Skip to content
Sign In Subscribe
Blog | Privacy

Outfoxing Doxing: Why We Should Criminalize Vigilante Harassment on the Internet: Part One

Doxing does not always involve a sophisticated hacker exposing stolen information to the world. Doxing can be as simple as someone publishing a phone number or other personal details. Yet, the consequences go far beyond annoying emails or phone calls.

By  ,   and  Hailey Sanford
11 min read

In the middle of the night on August 23, 2021, armed police officers arrived at Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s home, startling her awake.[1] Emergency responders received a report of a dangerous dispute inside her home, prompting their response.[2] Although Greene is associated with hate speech and conspiracies,[3] nothing warranted police intervention inside her home. She had been “swatted.”[4] Swatting is a derivative of doxing—a malicious practice where personal information is exposed online to incite harassment or harm.[5]

Doxing does not always involve a sophisticated hacker exposing stolen information to the world. Doxing can be as simple as someone publishing a phone number or other personal details.[6] Yet, the consequences go far beyond annoying emails or phone calls. Doxing victims have lost their jobs,[7] have faced difficulties finding new employment,[8] and have even been forced to leave their homes due to safety concerns.[9] In addition, a doxer may accuse their target of sex crimes on social media or create fake websites using the victim’s personal information.[10] For example, when a victim’s name is searched on the internet, it may appear associated with pedophilia.[11] This kind of harassment has a lifelong impact. Women are often subjected to more severe kinds of harassment, including threats of rape, distribution of doctored pornographic images, and misogynistic attacks.[12]

Doxing has become an increasingly familiar term in today’s society,[13] yet its origins trace back to the early days of the internet.[14] Over the years, the term’s meaning has evolved, and it is now widely recognized in the United States as a form of revenge.[15]

Doxing occupies a legally ambiguous space[16] because it involves sharing semi-public information.[17]It often arises from online disputes[18]—for instance, a disagreement in a web forum might escalate when one person retaliates by publishing private details about the other. Such details may include addresses, phone numbers, workplaces, social media profiles, or even license plate numbers. This act can unleash a wave of harassment from others in the forum. Doxing has also emerged as a powerful weapon in the political arena.[19] Many individuals find themselves dragged into conflicts they had no part in, facing harassment as a result.[20] In Georgia, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss were doxed after working at a polling center in Fulton County during the 2020 presidential election.[21] Thousands of Donald Trump’s supporters, falsely believing the pair had tampered with election results, targeted them with relentless harassment.[22]In a statement, Freeman and Moss described getting doxed as “not only devastat[ing] [to] their personal and professional reputations . . .  but [that it had also] . . . forced them to change their phone numbers, delete their online accounts, and fear for their physical safety.”[23]

As Greene and Freeman’s experiences illustrate, the exposure of personal—though not strictly private—information can sometimes escalate into a matter of public concern. The widespread practice of doxing[24] has led several states to enact laws explicitly prohibiting such behavior.[25] However, some scholars argue that these statutes are unnecessary,[26] contending that existing criminal laws are sufficient to hold individuals accountable for misconduct on digital platforms. There is also concern that criminalizing doxing could infringe on First Amendment rights[27] and suppress free speech. Additionally, established civil causes of action, [28] both statutory and common law-rooted, offer remedies for those harmed by the unauthorized disclosure of their personal information in certain circumstances.

Doxing presents a unique legal dilemma.[29] While the public widely regards it as morally wrong,[30] it may still be constitutionally protected.[31] The legality of doxing is undetermined. This series of posts provide an overview of the current legal landscape governing speech and offers a counterargument to the notion that existing laws are enough to prevent and address the harms caused by doxing.

  1. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG), X (Aug. 24, 2022, at 08:53 ET), https://x.com/RepMTG/status/1562422730481598464 [https://perma.cc/XR5H-ERS7\]. ↩︎

  2. Id. ↩︎

  3. See Andrew Kaczynski, GOP Candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene Spread Conspiracies About Charlottesville and ‘Pizzagate’, CNN (Aug. 25, 2020, at 18:35 ET), https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/25/politics/kfile-marjorie-greene-spread-conspiracies [https://perma.cc/T8EN-C3Q4\]; H.R. Res. 610, 118th Cong. (2023) (“Greene has repeatedly fanned the flames of racism, antisemitism, LGBTQ hate speech, Islamophobia, anti-Asian hate, xenophobia, and other forms of hatred”); Marjorie Taylor Green, Possible Las Vegas Motive Uncovered???, Am. Truth Seekers, Oct. 9, 2017, https://web.archive.org/web/20180420223340/http://americantruthseekers.com/possible-las-vegas-motive-uncovered/ [https://perma.cc/YP7C-3JY9\] (now deleted article published by Greene arguing the Las Vegas Mass Shooting was orchestrated by the government). ↩︎

  4. Swatting, Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/swatting (2024) [https://perma.cc/NH7K-UZLX\]; see Gabe Gutierrez, Sarah Ploss & Fallon Gallagher, Spate of Swatting Incidents Ensnares High-Profile Targets: Politicians, Prosecutors and Judges, NBC News (Jan. 31, 2024, at 21:53 ET), https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/spate-swatting-incidents-ensnare-high-profile-targets-politicians-pros-rcna133301 [https://perma.cc/5E8B-UWH7\] (“The good news is they’re so aware of this rise.”) (quoting Frank Fig Liuzzi). ↩︎

  5. Doxing, Oxford English Dictionary, Oct. 1, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/6624632723 [https://perma.cc/5EZJ-NMCM\] (defined as “The action or process of searching for and publishing private or identifying information about a particular individual on the internet, typically with malicious intent.”). ↩︎

  6. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030 (2012) (this statute criminalizes the use of a computer to obtain information without a user’s authorization. The statute is limited to punishing actors who release private information through illegal means, specifically if it is a matter of national defense); see also White Pages, https://www.whitepages.com/ [https://perma.cc/MY38-SS74\] (last visited Oct. 1, 2024) (online database that allows participants to search for names, addresses, and phone numbers of others). ↩︎

  7. Montse Reyes, Death Threats and Job Losses: This is What It’s Like for pro-Palestine Students and Activists to be Doxxed Right Now, Reckon News (Dec. 11, 2023, at 11:00 ET), https://www.reckon.news/news/2023/12/death-threats-and-job-losses-this-is-what-its-like-for-pro-palestine-students-and-activists-to-be-doxxed-right-now.html [https://perma.cc/F3GP-5MLG\] (“At Harvard, a Palestinian student whose photo was placed on the doxxing truck . . . [had] an employer rescind[] a job offer over her support for Palestine.”). ↩︎

  8. ZZDogMD, Nurse Doxxed, Loses Job | Bullying on Social Media, at 02:24 (YouTube, Sep. 4, 2019), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU30vTd8y6o (on file with the Georgia State University Law Review). ↩︎

  9. @Optimal-Focus-8942, Reddit, Survivors of Doxxing, How Have You Been Able to Handle the Issue (2023), https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/134gdwk/survivors_of_doxxing_how_have_you_been_able_to/ [https://perma.cc/WC29-K2AG\] (commenting) (“[I] [d]eleted social medias, changed jobs, moved, and carried on with my life.”). ↩︎

  10. Chris Panella, Taylor Swift Fans Sent Me Death Threats, Doxxed My Family, and Accused Me of Being a Pedophile After I Criticized Her Eras Tour, Bus. Insider (Jun. 22, 2023, at 10:00 ET), https://www.businessinsider.com/harassment-taylor-swift-fan-base-worse-than-far-right-hate-2023-6 [https://perma.cc/SP2N-FH53\] (detailing doxing experience where author was accused of pedophilia after reviewing Taylor Swift’s latest concert tour). ↩︎

  11. Id. ↩︎

  12. See, e.g., Danielle Keats Citron, Law’s Expressive Value in Combating Cyber Gender Harassment, 108 Mich. L. Rev. 373, 384 (2009) (“Whether attackers reduce women to their sexual body parts, threaten rape, or invoke demeaning, gendered stereotypes, they make clear that women are targeted due to their gender. . .”); Gamergate (Harassment Campaign), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate\_(harassment_campaign) [https://perma.cc/8L5W-KKBG\] (defining ‘Gamergate’ as “a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism.”); Zoë Quinn, What Happened After Gamergate Hacked Me, Time (Sep. 11, 2017), https://time.com/4927076/zoe-quinn-gamergate-doxxing-crash-override-excerpt/ [https://perma.cc/D8KZ-RKH8\]. Author recounting her own experience with doxing during what is known as ‘Gamergate’:

    The hackers weren’t just posting calls for me to die or talking about what a fat slut I was; they were sharing my personal information: my old address in Canada, cell-phone numbers from a few years back, my current cell-phone number and my current home address. They had edited the post in which I’d talked about standing my ground and not negotiating with online terrorists and replaced it with information showing that they knew where I was and where my family lived.

    Id.

    ↩︎

  13. March 2021, Oxford Eng. Dictionary (Mar. 2021), https://www.oed.com/information/updates/previous-updates/2021-2/march-2021/?tl=true/ [https://perma.cc/WXG4-RJ4P\] (information update on Oxford English Dictionary website detailing that “dox”, and “doxing” have been added). ↩︎

  14. See Megan Garber, Doxing: An Etymology, The Atlantic (Mar. 6, 2014), https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/03/doxing-an-etymology/284283/ [https://perma.cc/59QX-TP6U\] (the term “doxing” has been catalogued on the internet as dating back to the 1990’s); What Is Doxing?, Fortinet

    https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/doxing [https://perma.cc/DLM8-QUZ4\] (recalling the original practice and usage of the term “doxing”). ↩︎

  15. See Max Sheridan, Doxxing Statistics in 2024: 11 Million Americans Have Been Victimized, Safe Home (Aug. 8, 2024), https://www.safehome.org/family-safety/doxxing-online-harassment-research/ [https://perma.cc/8JND-VMCS\] (survey conducted by Safe Home reporting that an “estimated 11 million people – report that they’ve personally been victims of doxxing attacks” and “more than 90% of web users are concerned about doxxing today”). But see Danielle Keats Citron, Hate Crimes in Cyberspace 89 (2014) (“data on the enforcement of cyber stalking statutes are hard to find because most states do not collect it.”). ↩︎

  16. Survey, Legal Protections for Public Health Officials: Doxing (2021), https://standwithpublichealth.jhsph.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Doxing-50-State-Survey-December-Final.pdf [https://perma.cc/K8SD-4F8U\] (survey of the 50 states that details which have enacted anti-doxing statutes); Emma Betuel, Should Doxing be Illegal?, The Markup (Aug. 17, 2021), https://themarkup.org/the-breakdown/2021/08/17/should-doxxing-be-illegal [https://perma.cc/LKY7-GFDA\] (“. . . concerns have been raised that doxing laws may be used to prevent or prosecute protected First Amendment activities.”); U.S. Const. amend. I; Julia M. MacAllister, The Doxing Dilemma: Seeking a Remedy for the Malicious Publication of Personal Information, 85 Fordham L. Rev. 2451, 2457 (2017) (explaining how the gaps in current legislation can let doxing go undetected, “doxing makes personal information more accessible to the entire Internet, increasing the harassment by putting the subject at risk of injury or violence from a large audience in a way that other forms of harassment do not . . . there is no consistent legal remedy for doxing.”). ↩︎

  17. Daniel J. Solove & Paul M. Schwartz, Information Privacy Law 164, (8th ed. 2023); White Pages, supra note 6. ↩︎

  18. See, e.g., What is Doxing and How Should I Respond if I am Doxxed?, myFSU Service Center (Jan. 31, 2024, at 09:34 ET), https://servicecenter.fsu.edu/s/article/What-is-doxing-and-how-should-I-respond-if-I-am-doxxed [https://perma.cc/ZC8N-SA5A\] (“Doxing is typically a malicious act used against people with whom the [actor] disagrees or dislikes. The motivations behind doxing can vary from personal revenge to political ends.”); Kara Alaimo, There’s a Proper Term for What Happened to the ‘Libs of TikTok’ Creator. It’s not ‘Doxxing.’, NBC (April 21, 2022, at 04:17 ET), https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/doxxing-libs-tiktok-creator-justified-rcna25280 [https://perma.cc/7GTY-6H9R\] (Opinion piece where author argues TikTok creator deserved to be doxed). ↩︎

  19. Eric Tucker, After Trump Posted What He Said Was Obama’s Address, an Armed Man Was Arrested There, Prosecutors Say, PBS (July 6, 2023, at 17:55 ET), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/after-trump-posted-what-he-said-was-obamas-address-an-Armed-man-was-arrested-there-prosecutors-say [https://perma.cc/A9AC-DUNS\] (example of doxing being used as a political tool by then former president Donald Trump); Sara Murray, Meet the Internet Sleuths Tracking Down the January 6 Insurrectionists, CNN (June 11, 2021, at 19:37 ET), https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/11/politics/internet-sleuths-january-6-insurrectionists/index.html [https://perma.cc/V4GN-CDMM\] (“[a]fter the attack on the Capitol, the community of online sedition hunters began poring over video, images and social media footprints . . . ”); N.A.A.C.P. v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886, 928 (1982) (acknowledging how fervid speech becomes when politics are involved: “[s]trong and effective extemporaneous rhetoric cannot be nicely channeled in purely dulcet phrases[]”). ↩︎

  20. iamLucid, I am doxed, at 01:58 (YouTube, Jul. 9, 2022), https://youtu.be/AXVngMVOgmY?si=HQ-b3SYkZzWMyM3e [https://perma.cc/L9AC-Q8QQ\] (YouTuber displaying website created specifically for doxing where the information connected with his name is false, alluding that someone else might get doxed in his place); AugustTheDuck, Someone is Doxxing Me, at 00:05 (YouTube, Feb. 22, 2024), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V27U4ADMwzU [https://perma.cc/33JY-HJ6K\] (YouTuber recalling that his estranged sister was repeatedly contacted and harassed during his doxing experience). ↩︎

  21. Jury in Federal Court Awards Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss $148,169,000 in Damages, Protect Democracy (Dec. 15, 2023), https://protectdemocracy.org/work/freeman-moss-giuliani-verdict/ [https://perma.cc/J4GK-MX42\] (“Ms. Moss and Ms. Freeman filed suit in December 2021 against Mr. Giuliani for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy arising from statements he made . . . ”). ↩︎

  22. Julie Carr Smyth, Election Workers Who Face Frequent Harassment See Accountability in the Latest Georgia Charge, AP News, Aug. 16, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/election-workers-threats-trump-georgia-indictment-5b056e2c97bfd7146b3bd19cf7f9f588 [https://perma.cc/QDW5-N8WW\]:

    [P]rosecutors say [Rudy Giuliani] falsely claimed that county election workers stationed there had kicked out observers and then ‘went about their dirty, crooked business,’ illegally counting as many as 24,000 ballots. He also said three election workers[]—[]Freeman, her daughter Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss and an unidentified man[]—[]were passing around USB ports ‘as if they’re vials of heroin or cocaine’ to infiltrate Dominion voting machines.

    Id. ↩︎

  23. Felicia Sonmez, Two Georgia Election Workers Targeted by Trump Sue Far-Right Conspiracy Site Gateway Pundit for Defamation, Wash. Post (Dec. 2, 2021, at 14:05 ET), https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/two-georgia-election-workers-targeted-by-trump-sue-far-right-conspiracy-site-gateway-pundit-for defamation/2021/12/02/aa21ded0-5389-11ec-8769-2f4ecdf7a2ad_story.html [https://perma.cc/C7UM-FF7D\] (“As the false stories spread, Freeman was doxed and was forced to shut down her online business.”). ↩︎

  24. Sheridan, supra note 15 (survey reports that an estimated 4% of Americans have experienced doxing). ↩︎

  25. Survey, supra note 16 (fifty-state survey that details which states have enacted anti-doxing statutes for varying citizens). ↩︎

  26. Frank D. LoMonte & Paola Fiku, Thinking Outside the Dox: The First Amendment and the Right to Disclose Personal Information, 91 UMKC L. Rev. 1, 3 (2022) (law review article concluding that existing tort, criminal, and federal law is sufficient to protect the public regarding doxing and enacting a new statute would be unnecessary); Eugene Volokh, One-to-One Speech vs. One-to-Many Speech, Criminal Harassment Laws, and "Cyberstalking", 107 Nw. U. L. Rev. 731, 731 (2013) (law review article arguing that broadening the definitions of already existing statutes to cover doxing would be dangerous for constitutional rights). ↩︎

  27. See Gooding v. Wilson, 405 U.S. 518, 521 (1972) (stating that heightened standard is necessary because “[people who are] . . . constitutionally protected may refrain from exercising their rights for fear of criminal sanctions . . . ”). ↩︎

  28. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 652A (1977) (“the invasion of the right of privacy has been a complex of four distinct wrongs . . . ”). ↩︎

  29. See Kimberlee Styple, Institutional Doxing and Attribution: Searching for Solutions to a Law-Free Zone, 50 Ga. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 211, 213 (2021) (arguing for doxing to be addressed on an international level based on foreign treaties). ↩︎

  30. See S.B. 182, 157th Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Ga. 2024); H.B. 1361, 157th Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Ga. 2024) (unpassed bills in the Georgia legislature that proposed criminalizing doxing). ↩︎

  31. Edwin C. Baker, Scope of the First Amendment Freedom of Speech, 25 UCLA L. Rev. 964, 1137 (1978) (“to place on the speaker the burden of proving truth, would introduce self-censorship and stifle . . . free expression”). ↩︎