Since launching in mid-May, the group's website has compiled the profiles more than 50 students, recent graduates, and faculty members whom it labels as "anti-freedom, anti-American, and anti-Semitic."
"It is your duty to ensure that today's radicals are not tomorrow's employees," a female narrator warns in a video posted to the site, which publishes the names, photos, occupations, and sometimes universities and majors.
Canary Mission said it created the website out of concern for "the rise of anti-Semitic hate crimes on college campuses, and the dangerous Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement."
The BDS movement encourages organizations and institutions to boycott and divest from Israel until “the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel" have been recognized. BDS movement founder Omar Barghouti is among those listed on the Canary Mission website.
But most of the people profiled on Canary Mission are students or recent graduates, including filmmaker and anti-Islamophobia activist Rebecca Pierce, who attends the University of California at Santa Cruz.
She accused Canary Mission of using "McCarthyist tactics" and employing "open racism."
"The website is filled with racist stereotypes about our activism, and intentionally tries to tie a diverse non-violent student movement to anti-Semitism and terror," Pierce said in an email to the Guardian.
"I do worry about future employers potentially seeing this and getting the wrong idea, but I stand behind my activism and won't allow racist extremists to intimidate me."
Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum, defended Canary Mission as a way of forcing people to understand the seriousness of their political stands.
"Factually documenting who one's adversaries are and making this information available is a perfectly legitimate undertaking," Pipes wrote in an email to the website Forward.
"Collecting information on students has particular value because it signals them that attacking Israel is serious business, not some inconsequential game, and that their actions can damage both Israel and their future careers."
It remains unclear who is behind Canary Mission; right-leaning, pro-Israel groups that focus on campuses have denied having a relationship with the group.
