Following the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788, the framers of the Constitution revisited the early framework of the document that would come to govern the United States to include the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment drafted made it clear that the basis of a free society was founded upon free speech, free expression and the unhindered exchange of ideas. The First Amendment prohibited the government’s restriction of speech, ideas, and expression and all activity related to it. However, the First Amendment doesn’t address a private individual’s attempt at restricting speech and the expression of ideas. The left has adopted the practice of publicly listing individuals they disagree with by placing their personal bio-data on public platforms or “doxxing” in a coordinated effort to silence them.
Few individuals in society are truly anonymous. Thus naming an individual on a public forum is a non-venomous snake. The venom is the negative and damaging practice of “labeling” that is attached to the targeted individual. The labeling is aimed to damage an individual by means of reputation
whereby the individual as per the associated labels can be terminated from their employment, unenrolled from their school, be passed over for
promotion or found unsuitable for positions of trust. The left’s use of doxxing is impulsive, emotional, and amateurish as it discounts foundational legal principles written into the western society that were meant to mitigate impulsive and emotional practices sought out by sycophants (or those who sought
frivolous prosecutions).
It is a gross miscalculation to imagine “doxxing” to be a viable means of moral superiority to silence speech. While the First Amendment does not address actions of individuals against speech and expression, other aspects of western law do. Slander is the oral defamation of a person utilizing untrue statements while libel deals with damaging false statements in written format. Both libel and slander are vessels of civil litigation aimed to award compensation for damages arising from false
information.
Today, individuals are targeted and doxxed in a
deliberate effort to damage their reputation through
“reputational labels” which are attached to real
identities. ( ie: Racist, NAZI, Fascist). The left
routinely and recklessly fabricates “unsupported
truths” about individuals constructed from sweeping
correlations. The overwhelming majority of doxxing
engaged in by the left constitutes both slander and
libel and in some cases criminal liability as proven
by the following legal points:
1) True Identities -v- Social Media Identities
A social media account is not one and the same
nor interchangeable with a true identity. Because
a statement is found associated to a social
media account it is not an absolute that the
social media account and the true identity are
one and the same until it is proven that the
person claimed as the social media account is
the same person who has physically input the
information and or has taken ownership of the
statement. Claiming an identity has spoken
because it appears on a social media account is
a legally unsupportable claim. The burden of
proof lies with supporting the claim that the
social media account statement is an officially
supported statement of an actual identity.
2) “Guilt By Association” – Improper
Characterization & Description of Belief
Many doxxing efforts and the left improperly
characterize and describe individuals and
movements to be how they perceive them
versus how they really are, affixing a readymade but false label to their target. A social
media account who may be part of a group chat
is doxxed as a “racist” or “fascist” which
assumes to know why an individual enjoins the
chat, group or movement. The individual may
agree with some aspects of belief and
prescription of a group or movement but not
others and may enjoin the movement selectively
and engage in dissenting opinion of the group
when in opposition to an idea or belief. Many
doxxing efforts make claims about groups which
are directly opposite the group’s definitive and
official mission statements and are unsupported
through any evidence or fact.
Thus labeling individuals in this fashion as
racists, nazis and or fascists because they
belong to a group, chat or engage in First
Amendment activity without actually knowing
their beliefs is no different than labeling a
neighbor a rapist because he was seen reading
a book on deviancy at the town library. Providing
a reckless characterization as an individual as a
rapist to an employer in an effort to damage a
person is the quintessential foundation of civil
tort defamation and libel. Making a false claim
about an individual’s personal beliefs upon
assumption and correlation is both defamation
and libel. The parties to this liability are not
limited to the individual but extend to the
websites who host them, social media outlets
that share the content and media outlets where
they are reported both in print and verbal
account.
3) Prohibited Persons – some individuals maintain
legal protection against doxxing for the purposes of
their physical safety and ability to perform in an
official capacity. There is no good faith immunity to
doxxing protected individuals some of which now
constitutes a criminal act.
Individuals who have been doxxed and or are
experiencing an effort to dox their identities
should:
1- Record and preserve any and all information
associated to the doxxing effort to include phone
numbers, times of events and activities, emails,
screenshots and or any other means recognized as
an attempt at doxxing.
2- When and where applicable, provide and
disseminate an official disclaimer and declarative
statement of belief which accurately and definitively
represents your formal beliefs and positions
whereby any inaccurate and or opportunistic
expansion on such positions will be construed as
defamation and or libel.
3- Submit a “Cease and Desist” letter to any and all
outlets publishing, sharing and or supporting such
claims in any capacity that the information shared is
untruthful and inaccurate and shall be construed as
an effort in libel and or slander.
4- Create a police report, file a complaint and or
request official investigation by the police or other
government entity into efforts to expose your
identity. Specifically request the police contact the
parties in an attempt to determine why said party is
engaged in routine attempts to ascertain personal
and private information about you whereby it is
believed such actions rise to the level of criminal
harassment.
5- Present any and all preserved information as
potential evidence to an attorney who specializes in
libel and defamation lawsuits outlining your claim as
to a) how you have been damaged and b) the
calculation of compensation to make you whole.