Spencer King, Contributing Photographer

On Thursday, Nov. 16, a “doxxing truck” with a three-sided digital billboard made its way to Yale’s campus, displaying the photos and names of Yale students under a banner reading “Yale’s Leading Antisemites.” The truck appeared on campus as early as 11:55 a.m. outside Atticus Bookstore Cafe on Chapel Street and was last seen around 3:50 p.m. on Broadway.

The truck, which is sponsored by the conservative group Accuracy in Media, is a part of the group’s “Campus Accountability Campaign.” At least six students’ names and faces were displayed on the billboards in an effort to dox — a public shaming tactic by which an unauthorized individual spreads someone else’s personal information.

The appearance of the doxxing truck comes amid increasing student safety concerns and social tensions at college campuses across the country due to the Israel-Hamas war.

“I am a Navajo and Jewish woman who is committed to liberation for all people, including my own communities,” a graduate student who appeared on the truck wrote to the News, on the condition of anonymity due to personal safety concerns. “I am proud to be Jewish, just as I am proud to be Navajo. It is deeply unsettling and violent that Jewish students are being doxxed and called antisemitic.”

The student did not know of the doxxing truck until the News reached out for comment. 

On Friday morning, the University wrote to the News that members of the public safety team and administrators were reaching out to students who were doxxed to provide support and resources. According to the University’s statement, the Yale Police Department is investigating.

“The university denounces this cowardly act of harassment and attempted intimidation,” the statement said. “As President [Peter] Salovey has stated, ‘Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and hatred toward Palestinians and Israelis are emphatically against our values and principles at Yale. Let me also be clear in stating that our forceful rejection of discrimination and prejudice must be matched by our will to act with compassion and civility.’”

The recent conflict and rising tensions surround the Israel-Hamas war, which formally began on Oct. 8 after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel the previous day, killing at least 1,200 people in Israel and taking more than 230 hostages, per Israel’s Foreign Ministry. Israel responded with a formal declaration of war against Hamas, airstrikes and a ground invasion of Gaza, killing more than 11,180 people in Gaza from Oct. 7 to Nov. 10 and displacing more than two-thirds of the population, the Washington Post reported, citing figures from the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza and from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Five out of the six students who the News could confirm appeared on the truck were graduate students of color. According to reporting by Teen Vogue based on interviews with two Harvard students, the trucks mostly target Black and Brown students.

The truck also appeared outside the Watson Center on Sachem Street at roughly 3:05 p.m. and was near Pauli Murray College on Prospect Street at 3:30 p.m. By roughly 3:50 p.m., the truck was on Broadway; its electronic billboard turned off by approximately 4:45 p.m.

Similar doxxing trucks have appeared at other Ivy League universities, including Harvard University on Oct. 11 and Columbia University on Oct. 25. A student at Columbia filed a lawsuit against Accuracy in Media on Monday.

On Nov. 16, while the doxxing truck was on campus in New Haven, AIM announced its Yale campaign on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing that “our Campus Accountability Campaign is at @Yale today to highlight the rampant antisemitism from radical ‘scholars’ on campus.”

The link in the post leads to a website calling for students to petition the University to “take a stand against the antisemites on campus who issued a statement blaming Israel for the actions of terrorists.” AIM’s post does not explain which “statement” it is referring to.

The Yale Police Department did not immediately respond to request for comment on Thursday night.

The University has 14 graduate and professional schools.

Update, Nov. 17: The article has been updated to include the University’s public statement and response to the doxxing incidents.