Tea Throwing into the Sea: How Boston Tea Partiers Did Not Enter the First Contest of 1773 in Boston, and How Government Assisted Protesters Do It Today
On December 16, 1773, a group of protesters in Boston donned handkerchiefs and smeared their faces with soot, as they threw tea into the sea. Boston Tea Partiers who worked for pro-government masters were worried about losing their jobs. Others feared retribution from the British crown. It was not possible for the protesters who dumped tea in Boston to be known, but the situation may never be the same again.
Protesting anonymously is as old as America itself, but Americans’ ability to do so appears to be in jeopardy as government officials across the country push mask bans to hold protesters accountable to law enforcement.
This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the US criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Facebook.
While Revolutionary War-era agitators had more reliable communication tools than the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Tea Party did not have to contend with the use of the so-called “stingrays” that impersonate cell phone towers.
Protecting the Right Way: Digital Security Protections for At-risk Groups Against a First-Principles-Trump-Lensing President
President-elect Donald Trump plans to deport millions of immigrants. He will jail his political enemies and journalists. A Republican-controlled government could further restrict abortion and transgender rights. Influential conservatives have called for a crackdown on left-leaning activist groups, a replay of Trump’s hardline attitude against protesters in his first administration.
That means now is the time for anyone in an at-risk group, those who communicate with them—or even those who want to normalize privacy and create cover for more vulnerable people—to think about how they can upgrade their data security and surveillance resistance ahead of a second Trump administration.
“Undocumented immigrants, Muslims, pregnant people, journalists, really anyone who doesn’t support him” need to reconsider their personal privacy safeguards, says Runa Sandvik, a former digital security staffer for The New York Times and the founder of the security firm Granitt, which focuses on protecting members of civil society. Whether you’re on a platform or a device, you need to know what kind of information you’re generating and how it’s going to be used.
That may leave the technology you choose to use as a last line of defense, says Harlo Holmes, the director of digital security at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. “This is the last recourse of a lot of people in vulnerable positions,” says Holmes. We have to make sure people have the best tools in their hands so that they don’t get into trouble for being private. And it’s going to matter more and more.”
