A small rant on doxxing before I fall asleep

First of all, doxxing, aka outing someone's real name, address etc online is a POS thing to do. Criminal even.

I have seen it happen quite a few times and there's a noticeably different manner it's used in between men and women

When men get doxxed, it's often in my experience a form of counter trolling. The man cyber stalks and harasses somebody long and extensively enough that either the other party or a friend of theirs gets fed up and doxxes them as a threat, or in some cases to alert authorities.

With women however I have never NOT seen it be out of malice. Most of the time the women targeted work in respectable jobs or are important members of a community. Some might have OnlyFans pages or similar. Literally every time, the goal seems to be to ruin their private lives.

What I think plays a part in this is
- Misogyny
- Young, angry men (incel types)
- Envy (see above)
- Lack of empathy amplified by it not being "IRL" -> it feels OK to possibly ruin somebody's life
- Feeling empowered by silencing others (victims often go dark, understandably)

How do we combat this? Make sure that everyone knows this is criminal in most places and prosecute, prosecute, prosecute. Just like SWATting examples need to be made out of the people doing this so that the perpetrators don't even get the idea.

And WE as a society need to be less judgmental and realize that as long as it doesn't harm others, whatever people do privately (whether it be sex work, pornography, having a strange fetish or anything else) is NOT an issue for their competence, credibility or professional lives.

People already have anonymous accounts for this very reason - fear of being judged by society for what they do despite it not being criminal. Doxxing and our reactions to what comes forth only reinforces this vicious cycle of trying to be anon and getting doxxed.

End rant.