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Doxing is surely the supreme act of internet violence. I think this is what journalists don't understand. Anonymity on the internet is what gives one the absolu
by JonnieCache 13y ago
Doxing is surely the supreme act of internet violence. I think this is what journalists don't understand. Anonymity on the internet is what gives one the absolute autonomy we all find so liberating. To unilaterally take that away from someone is probably the most aggressive and violent thing you can do while still remaining in the virtual world.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's always wrong for a journalist to do that, but it should give insight as to why people are so upset here.
- ballard 13y agoIt was a repugnant act. Lawsuits may follow.
- GuiA 13y agoI think a deeper issue is that a lot of nerds (term that I use here broadly to define people who grew up using usenet, BBS'es, wrote/contributed to the open source tools that power most of the internet, etc.) have a strong sense of ownership when it comes to the internet, and feel strongly about respecting netiquette (which includes not doxing people unless there's a crime underneath with extremely strong evidence, like for example when that teenager posted a video of himself torturing a cat on YouTube). It's pretty telling that acts like that are typically frowned upon even by websites where morals don't fly very high (e.g. 4chan). Sadly, a lot of people who are foreign to that internet culture (like the Megan McGrath who penned the Newsweek article) aren't aware of these implied rules, or, if they are, they just don't care about it.