A Model Anti-Doxing Law: Free Speech, Press Freedom Groups Oppose Effort
A coalition of free speech and press freedom organizations warns that model legislation intended to fight “doxing” could have “devastating consequences" for newsgathering and dissent.
“Journalists already face escalating threats for doing their jobs. A vague anti-doxing law could be used to criminalize the truth,” declared Society of Professional Journalists Executive Director Caroline Hendrie.
The Uniform Law Commission (ULC), established in 1892, is comprised of “more than 300 lawyers, judges, and law professors, appointed by the states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” according to the ULC. The group disseminates “uniform state laws” where such “uniformity is desirable and practical.”
In July 2024, the executive committee of the ULC authorized a year-long study committee to review the need and “feasibility” for a law that addresses doxing. (Doxing typically involves the spread of personal and private information for the purpose of intimidation or harassment.)
But with the study committee nearing the end of its appointment, SPJ, the American Governance Institute, the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents, the Coalition for Women in Journalism, the First Amendment Coalition, the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), the Radio Television Digital News Association, and the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) oppose the drafting of any “overbroad doxing statute” that would be “weaponized to silence the disclosure of newsworthy information of public concern."
Read the full article at The Dissenter