Doxxing is a term that not many people are familiar with.
Did you know that the word comes from “docs”, which is an abbreviation of “documents”? In the early 1990s, “dropping dox” on someone means to put their private data online in a publicly accessible file and was often a means of revenge!
Today, doxxing means to publish someone else’s personal information to harass, threaten, or facilitate violence against them.
In this month’s Quick Polls, let’s take a look at what people think about doxxing!
From the poll results, the majority of those who took part in this Quick Poll agree that doxxing is a form of cyberbullying – and they are right!1
And so, we proceeded to ask how many have come across doxxing before?
Have you encountered Doxxing before?
Based on 294 people polled as of 30 October 2020
About 1 in 10 of those who responded has encountered doxxing before.
However, today’s online environment has made it easy for people to disseminate personal information with a motive of harassing or causing violence to others. Recent cases of doxxing include the GoJek “hostage” incident and the NUS voyeurism incident.
Thus, it is likely that most of us have encountered doxxing in one way or another.
We hope that Singaporeans are now more aware of what actions may be deemed as doxxing and to refrain from participating in it.
Remember, do not try to take the law into your own hands or you might end up breaking one!