Do I need to take any additional action against this facebook harasser?

July 14, 2015 5:58 PM

So, I posted a smart-alecky (but honestly, mild) joke response to a weirdo fringe comment on a news organization's Facebook post. The fringe weirdo who posted it called my place of employment, said I was bullying him, and that I should be fired.

This is my bad- apparently when I wasn't being vigilant enough, enough information leaked out that he could find me. I tightened up all the security settings so that absolutely nothing is shown to the public anymore, but now this person knows the real life location of where I work. I have searched around on Facebook, but this kind of situation is not covered in any of the things they let you report someone for. I have a feeling that their response anyway would be something along the lines of "You put that information out there in the world, so it's not our fault he called." Is there any action that I should take? Or just assume it will totally blow over? I'm a bit unnerved. He's only an hour or so away.

(I am not fired- my manager had a laugh about it)

posted by tumbleweedjack to Human Relations (6 answers total)

Take whatever screenshots of things might be helpful, document the work thing, block the weirdo where possible, and then back away. Don't engage with them any further.
posted by rtha at 6:03 PM on July 14, 2015 [15 favorites]

That's creepy as hell, but 99% of people online are just blowhards. You've done all you need to (tightened up your privacy etc.) and have stopped engaging with him, so screenshot everything as rtha suggests, report it to Facebook (even if you have to use a different 'contact us' dropdown), and leave it.
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:52 PM on July 14, 2015

Don't just screenshot, get urls. Twitter won't accept screenshots and more and more I hear about them being "manipulated". Do both.
posted by k8t at 7:07 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

The fringe weirdo who posted it called my place of employment, said I was bullying him, and that I should be fired.

Since his behavior falls into the category of "insane and shitty thing it's totally within his rights to do," anything beyond tightening up your own disclosure of personal information and alerting the front desk to be wary of any creeps showing up at your workplace asking for you, is going to be a waste of your time.
posted by jayder at 7:57 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'd consider filing a police report. It's not up to you to determine if it meets the legal definition of harassment in your jurisdiction or whether it's "within his rights to do" or whether, if harassment, there's enough to pursue any kind of charge against him - that's up to the cops and prosecutors. He took an overt action that made you fear for your safety and livelihood - it's totally within your rights to report it to the police. If it continues, your future options will be much better/easier if you mark this as the first instance of harassing behavior. But be prepared for the police to tell you you're overreacting, it's nothing, you provoked it, etc. It's not about prosecuting him for this single action; it's about establishing a paper trail from the beginning in case it escalates (or in case he does the same, or worse, to someone else).
posted by melissasaurus at 9:02 AM on July 15, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'd print the web pages you are concerned about, URL and date stamped.
posted by maryr at 1:48 PM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]