SAN DIEGO — Victims of online harassment here in California may soon have a new tool to protect themselves.
Newly proposed state legislation would let victims of 'doxxing' — or publishing someone's private information online to harass, intimidate, or embarrass them — take their case to court.
Here in California, while doxxing is considered a crime under the state's criminal code, there are no civil protections in place for victims.
This new bill aims to change that by giving those victims a chance to sue their cyber-attackers and seek justice on their own.
San Diegan Kathie Moehlig is executive director of TransFamily Support Services. Her advocacy work made her a victim of doxxing.
"It creates a sense of anxiety that never goes away," she said.
"That is absolutely why I was targeted," she told CBS 8. "It was specifically because of the work that I do."
With her personal information exposed throughout the Internet, she said she and her family lived in a state of fear.
"That sort of constant in the back of your head anxiety of, 'where else is this going to go?'" she added.
Moehlig is s a strong supporter of AB 1979, which would allow victims of doxxing to pursue up to $30,000 in damages through a lawsuit against whomever exposed their information online. It would also allow the courts to issue an injunction to prevent more doxing.
"Doxxing is one of the most extreme forms of privacy invasion," said San Diego Assembly Member Chris Ward, who introduced the 'Doxxing Victims Recourse Act'.
"Doxxing is already a crime in the criminal code, but protections for recourses for victims is silent," Ward said at a press conference earlier this week to announce his legislation.
A 2022 report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) finds that 65 percent of online harassment incidents, including doxxing, were hate-based attacks, targeting victims based on their identity, from race to religion to sexuality to gender identity.
"These aren't just numbers and figures: these are individual people, these are young people, our teenagers," said Teresa Drenick of the ADL Central Pacific Region.
"Whether it's the transgender community , the Jewish community, the Black community, across the spectrum we are seeing that more and more people are being affected by doxxing," Moehlig said.
Moehlig is hopeful that — if this proposed legislation is eventually signed into law — it will not only provide victims with a way to pursue justice, but also deter others from resorting to this abusive behavior in the first place.
"The more that we have visibility of people being held accountable for bad acts, hopefully, hopefully the less we're going to see those bad acts happen," she added.
AB 1979 has just passed the Assembly's Judiciary Committee with bipartisan support, and is now headed to the Appropriations Committee.
For more information on the Doxxing Victims Recourse Act, click here.
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