“So if people are sending out your information and posting on social media where you live, that is going to cause harm, distress and anxiety,” said Jorge Reyes Salinas, communications director at Equality California. “That’s just the mental health component, but of course that could literally lead to someone going to your home, where you are the most safe, and causing harm or even potential death.”
Moehlig founded TransFamily Support Services 10 years ago, a couple of years after she struggled to find care for her 11-year-old son when he decided to transition. She said that after being doxxed, she didn’t feel safe in her own home and was worried about her son.
“It’s that piece of feeling targeted, feeling like you have to look behind your shoulder all the time, and having to be more aware of the risks that are involved in just trying to make the world a safer place for my child and the other people we serve,” she said.
When Kathie Moehlig’s personal information was leaked online five years ago, she didn’t believe she had enough options to fight back.
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“There was no recourse that I had to be able to go and have this individual held accountable for the risk at which they put myself and my family,” said the founder of TransFamily Support Services.
A bill now before the California Legislature aims to change that.
Doxxing — when someone shares another’s personal information online with the intent to harm — is a crime. It isn’t often prosecuted, however, because of the high threshold for evidence, such as proving who first posted the information and why. In the last five years, for instance, prosecutors filed 30 cases of doxxing in Orange County — and just one in Sacramento County.
Assembly Bill 1979 would allow victims to sue those responsible for doxxing in civil court for as much as $30,000, plus attorneys’ fees and court costs.
“We see doxxing as a very extreme form of privacy invasion with a lot of distress and anxiety,” said Assemblymember Chris Ward, a San Diego Democrat and co-author of the bill. “Victims are often left to work through a lot of emotional, physical, financial or other damages on their own, and they’re not made whole because there’s no ability to recapture any civil penalty to be able to support them on their journey to recovery.”
The Assembly passed the bill last month, as did the Senate judiciary committee earlier this month. It’s set to go before the appropriations committee Monday.
In addition to TransFamily Support Services, the bill has support from several other LGBTQ+ organizations — including the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus and Equality California — as well as the Anti-Defamation League and the cities of Sacramento and San Diego. No organizations have said they oppose it.
Six states have similar anti-doxxing laws that provide civil protections, and a few others failed to pass laws this year.
Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, a Democrat from Davis and the bill’s other co-author, said she has been a victim of doxxing. Late one night, she got a threatening …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
