Idaho activists have shared photos and home addresses in effort to interfere with court, child protection cases
The flier claimed that McDevitt and Welsh were “using their position of power to retaliate against a gubernatorial candidate because of his opposition to the inequity of justice and systemic excessive force used by government agents” — a reference to Ammon Bundy.
It was the latest in a series of maneuvers by Idaho extremist groups that toe the line between free speech and criminal behavior. Their tactics include:
- “doxxing” public and private individuals, including health care and social workers;
- organizing protests outside a person’s home;
- issuing “calls to action” for supporters — in Idaho and elsewhere — to make phone calls and send emails and text messages, until their demands are met.
Luke Malek, an attorney who previously served in the Idaho Legislature, says the tactics could cross a line into stalking or even criminal conspiracy. Two current legislators — Reps. Greg Chaney, R-Caldwell, and Brooke Green, D-Boise — say that, regardless of whether a crime has been committed, one person’s right to protest should not trump another’s right to feel safe in their home.
Exercising freedom of speech, or victimizing another person
The U.S. Congress and state legislatures have, for years, considered whether it should be illegal to “doxx” someone — to find and share an individual’s personal information in a way that makes the person vulnerable to harassment, death threats, false reports to police and more.
Last year, Colorado made it illegal to doxx public health workers and their families.
The First Amendment guarantees the right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press and other inalienable rights that protect a person’s ability to share information. There are limits to those rights — codified by laws against libel, slander, defamation, harassment, witness intimidation, stalking and more.
Free speech advocates have argued that laws against doxxing could be abused to silence dissent.
“Any of these laws could be subverted by the powerful,” Bruce Schneier, a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, told The Markup last year.
The pandemic and 2020 election breathed new life into the doxxing tactic.