Doxxing used to be something only certain people were able to do. Now it’s all over the place. When a video goes viral or if someone acts like a fool in public, then all of a sudden, people on the internet turn into their own set of detectives. After just a few hours, complete randoms have found out a person’s name, work, school, phone number, and house address. Supporters of doxxing call it justice, a way to penalize people who may have done something wrong, because if the courts or laws can’t hold someone accountable, then the internet surely will.
However critics call this vigilantism. The internet’s version of accountability does not end when someone’s personal information gets leaked; it’s often followed by harassment, death threats, the suspension or job loss of that person, and in more intense situations… Swatting. Where the police are called regarding some sort of false crime taking place, causing the SWAT team to promptly rush to ones resident and bust down their door.
The biggest problem with doxxing is, who is to say someone must be punished? There have been many instances where people have been doxxed for the slightest of things, yet with doxxing, there is no judge or jury, just executioners. One moment you could be sharing an opinion online, and if mass amounts of people disagree with you, sorry, you and your family have been subjected to death threats.
Let’s also keep in mind that the internet is not always right, people often share similar names, which sometimes leads to the wrong person being ID’d.
In a world full of social media, as things like cancel culture are on the rise, doxxing is becoming a more prominent thing, and once the job is done, there is no way to take that information back; it stays online forever. In the past, doxxing has indeed exposed bad people, but it’s often reckless, dangerous, and a waste of resources, and should not be considered a prominent form of justice and instead crazy online vigilantism that could not only harm the person who’s in the wrong, but also their family, coworkers, and sometimes innocent bystanders.