Dear Mr. Kinsella,
Hope you’re doing great, and I wish you a great trip to Portugal! When you have a moment, I would greatly appreciate your guidance on how to think about doxing (the public disclosure online of private or personally identifiable information about someone without their consent). I have tried finding if you have talked about it somewhere, seeing as you have pretty much mentioned everything there is to say regarding property rights and IP, but I cannot seem to find your take specifically on this.
From your article “The Second Paradox of Blackmail,” I understand the argument that revealing, or threatening to reveal, information is not aggression in itself. But my intuition tells me doxing can be an act of aggression. For example, if someone publishes another person’s home address, especially that of a public figure or celebrity, it may expose them to danger. How would libertarianism address this in a legal order that does not recognize intellectual property or ownership over information? Would we just say that the actual act of aggression should be punished or is there any way of protecting the release of the address?
This question was prompted by the recent arrest of an ancap activist here in Denmark after he published the prime minister’s phone number (see X post).
As always, thank you for your time!
***
Kinsella:
I would say the issue of doxing (or doxxing) can be addressed by considering things like to aiding and abetting, stalking, etc.. No time to look in detail now but quickly. In short, if your intention is to aid or encourage others to harm someone, and you are using others as a “means” to harm them (as when you stir up a lynch mob, incite a riot, or lie on the witness stand to have some innocent person convicted, and so on), I think maybe a case for liability can be made. See, for now:
- Causation and Aggression, e.g. the section “COMPLICATING THE PICTURE: CAUSATION, COOPERATION, AND HUMAN MEANS”
- Kinsella, “A Tour Through Walter Block’s Oeuvre,” the section on “Incitement”
- “The Libertarian Case Against Punishing a ‘Conspiracy’” (2) (as I commented there, “You set up the hypo but just announce the conclusion, as if it’s obvious, and present no argument”)
- Libertarian Answer Man: Dueling, Stalking, Restraining Orders
- Why Spam is Trespass
- KOL354 | CDA §230, Being “Part of the State,” Co-ownership, Causation, Defamation, with Nick Sinard
- Correcting Some Common Libertarian Misconceptions (2011)
