Doxxing as discursive action in a social movement

ABSTRACT

Doxxing is a form of online abuse where doxxers deliberately seek and publish their targets’ personal information without consent, often with malicious intent such as ruining their reputation. Despite its prevalence, doxxing has received little scholarly attention compared to other forms of online aggression, and almost no study has approached doxxing from a language and discourse perspective. This exploratory study analyzes 464 online forum posts and comments related to doxxing during the on-going pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, addressing the overarching question: In what ways is doxxing a discursive action? More specifically, how is doxxing realized intertextually? What are the discourse strategies that forum participants employ to legitimize doxxing? Informed by Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the analysis begins by illustrating doxxing as an intertextual and recontextualized social practice, focusing on a forum thread that discloses a police officer’s personal information. The core part of the paper discusses four key legitimation strategies of doxxing identified in the data, (i) rationalization, (ii) (re)definition, (iii) construction of negative-Other, and (iv) victimizing ‘Us’. The paper concludes by considering the role of doxxing in the Hong Kong social movement, and outlining some directions for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Doxxing
• social movement
• legitimation strategies
• critical discourse analysis
• online aggression

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In this paper, ‘doxxer’ refers to someone who seeks and publishes others’ personal information without their permission, and ‘doxxed target’ is the victim of doxxing.

2 Amnesty International (2019). How not to Police a Protest: Unlawful use of Force by Hong Kong Police, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ASA1705762019ENGLISH.pdf.

3 My analysis does not immediately recognize the data as a case of ‘doxxing’ per se. Rather, I am using these forum posts as illustrative examples of discourses of and about doxxing. Verifying my data as doxxing is beyond my concern as a discourse analyst.

4 New York Times (2019). Police Dressed as Protesters: How Undercover Police in Hong Kong Severely Injured People. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/world/hong-kong-police-protests.html.

5 Interim Injunction Order of the High Court (HCA 1957/2019) – Doxxing and Harassment against Police Officers, Special Constables and their Families, https://www.police.gov.hk/ppp_en/03_police_message/iio_1957.html.

6 Apple Daily, 四成半新聘警員毅進畢業 (‘45% of newly employed police graduated from Yijin’) https://hk.appledaily.com/local/20200408/E2D7PI3NDNBFXNO5C6CQMJYXX4/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carmen Lee

Carmen Lee is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research has been concerned with the ways online discourses are closely tied to and embedded in offline lived experiences, as well as the impact of digital discourse on social practices. Her major publications include Language Online (2013, Routledge, with David Barton), Multilingualism Online (2017, Routledge), and the edited special issue ‘Discourse of Social Tagging’ (2018). She is currently Associate Editor of the journal Discourse, Context & Media and co-editor of the Routledge ‘Language and Digital Media’ book series. Postal address: Department of English, 3/F Fung King Hey Building, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong