What’s Up Doxx?

Urban Dictionary = Doxxing, by way of "name-dropping," is document (doxx) dropping. It's publicly exposing someone's real name or address on the Internet who has taken pains to keep them secret. Also spelled "doxing."

Hackings, leaks, revenge-porn and identify thefts have ripped through society, publishing embarrassing materials and exposing deeply private and sensitive financial information across the Internet. Most of it violates one statute or another. Even revenge-porn, publishing explicit sex videos or photos of ex-lovers, is expressly illegal in half the states. Unwanted exposure across the web is a pretty standard risk of living in a modern world these days, and those stories often don’t even generate a ripple in the press unless it is a celebrity or impacts at least 10,000 victims.

The Department of Justice wants names and contact information from those who have contacted or accessed website political positions that defy the underlying tenets of the Trump administration. “Web hosting service DreamHost is fighting a Department of Justice demand to scoop up all the IP addresses of visitors to an anti-Trump website. The website in question, disruptj20.org, organized participants of political protests against the current U.S. administration.” TechCrunch, August 15^th. Taking names is always intimidating. Especially when it’s the DOJ.

But what the DOJ is doing to scare those who oppose Donald Trump and his policies has generated an equal and opposite effect on that white supremacist constituency so enamored of the President and his message. Sure doxing is an offensive weapon in anyone’s hands, but those protesting Trump’s neo-Nazi, KKK and white supremacist supporters have discovered how to use that tool to take down racists.

There were a lot of people doing their best to identify as many of the white supremacists marching in the August 11^th Charlottesville, VA rally. For those self-admitted white supremacists who were ID’d and who could be traced to mainstream jobs, counter-protestors were quick to make sure the relevant employers were well-informed as to the true leanings of their racist employees. A lot of those marchers were fired. A lot of information was spread all over the Internet as well.

“To hackers, who prized their anonymity, [doxxing] was considered a cruel attack… But doxxing has emerged from subculture websites like 4Chan and Reddit to become something of a mainstream phenomenon since a white supremacist march on Charlottesville, Va. [on August 11^th]…

“Riding a motorized pony and strumming a cigar box ukulele, Dana Cory led a singalong to the tune of ‘If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands…. You’re a Nazi and you’re fired, it’s your fault,’ she sang. ‘You were spotted in a mob, now you lost your freaking job. You’re a Nazi and you’re fired, it’s your fault…. All together now!’ Ms. Cory, 48, shouted to a cheering crowd in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood on Saturday [8/26]. They were protesting a rally planned by far-right organizers about a mile away… ‘Dox a Nazi all day, every day,’ she said.”…

“‘Originally it was little black-hat hacker crews who were at war with each other — they would take docs, like documents, from a competing group and then claim they had ‘dox’ on them,’ said Gabriella Coleman, a professor at McGill University who wrote a book about the hacker vigilante group Anonymous. ‘There was this idea that you were veiled and then uncovered.’

“Now the online hunt to reveal extremists has raised concerns about unintended consequences, or even collateral damage. A few individuals have been misidentified in recent weeks, including a professor from Arkansas who was wrongly accused of participating in the neo-Nazi march. And some worry that the stigma of being outed as a political extremist can only reinforce that behavior in people who could still be talked out of it.

“Doxxing was on the minds of a number of protesters on the streets of San Francisco on Saturday. In the Castro and Mission neighborhoods and Alamo Square, the home of the famous row of houses known as the Painted Ladies, thousands participated in counter-demonstrations to the right-wing rally. There was the energy of a street party — children and dogs joined in, protesters shared baked goods, and the bars nearby were full.

“Marla Wilson, 35, of San Francisco, said she was appalled when she saw white supremacists marching so brazenly in Charlottesville. Doxxing, she believed, was an effective way to make people think twice about being so bold with their racism… ‘Some of what is happening now will make these white supremacists realize why their grandparents wore hoods,’ Ms. Wilson said. ‘At least then there was shame.’

“The ethics — and even the definition — of doxxing is murky. It is the dissemination of often publicly available information. And, some at the protest asked, are you really doxxing a person if he or she is marching on a public street, face revealed and apparently proud? It is not as though they are hiding their identities.” New York Times, August 30^th.

That lovely communications invention, the Internet, has become a superhighway of state secrets, the pathway into our financial accounts, and the controller of our power grid. It has also been turned into a weapon by the intelligence communities of most nations, including our own, and has even become an offensive tool right down to the individual level. Invader of privacy. Enabler of cyberbullying. Enabler of major fraud and theft.

What do you think of doxxing to expose and destroy the reputation of racists? OK or not? Is it different for folks who do not even try to hide their identities versus those with a reasonable expectation of privacy? A generic risk of living in an over-connected society? What are your thoughts about the ethics, the morality of doxxing? Are there any bright lines between right and wrong?

I’m Peter Dekom, and is “vengeance a dish best served cold”… or not?