Doxxing

Doxxing is the act of publishing a person’s private information, such as a home address, phone number or real identity, without their consent. The intent is usually to intimidate, harass or expose the target to real-world harm. In a comment section, it can be a single message that reveals where another reader or a journalist lives.

Why it matters

Doxxing is one of the highest-stakes things that can appear under your masthead. It carries two distinct kinds of exposure :

1. Safety. Once an address or phone number is public, the harm can move offline fast. The target may face stalking, threats or in-person harassment.
2. Legal. Personal data published without a lawful basis is a GDPR problem, and a doxxing comment is exactly the kind of illegal content the DSA expects platforms to act on once they are aware of it.

Obligations

Two duties shape how a publisher should respond :

• Fast removal. The longer a home address stays online, the greater the harm. Doxxing is a case where speed matters more than almost any other moderation category.
• Notice-and-action. Under the DSA, when you receive a notice flagging illegal content, you must act on it in a timely and diligent way, and tell the affected users what you decided and why.

How Logora helps

Logora’s hybrid moderation pipeline includes lists of suspect words that route a comment to the human queue rather than auto-publishing it, so a message containing patterns associated with personal data gets a human look before it goes live. When a moderator removes a comment, the decision is logged with a reason, which supports the notice-and-action and transparency duties the DSA places on publishers.

Related concepts

• Content moderation, the wider practice
• GDPR, the data-protection frame for personal information
• Hate speech detection
• Notice-and-action, the DSA mechanism for reported content