Australia to criminalise doxxing: What is it and why is it dangerous?

The internet is becoming an increasingly dangerous place. Doxxing is becoming a common practice, where personal information is released online maliciously with consent. In Australia, the latest targets are the Jews. Pro-Palestine groups have leaked the personal details of hundreds of Jewish people online. So much so that the Australian government stepped in and decided to outlaw doxxing.

To strengthen personal privacy protections, the country will criminalise doxxing under the proposed new federal legislation. Autsralia’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the proposed laws, which have yet to be drafted, would involve issuing take-down notices to social media platforms and imposing fines for the intimidation tactic.

What is doxxing?

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Doxxing is one form of invasion of personal privacy online that can have a devastating effect.

According to the Australian government’s online safety watchdog, doxing is the “intentional online exposure of an individual’s identity, private information or personal details without their consent.”

The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication, describes doxxing as the intentional revelation of a person’s private information online without their consent, often with malicious intent. This could include sharing phone numbers, home addresses, or other private information like personal photos, which could reveal the identity of the victim, potentially exposing them to more harassment and humiliation. Some could also face threats like stalking and unwanted encounters in person, according to a report by CNN.

Doxxing is internet slang for “dropping documents”. It’s an early hacking term that dates back to the Web 1.0 era when cybercriminals would store the victim’s information in a word document. As years went by, word files were abbreviated to .docx, giving birth to the term doxxing.

According to cybersecurity firm Kapersky, doxxing has been around since the 1990s and was originally a form of online attack used by hackers.

Why has Australia decided to ban doxxing?

The Australian government has decided to criminalise doxxing after the names of 600 Jewish Australians from a group chat that discussed Gaza were leaked by pro-Palestine activists.

The government was responding to Nine Entertainment news reports last week that pro-Palestinian activists had published the names, images, professions and social media accounts of Jewish people working in academia and creative industries.

They distributed a nearly 900-page transcript that leaked from a private WhatsApp formed last year by Jewish writers, artists, musicians and academics, newspapers reported. The transcript was accompanied by a spreadsheet that contained the names and other personal details of almost 600 people, purportedly the group’s membership, according to a report by The Associated Press (AP).

However, author Clementine Ford, who was one of several activists who posted links to the leaked information, said that it shouldn’t be considered doxxing. “This chat demonstrated extremely organised moves to punish Palestinian activists and their allies,” Ford posted on Instagram.

What will be the punishment for doxxing in Australia?

The proposed new federal law is part of a long-running review of the Privacy Act overseen by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. It will make doxxing a criminal offence punishable by jail time. The laws would also involve imposing fines for intimidation and sending out take-down notices to social media platforms.

Dreyfus said the new laws would strengthen Australian protections against hate speech. However, he provided scant detail about how they would work.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said on a radio station on Monday, “I’ve asked the Attorney-General to bring forward legislation in response to the Privacy Act review, including laws that deal with so-called doxxing, which is basically the malicious publication of private information online.”

“The targeting of people because they happen to be Jewish is just completely unacceptable,” Albanese said last week, according to VICE. “It has got to stop. It must stop.”

The proposed law is expected to pass with bipartisan support.

Which other countries have laws against doxxing?

In the United States, laws on doxing are different in different states. In 2022, Nevada passed a bill that outlaws doxxing, which allows victims to bring civil action against perpetrators. In California, cyber harassment including doxxing to endanger others or their immediate family can attract a jail term of a year or a fine of $1000 or both.

In the United Kingdom, there are guidelines for prosecutors to handle cases, especially of violence against women, which involves the threat to post personal information or private images on social media without consent. The punishments vary, reports CNN.

Singapore outlawed most forms of intentional harassment in 2014 and this includes doxxing. Offenders can be fined up to SGD $5,000 and/or jailed for up to six months, the report says. In Hong Kong, the data privacy law was amended in 2021 to include doxxing. Violators face jail sentences of up to five years and fines of up to HK$1 million.

India is working on a new set of rules to criminalise deliberate misinformation and doxxing, as part of legislation to govern the country’s digital ecosystem. This legislation, known as the Digital India Act, is set to replace the IT Act, 2000, which is over two decades old.

With inputs from agencies