The Mercurial Nature of “Doxxing”
How the verbing of “documents” has come to mean a serious threat.
Definition & Usage
If anonymity online is the metaphorical locked door to someone’s private life, deciding to become a key copier can be an act of vigilantism or terrorism. “Doxxing” is one of few internet slang terms that exists specifically because of culture online, rather than as an online mediation of extra-internet phenomena. It is acknowledged as an abbreviated form of either “dropping documents” or just “documents.”
The Oxford Dictionaries’ definition explains that to dox means to:
“search for and publish private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the Internet, typically with malicious intent.”
The political (or at least, interpersonal) implications of the word’s existence carry great weight. In Stuart Moulthrop’s “You Say You Want a Revolution? Hypertext and the Laws of Media,” Moulthrop calls upon the idea that cyberspace/the internet might be considered as a “domain of control” (701). If this is true, then the ability to dox someone can be thought of as a method of gaining control or as an attempt to maintain it.
Computer-mediated Revenge
In Jared S. Colton et. al.’s article, “From NoobGuides to #OpKKK: Ethics of Anonymous’ Tactical Technical Communication” doxxing is labelled ethically ambiguous and “by no means an unproblematic activity” (72). The article specifically discusses doxxings carried out by online group Anonymous against members of the KKK.
In their article “Four Principles For Digital Expression,” Danielle Keats Citron and Neil M. Richards refer to doxxing as a form of online abuse, often carried out by “cyber mobs” or stalkers (1356–1365). This article mentions doxxing as a practice that can take place in connection to rape threats and nonconsensual pornography.
Regardless of the motivation behind a dox, the consequences can be devastating. The existence of “dox” as a slang term points to the power that the action can hold, and the influence of new media on interpersonal/political revenge has illustrated that the real objective of doxxing is control.
