The internet and all of its components are slowly being evolved into a sited weapon as much as a service. The new administration has already begun to practice the act of doxxing. Doxxing in case you haven’t looked it up is the act of revealing personal identity and information on the internet about a person without their permission. The intentional targeting of individuals to the the nations ‘pre-stoked rage’ strikes me as an assault and quite frankly should be a crime. There is nothing good about it and seems more related to terrorism than anything else.

In my work, serious death threats were infrequent, but initially occurred at the individual level and not the internet. One lived in fear and maybe under protection for a few days or a week and then the individual was identified, warned or jailed. Depending on the seriousness of the threat one lived in trepidation in those windows of fear. Doxxing assaults on the internet are oddly more cowardly than direct threats in that they insulate the aggressor from the crime so they do not have to fear the consequence. Some other enraged minion is caught holding your bag. Absent a human conscience and consequence, the Doxxer asks: why not doxx and watch the fun? Here for those poorly developed powerful people, is why not.

Separating a person from their vocation and income is a serious affair requiring the humanity of such emotions as regret, sadness and privacy within the need to know. Every administrator is eventually faced with this difficult responsibility to the organizational mission. Good in this instance falls more in the category of ‘harm reduction’ in that the good manager proceeds with empathy and regret, justice and firm resolve. Good in this instance causes pain, is never perfectly good, but is intentional overtly just, given the contract and resource. The price of terminating an individual with grace is painful in both directions always. Doxxing is a crime seeking definition and enforcement.

PS: I am aware public employee names are a matter of public record. However the point here is the disclosure of the names of public employees over the internet using any social media and attached to malicious intent and/or for political gain should be a crime where ever and when ever it isn’t one now.