MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The House approved a bill Tuesday to broaden what can be considered doxing and increase the penalties if a victim is actually harassed.
In 2023, lawmakers passed a bill to create the crime of doxing, the act of finding and publishing private or identifying information online with malicious intent. Private information includes a victim’s home address and photographs or information about their children.
Any Alabamian can be doxed, but the original law lays out a separate category for the doxing of law enforcement officers, firefighters and public servants. In either category, a person can only be charged with doxing if their victim is actually harassed or impeded from performing their governmental duty.
House Bill 106, sponsored by Rep. Donna Givens, R-Loxley, removes the requirement that the victim is actually harassed as a result of their information being published online. Making the information public, regardless of whether harm is caused, would be considered doxing.
Rep. Juandalyn Givan, D-Birmingham, spoke in support of the bill on the floor and shared her personal experience with harassment since she has taken office. Givan said the bill is important because some people go beyond the normal course of criticism and harass public officials and their families.
“The reason why this bill becomes so important is this, at the end of the day, we are still humans, and there’s a level of respect that should be shown to anybody,” Givan said during debate. “But in the last few years, as we run for elected office, people think they can come to our homes. They think that they can harass our loved ones.”
Givens’ bill also establishes harsher penalties for doxing, especially for multiple offenses when harassment occurs.
The publication of information alone would carry a sentence of a Class A misdemeanor, a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a fine of up to $6,000. Doxing that leads to the actual harassment of an individual would now be a Class C felony, a maximum sentence of 10 years. Repeat offenses would amount to a Class B felony, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
The bill passed unanimously by a vote of 105-0. It now heads to the Senate.
Givan is also sponsoring similar legislation, House Bill 293, which establishes a harsher penalty for harassing public officials online or in person. That bill passed out of the House Judiciary Committee and awaits a vote on the floor.