The Witchfinder ponders the most morally appropriate way to handle the leaked list of extremist online bully and admitted drug abuser Randi Harper’s supporters.

Randi Harper admits to the leak of her donors on Twitter. Face blanked out for ethical reasons.

This is a brief trailer for a longer article. It is now well known that the complete list of Randi Harper’s donors has been leaked online by unknown third parties. Indeed it has been admitted by Harper herself (archive here). Your author in no way endorses hacking or other illegal activities and will not be publishing the whole list as this would be irresponsible.

Online leaks of the membership or supporters lists of extremists groups are nothing new. In 2009 the members list of British far right political party the ‘British National Party’ was leaked online and placed on WikiLeaks.

Given Harper’s extremist online behaviour, such as releasing people’s private contact details (doxing) and other forms of abuse, well documented by the journalists at Breitbart and blogger the Ralph Retort, many legitimate journalistic concerns may arise about those who support her –

• they may have responsibility for vulnerable adults or children – disturbing in those who would donate to a supporter of Sarah Nyberg
• they may have management responsibility
• innocent people who supported Harper in good faith, without knowing of her extremist views, have been placed at risk due to Harper’s failure to safeguard their personal data

In some cases it may be appropriate to warn the authorities and in others to warn the person on the list. Rather than act in an impulsive, irresponsible way, your author has decided to contact every person on the list to warn them of the leak and to invite them to comment. I have given each person some details about Harper’s true history using sources such as the Breitbart articles Milo Yiannopoulos wrote about her.

I have asked each person if they were aware of Harper’s activities and if they are concerned about her failure to safeguard their data. Finally I have asked each person if they will continue to donate.

A full analysis of the list and any responses received will be forthcoming although I will of course refrain from publishing leaked contact details. It may be that there is a public interest in naming a small subset of donors. A longer piece will be coming in due course, after taking appropriate advice and considering any correspondence received from the persons on the list. Watch this space.