Doxxing is not very nice. I don’t know if it’s actually illegal. That’s kind of a gray area, because on the one hand it’s freedom of speech and freedom of information, on the other hand it could get somebody killed.
I’m generally opposed to doxxing, although, full disclaimer, there have been specific instances (remember Martin Shkreli?) when I’ve cheered it on, or at least got a good chuckle out of it.
Doxxing is posting somebody’s personal information, i.e. name, address, phone number and stuff like that on-line, sometimes accompanied by a particularly incriminating video, in order to stir up shit against them.
It’s new technology, but the phenomenon is old. Back in the day before the internet, before TV and radio, even before the printing press, people could assemble a crowd in front of a person’s house, because people were not invisible and somebody in the crowd knew where they lived. Many, many people have been hurt by the mob before this. Some for being tyrants. Some for being witches.
Anyway, back to the present. St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson (Democrat) doxxed a whole bunch of people, those who dared to write her letters saying that St. Louis police should be defunded. As soon as the blowback started, she did take it offline and issue an apology. To her credit, she might not be completely tone deaf.
And I imagine, if there’s no specific violence against the people she doxxed (who were stating a popular, and credible political opinion btw), the whole thing will blow over fairly quickly.
And I imagine Lyda Krewson will not try this tactic again in future. Doxxing is a double edged sword, with razor sharp edges.
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