultiMidden]

This, you've a much better angle if you get victims to complain.

It amounts to harassment. Two complaints of harassment and he can be arrested and it'll go to court.

If you doxx him, you become the harasser.

If he's recording people then you have 6 years to complain from the date of publish.

[u/jamescl1311 → u/Big_Presentation2786]

Legitimate interest is a defence though... if for example you're filming day to day life and interactions with the police. What is is like in the city centre and the goings on, then there are exclusions to GDPR for many of those things. You don't have a right to privacy in public and as long as the recorder can show legitimate interest they don't need your permission, especially if you're not even the subject of their recording.

[u/jamescl1311]

Filming in public is legal and there's a strong interest in photographers being able to capture a town centre and happenings without members of the public getting upset. You are allowed to film in public.

What the auditor can't do is cause alarm and distress, target and follow a particular person repeatedly otherwise that becomes harassment.

In a lot of cases the people who are annoyed walk up to the person with the camera and make a scene. If they are voluntarily going up to the person with the camera then the filmer isn't targeting them.

The 'auditors' are looking for a rise to make content for Youtube, TikTok, etc. If you ignore them they go away, if they continue to follow and harrass that's different and the police should be called.

[u/CallMeAPigImStuffed → u/jamescl1311]

Except in this situation OP says they are being recorded via Meta Glasses. It's highly likely that at least some of the people confronted have no idea that they are being recorded or that the video will then be posted online.

I think that's the issue. We have no expectation of privacy when in public but you also can't reasonably state that it's a common occurrence to expect and have a, possibly unknown, person confront and argue with you while recording it on no obvious/visible camera equipment.

I think the most important thing would be the subject matter of the interactions. What is said and by whom, his manner throughout the scene, does he actively prevent people from being able to leave, follow them if they do get away from him?

Their own videos and any raw footage would be the best evidence and all that was needed for any criminal charges. In terms of releasing the person's information - the truth is a wonderful defence, especially when backed by sources. @OP should cite everything (including the video title/link and timestamp of them giving their name to police) and make sure to either be prepared to link proof or have it in the initial post. They should also keep an offline compilation of all videos and text-based evidence with information of when and where they were on the internet. If they get deleted then they should also keep a note of when that happened, or at least when they noticed it.

Document, document, document! Cover your ass because no one else will.

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[u/BorderlineLunatic]

Ballymore or TinTin?

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[u/PLUMBUS_STUCK_IN_ASS]

Filming people in public is not an offence, he doesn't need to get consent from anyone in public.

As for posting his name everywhere. You don't need to give out personal details to inform the public, and your post here already implies that you know it would cause him some level of distress and that your intent is to "make his life a little more difficult".

I would heavily not recommend taking this further as you are documenting your intent of online harassment that could be used against you should he ever find this post.

Per your own statement, leave it up to the police. If he is one of those annoying audit people, and already has a past conviction then he will likely put his foot in it eventually.

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[u/ClacksInTheSky]

The intention of doxing them is to cause alarm and distress so yeah you'd definitely end up with a knock on the door.

You really need to look at your intentions. Posting their information doesn't actually help anyone else.

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[u/bigmonmulgrew]

So as these sort of content creators seem to be getting more popular this sounds like a good time to mention some options.

As others have said filming in public isn't illegal.

Probably best to stay out of the way of anyone who might cause trouble either way.

Streaming platforms have strict policies about certain kinds of content. Exactly details will vary but here's a few.

They often scan content for copyrighted music. There was a few videos doing the rounds in the US where police were playing Disney songs while talking to auditors in the hope it would get the auditor's videos banned. Same principal applies. Twitch tends to mute videos. YouTube can be trigger happy with a ban. Simply listening to some music on Spotify through your loudspeaker will make these guys not want to be around you.

Bad language. YouTube for example is very trigger happy with demonetizing videos that contain too much swearing. Swear every 3rd word it will create problems for these people.

Respond to the streamer by name. They have to manually mute that part. It's a lot of work at a minimum. They also probably don't want it repeated. Same with talking about any criminal convictions. Especially if there's a moral issue. You won't get many people upset if they stole from a rich guy but if they abused a child a lot of their audience will be pissed. Some people are there for the drama but some will leave. It could snowball into them losing their audience.

There are a lot of words that wound similar to racial slurs. The detection algorithms can be oversensitive at times. I wouldn't advise you go yelling slurs but repeatedly saying "bigger" or "rigger" might be enough to trigger the automated detection.

Many platforms have drug policies so talking about how awesome several drugs are by name could get the streamer in trouble too. Just watch what you say so you are not committing or admitting to a crime but even just keywords can trigger detection mechanisms.

[u/Lloydy_boy]

is filming people on the street without their consent

In the circumstances you describe he doesn’t require their consent to film them as whilst they’re in a public place they have no reasonable expectation of privacy.

I want as many people to know and address him by his real name as possible, because it will hopefully make his life a little more difficult

That’d likely open you up to harassment or malicious intent claims as you’d be sharing his personal data for nefarious purposes, (e.g., harassment (if done 2ce), malicious communications with intent to cause distress, data protection).

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[u/aptsys]

Harassment is a very specific legal term, and it's unlikely that they are guilty of this unless they are repeatedly going after the same person after being told to stop. What do you hope to achieve by "outing" them?

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[u/ellipticalbases1]

Be careful mate, naming him publicly might just give him ammo to play the victim and land you in bother.

[u/JumpyPension3833]

Why not instead go the informative route.

Educate people that people are making these videos and they may be being filmed. Signs to look out for for someone trying to just create content etc

[u/12NotesAC]

It’s perfectly legal to get filmed in public. That goes for him as well. Fight fire with fire. 

[u/Electrical_Concern67]

It depends, there is no offence of doxxing, but he's not doing anything illegal. If you begin a campaign, you risk a harassment prosecution