When Kathie Moehlig's personal information was published on the Internet five years ago, she didn’t imagine she had enough opportunities to defend herself.
A bill currently before the California State Parliament goals to alter this.
Doxxing – when someone shares one other person's personal information online with the intent to harm them – is against the law. But it's hardly ever prosecuted since the burden of proof is high, corresponding to on the subject of proving who posted the data first and why. In the past five years, for instance, prosecutors have filed 30 doxxing cases in Orange County – and only one in Sacramento County.
Assembly Bill of 1979 Victims could sue those liable for doxxing in civil court for compensation of as much as $30,000, plus attorney fees and court costs.
“We consider doxxing to be a very extreme form of privacy violation that causes a lot of suffering and fear,” said MP Chris Warda Democrat from San Diego and Co-author of the bill“Victims often have to deal with many emotional, physical, financial or other harms alone and are not compensated because they have no means of pursuing a civil penalty that could assist them on their road to recovery.”
The Assembly passed the bill last month, as did the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month. It is scheduled to go to the Budget Committee on Monday.
In addition to TransFamily Support Services, the bill is supported by several other LGBTQ+ organizations – including the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus and Equality California – in addition to the Anti-Defamation League and the cities of Sacramento and San Diego. No organization has spoken out against it.
Six states have similar anti-doxxing laws that provide civil protections, and a number of other others haven’t passed similar laws this 12 months.
Representative Cecilia Aguiar-Currya Democrat from Davis and co-author of the bill, said she was a victim of doxxing. Late that night, she received a threatening text message from an unknown number with details about her home address and family. Assembly sergeants were capable of track down the doxxer, who was sentenced to 5 years probation, Aguiar-Curry told CalMatters.
“It was scary,” she said. “Today, people can access their personal information online, and the presence of social media in our lives has made doxxing an even greater threat to all of us. My privacy has been touched. My safety has been touched.”
In a Anti-Defamation League Report 2024Compared to other demographic groups, LGBTQ+ people surveyed were most affected by severe online harassment: 45% of transgender people surveyed reported experiencing severe online harassment – including doxxing – prior to now 12 months.
Although there isn't much data available on doxxing alone, leaders of LGBTQ+ organizations agree that it’s widespread.
“So if people are sharing your information where you live and posting it on social media, that's going to cause harm, distress and fear,” said Jorge Reyes Salinas, communications director at Equality California. “That's just the mental health component, but of course that could literally lead to someone coming into your home where you're safest and causing harm or even death.”
Moehlig founded TransFamily Support Services ten years ago, a number of years after she struggled to seek out look after her 11-year-old son when he decided to undergo gender reassignment surgery. She said that after the doxxing revelation, she now not felt secure in her own residence and anxious about her son.
“You feel like you're being targeted, you feel like you have to constantly look around and be aware of the risks that come with just trying to make the world a safer place for my child and the other people we help,” she said.
Moehlig and Reyes Salinas said the Increase in anti-trans laws and hate rhetoric across the country has led to a rise in online harassment.
“These attacks have definitely caused individuals and their allies to perhaps pause,” Moehlig said.
Doxxing Gaza war protesters and counter-protesters
When pro-Israel counter-demonstrators attacked a UCLA camp in MayPeople on the Internet rushed to discover them and make their information public – including their faces, license plates and places of labor.
Information on many pro-Palestinian protesters has been posted on the Canary Mission website, which says its goal is to “document individuals and organizations that incite hatred against the United States, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and elsewhere.” The website features the faces of a whole lot of people that have expressed support for the Palestinians or criticized Israel, sometimes with details about where they live or their social media accounts.
To protect themselves, many protesters and counter-protesters selected to stay anonymous in interviews with journalists or to wear masks or other face coverings.
But Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced on Monday – sooner or later after a violent protest in front of a synagogue in LA – that it will consider enforcing a mask ban at protests. Jeffrey Abrams, ADL regional director in Los Angeles, said at the identical press conference that he supported considering a mask ban.
In an interview before the press conference, Mark Levine, the Anti-Defamation League's Central Pacific regional director, said the group's support for doxxing victims was a “long-standing position” that had nothing to do with current events.
“Doxxing is doxxing,” Ward said when asked how his bill applied to the war protests in Gaza.
The legislator who voted “no”
Although the bill was supported almost unanimously, Representative Diane Dixon solid the one “no” vote within the Assembly plenary. In an interview, she said that the law was not crucial since it was already against the law.
“Private litigation leads to many unnecessary litigation cases and clogs up our courts for unjustified reasons, especially when there is already a law against it,” she said.
Dixon, a Republican from Newport Beach, also argued that doxxing shouldn’t be considered a hate crime in California – citing a Hate Crime Report 2022 from the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta – and that the bill raises concerns about freedom of expression.
“People can sue each other if they feel insulted without being physically threatened,” she said.
When asked about freedom of speech, Ward and Levine pointed to the wording of the bill, which states that doxxing is carried out “with the purpose of immediately causing unwanted physical contact, injury, or harassment to the other person.”
“If people are not acting with the intent to harass a person – and are recklessly disregarding the possibility that the information posted could be used to commit criminal acts such as killing, assault or stalking – anti-doxxing laws should not apply,” Levine said.
But Moehlig said what happened to her showed the necessity for this law.
“Having another tool, another element to prevent this kind of behavior is really important,” she said. “Having the ability as a victim to fight back in civil court helps give some power back to victims.”
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