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85 Fordham L. Rev. 2451 (2016-2017)
The Doxing Dilemma: Seeking a Remedy for the Malicious Publication of Personal Information

handle is hein.journals/flr85 and id is 2491 raw text is: 








  THE   DOXING DILEMMA: SEEKING A REMEDY
         FOR   THE   MALICIOUS PUBLICATION
             OF  PERSONAL INFORMATION

                        Julia M. MacAllister*

  In recent years, malevolent actors have seized upon a new tool to harass,
silence, threaten, and injure people online:  doxing-the  malicious
publication of personal identifying information like a home address.
Although doxing is an online tool, it causes concrete and serious harm to
victims by moving harassment from the Internet to the physical world.
Congress and state legislatures have begun to address different forms of
cyberharassment. However,  no effective and consistent legal remedy for
doxing currently exists. This Note examines and critiques current federal
and  state schemes, and it ultimately proposes that lower federal courts
should  adopt a  new  intent standard to make  the federal Interstate
Communications  Statute more applicable to doxing and that states can and
should criminalize malicious doxing.

INTRODUCTION............................................ 2452
I. DROPPING Dox:  UNDERSTANDING   THE PROBLEM  AND ITS
      UNDERLYING   DOCTRINES      ........................ ...... 2455
      A. Doxing Defined................................ 2455
      B. Doxing Actors and Their Intent; Doxing Subjects and Their
          Injuries....................    .................   2457
          1. Punching Down:  Doxing for the Lulz, or Worse......... 2457
          2. Doxing for Political Purposes .............  ...... 2460
          3. Internal Regulation: Unmasking Troublemakers............2461
       C. Doctrinal Background    ....................    ....... 2462
           1. Right to Privacy ................................... 2462
           2. The First Amendment   ............................ 2463
              a. Background     .................................. 2463
              b. The True Threat Exception ........     ........ 2464



 * J.D. Candidate, 2018, Fordham University School of Law; A.B., 2008, Dartmouth
 College. Thank you to Professor Joel Reidenberg for his guidance, and thank you to my
 family and friends, especially to my mom and dad, for their love and support-it takes a
 village.


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