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I am political activist in a country that is not really what most people would consider as western democracy. Fortunetly still far from dictatorship. I wish to start a new accounts on various social media (Twitter, TikTok and Instagram) to post my content. Unfortunately, political debate here can be very fierce and there have been situations, where social media activist has been doxed and their personal information leaked which led to very unpleasant situation. It was not the Government who tracked them but “activist from other side” who support different political option in my country. Nothing terrible happened but some of those who were doxed suffered various unpleasantries and had even stop their internet activity to protect their families privacy. I am completely unaware if they used any tools to bolster their anonymity online (I am sure one of those who were tracked used none, don`t know about the rest). I would like to avoid this. Unfortunately my knowledge on this matter is limited (I am journalist by training), but I manage get something like this:

  • Virtual Machine from which I will be operate my accounts. After every session I will restore VM state to ensure no malware got installed.
  • Create social media accounts with VPN new email which does not consists any of my personal information.
  • Operate my social media accounts only with VPN. I will never post anything related to my personal life (and obviously accounts won`t consists my real name).
  • Use TOR to research internet for my content.

What advice would you give me considered that my main threat are just normal people with better knowledge than I have, but with access to same tracking tools as regular people have? What I am missing? I don`t intent to post any harassing content, I am well aware this can lead to involvement of law enforcement and they could track me very easy if they want to.

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    When I say malware, restoring the VM might remove malware, but if your main OS is infected it can just re-infect your VM.
    – Hman66
    Commented Jul 28 at 23:20
  • Also, be very careful with Tor- if the VPNs are controlled by your government, they will definitely be asking questions as to why you're using Tor. OP, this is quite a broad question: could you please narrow it down or highlight the exact question you are asking.
    – Hman66
    Commented Jul 28 at 23:31
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    Note that even if you build your own PC from scratch with hand-compiled OS etc, in the end, your writing style can still be recognized, either by someone familiar with your writing elsewhere or mass scanning social media.
    – Martheen
    Commented Jul 29 at 5:22
  • it seems to me like email could also potentially be a vector for account compromise, especially if you're making this available for people to contact you directly - i propose you consider keeping your "setting up accounts email" private from your "public-facing email" (where possible), and spend some thought as to what email service provider you'll use also (eg. proton- or start-mail, tuta/ -nota, etc.) - you could also keep an encrypted password database relatively securely in one of these
    – brynk
    Commented Jul 29 at 11:36

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Firstly, you say that “activists” are the ones out to get you, and not the government- how powerful are these activists: Do they control ISPs and in-and-out-bound traffic of your country?

I am only asking this because if the government is out to get you, this is a very different story to activists.

So, my answer assumes that inbound and outbound traffic through all ISPs is monitored, regardless of who is responsible.

Virtual Machine from which I will be operate my accounts. After every session I will restore VM state to ensure no malware got installed.

  • If whoever is out to get you has backdoors on your device’s main OS, this “malware” will still be able to re-infect your VM every time you restore.
  • Your best bet here is a probably a live OS through a portable USB drive or a hard drive, and just using your computer’s hardware. Even then, the UEFI might be compromised.

Create social media accounts with VPN new email which does not consists any of my personal information.

  • Good plan, assuming that your VPN isn’t compromised, and that residents of your country are allowed to use VPNs (or that the activists won’t be suspicious.)

Operate my social media accounts only with VPN. I will never post anything related to my personal life (and obviously accounts won`t consists my real name).

  • The above question’s answer applies here, too.

Use TOR to research internet for my content.

  • Definitely use Tor through a VPN. This one is a must, because I have inferred that if you are using a VPN for making your accounts, the general internet is compromised.
  • This one is especially risky, because even in many countries with “Western Democracy”, Tor is very much banned.

I would actually also consider doing the three above actions all through Tor over a VPN, to be really private.

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  • Thank you for you answer. From what you have said, most of my worries circle around malware infection. I was sure VM solves this, but now I know this might still be problem. So, me question is: consider I never use my accounts outside my VM, how it is possible to infect my main OS? Is It possible to do this throughout guest machine? How someone will know how to infect my main OS, or even if I am using VM? Also what do you mean by “This one is a must, because I have inferred that if you are using a VPN for making your accounts, the general internet is compromised.” How it is compromised?
    – user317193
    Commented Jul 29 at 20:14
  • @user317193 Your question about the VMs: I am saying that if your main OS is infected first, then it is easy to infect your VM. Its harder to go the other way, but both link to each other. This is why I recommend dual booting, or using a live OS on a USB. Just google these terms.
    – Hman66
    Commented Jul 29 at 20:40
  • What do I mean when i say the general internet is compromised? Well if it isn’t, why are you worried? Why do you need a VPN if the normal internet via ISPs is compromised?
    – Hman66
    Commented Jul 29 at 20:42
  • All I am trying to say is unless the activists have a hold on the government or major companies, all four of your questions should be treated at a lower risk. For example, if someone sends me a raw email- I can only trace it to a city, if that. So I’d need an ISPs help for exact location…
    – Hman66
    Commented Jul 29 at 20:50

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