Online detectives race to identify people who attacked UCLA camp

Within hours of violence erupting at UCLA this week, online detectives went to work.

He took videos of mostly masked rioters who attacked the pro-Palestinian student camp near the Quad and tried to zoom in on faces. He gazed at each frame, waiting for the moment when the masks slipped away and faces were revealed on the screen to be photographed. Then, they uploaded those faces to X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and other social media platforms and requested the Internet to do their work.

From across the country and the world, people logged in and joined the collective research effort.

Soon, the names of the alleged criminals, and in some cases identifying details such as places of employment, were posted online along with photographs. License plates of cars owned by alleged pro-Israel protesters were also posted.

Law enforcement officials, including the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, declined to comment on the strategy. But some who study extremism said the online effort to identify and expose alleged perpetrators of the violence at UCLA is another sign of the polarization of civil society at present: people turning to the justice system to investigate or deliver justice. But don’t trust. And they’re taking it upon themselves.

“This is where we are right now,” said Brian Levin, founding director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino. “People feel for their own safety they have to bring their glasses (to protests to avoid tear gas), and they also have to look out for their attackers.”

He added: “Here’s the problem: Sometimes doxxing goes wrong.”

Doxxing – posting someone’s name, address and other identifying data – has been going on for as long as people have been online. but this gained prominence as a tactic following the Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, when people crowdsourced – sometimes incorrectly – the identities of white nationalist rally participants.

Then came January 6, 2021, when thousands of people stormed the US Capitol. A loosely organized group of online spies – Known as the “traitor hunter” – Devoted himself to identifying them and submitting their names to the FBI.

Pro-Palestinian protesters were attacked by an Israeli supporter at a camp at UCLA on Wednesday morning.

(Wally Scalise/Los Angeles)

When a large group of men wearing black clothing and white masks entered the UCLA camp Tuesday evening, pro-Palestinian groups almost immediately began trying to identify them.

“Can anyone recognize this man? @ucla, read a post, “He hit a worker over the head with a wooden plank before punching and kicking another man.”

“If you recognize this man, please DM me. They pepper sprayed me,” read another post on Instagram.

“Identify this criminal,” another person posted on Instagram, showing a photo of a man wearing a black T-shirt with a red scarf pulled down to reveal his face. “The main culprit behind the brutal attack on our colleagues at UCLA last night. *Note: Once he is identified the lawyers will deal with him. Not us. We just need his name.”

Soon after, the business website of a Los Angeles man named as one of the attackers was inundated with angry reviews. Others who were identified hurried to make their social media profiles private, turn off comments on their business pages and set their phones to send all calls to voicemail.

In some cases, online doxxing was immediately followed by an apology for identifying the wrong person.

“Please ignore,” one person wrote on Instagram after criticizing one name. Another photo was tagged with a few different names (there was no clarity on which name was correct).

The Times is not naming any of the people identified online. Reporters attempted to reach many of them but their messages were not returned.

Despite the risk of sending angry online mobs after innocent people, some students at the camp said they felt they had no choice.

“We want to protect ourselves by telling these people,” Nicolette, 26, said Wednesday inside the UCLA camp. She said she suffered several hours of terror as people threw fireworks at the camp, blasted her with pepper spray and threw objects at her, including live rats.

Nicolette said many pro-Palestinian students have also been duped, with their names posted on websites. For the same reason – and to avoid repercussions from university authorities – many students at pro-Palestinian camps across the country this week have also been masked up. And, like Nicolette, they Refused to share Journalists with their full names.

Jenna, a 21-year-old UCLA student, said that before things turned violent, a group of about 10 people arrived, all wearing white masks, adding that she believed the action was “definitely coordinated.” He said, around 11 pm, black trucks came, elderly people came out and a large crowd started moving towards the cantonment.

Another woman, who identified herself as “Niki” and who had been in the camp since Thursday, said students had taken to group chats to share photos and identify some of those responsible.

A pro-Palestinian supporter is being attacked by counter-protesters on the campus of UCLA on May 1. Groups of protesters have clashed with each other on the campus, including pushing, kicking and using sticks to beat each other.

(Trevor Jackson/For The Times)

To some extent, he said, he took it upon himself because he did not expect campus police or authorities to seek out and identify counter-protesters.

“Here, they allowed them to terrorize us all night and did nothing,” she said. The 37-year-old was approached by alleged law enforcement, possibly California Highway Patrol officers, briefly and “left like it was none of their business.”

In group chats, people circulated the addresses and phone numbers of counter-protesters. In the case of a man who was waving a large yellow flag that read “Moshiach” – Messiah – pro-Palestinian people saw him walking towards his car and were able to see what was on his license plate. The man was wearing a black mask and was shouting, “We fear no one except God. God’s Army.”

“We’re going to see what his license plate is, because we’re going to get his ID tonight,” someone said on a video as they followed him to take a picture. “He thinks he is safe, no one will know what his identity is. That’s why he was behaving so courageously.”

Authorities, including the UCLA Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department, have said little about their efforts to identify and arrest those who unleashed violence on protesters at UCLA. Mayor Karen Bass, who flew back to Los Angeles as the violence erupted, said she was demanding a “full investigation.”

“Those involved in setting off fireworks, spraying chemicals and physically attacking others will be found, arrested and prosecuted, as will anyone involved in any form of violence or anarchy,” he said in a statement. The person will also be prosecuted.”

Around the camp, theories spread fast and furiously as to who was responsible. Some believed that the counter-demonstrators were paid agitators. Others believed that the melee was a crime of opportunity. Most of the pro-Palestinian side insisted that the counter-demonstrators were not students.

Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in Los Angeles, called the protesters “pro-Israel extremists” and said CAIR lawyers are “exploring all legal avenues to hold the perpetrators of these terrorist attacks accountable.”

Ayloush said CAIR is asking those affected to contact their offices and submit reports and evidence, “so we can help take the necessary action.”

Times staff writer Matthew Ormseth contributed to this report.