Labor faces doxxing doubts
The Albanese government wants to create new civil penalties for doxxing, but working out how to do it without unintended consequences is already proving to be a challenge.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus' department quietly released its public consultation on new anti-doxxing laws on Monday. These are the laws that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised to bring forward after activists published the names and details of almost 600 Jewish writers, artists and academics last month.
Under the government’s plan, there will be a new civil penalty for doxxing, while it appears to have walked away from its earlier commitment to create a new criminal offence.
But Labor’s broad working definition of “doxxing” — the intentional online exposure of an individual’s identity, private information or personal details without their consent — is raising questions about unintended consequences.
The Attorney-General’s Department’s webpage states that doxxing extends to revealing the identity behind a previously anonymous account, revealing specific information allowing someone to be contacted or located, and revealing sensitive information capable of damaging an individual’s reputation.
