What you should know about online vigilantism, doxxing and what it means for you

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G0dblessyou

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The new law/act will come into play wef 1 Jan 2020


Doxxing in S’pore can result in S$5,000 fine & up to 12 months’ jail

Doxxing will be criminalised under proposed changes to the Protection from Harassment Act (POHA).

The amendments were tabled in Parliament on Monday, April 1.

What is doxxing?
Doxxing involves the publishing of someone’s personal information with the intention to harass.

The information could be photos, contact numbers or employment details.

What are the amendments to the law
The amendments are to enhance protection for victims of harassment and falsehoods, and to make it easier for victims to obtain remedies.

The amendments will ban the publication of personal information when it is done with the intention to harass the victim, or cause violence.

Existing gap in law
There is a current gap in Singapore’s existing laws.

Currently, intentional harassment is banned if it assumes the form of threatening, abusive or insulting words, behaviour or communication.

What is going to change?
Even if threatening words were not used, the new law will make posting someone’s personal information online with the intention to harass or cause violence a form of deliberate harassment.

Penalties for doxxing
Perpetrators of “doxxing” could face a fine of up to S$5,000 or a jail term of up to six months if the intention was to cause harassment.

The jail term can go up to 12 months if they intended to cause fear or provoke violence.

Increasing doxxing trend
The Ministry of Law said that due to online vigilantism, there has been an increasing trend in recent years of an individual’s personal information being consolidated and published online, with a view to harassing the person.

POHA
POHA was enacted in 2014.

It was to provide a range of criminal and civil remedies against harassment, and civil remedies for false statements of facts.

Since it came into force in November 2014, the Ministry of Law says the civil and criminal measures it provides have benefited many, with more than 1,700 prosecutions and over 3,000 Magistrate’s Complaints filed.

More than 500 people have stepped forward to make applications for Protection Orders.

Sauce: Mothership
 

semid13

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What about that post of that guy who went to eat bak kut teh after coming back from Myanmar? His friend screenshot his post & upload to this forum is an act of doxxing too
 

Cbboysg

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Preventing alot of free speech I guess. But well, it ain't gonna stop la hahaha yes do it, but do it with a limit (which then again is tough to define and enforce)
 

Cbboysg

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Which means can scold people but don't let them know it's them you're scolding lor hahaha
 

Dr.Vijay

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Just sharing some useful extra information pertaining to this topic.

Kaspersky privacy experts, with help from external experts, have created a short guide that will ease the risks and stress of data loss and diminish doxing potential for a user. The checklist, which is split into three sections, addresses how to treat the data we do and do not control, such as browser activity and application tracking, and other people’s data that you may come across.

Head over to read more ==> Definitive Checklist: How to protect your data online

For a quick crash course or when you're done with the above, you can take a quick self-test here.
 
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is it a crime if you screenshot some one else ig post and post it on forum ?

say the person ig profile is public ?
 

Dr.Vijay

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is it a crime if you screenshot some one else ig post and post it on forum ?

say the person ig profile is public ?

By itself, no, just like many of users' profile information is available in some form or another online.

However, posting such usually means you're trying to draw some unnecessary attention towards the person affected. If this leads to harassing the person or rallying users towards cyber-bullying, inciting hatred, mistruths or spreading misinformation (even if it's a one-sided story), all of the mentioned are offences.

The biggest problem is when users don't even know they are crossing the lines and take things for granted. Sensitivity towards others and treating others similar to how you would like to be treated are the most important aspects one needs to keep in mind.
 

focus1974

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this law also helps rich/influential/powerful people who can afford lawyers, so their misdeeds will never see the light of day.

Got pros and cons to the law.
but I see it as more cons than pros
 

Supersen

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public linkedin account counted as doxxing someone?

what about other public information? or the act of producing that public URL is doxxing?
 

cranthir

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Hi thanks for the feedback, I have informed the admin to check to see if this can be re-open.

Please refer to the below

https://singaporelegaladvice.com/law-articles/laws-penalties-doxxing-singapore-examples/https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sin...r-amendments-protection-harassment-act-882826

"The Ministry of Law said there has been an increasing trend in an individual’s personal information being consolidated and published online, with a view to harassing the person."

it doesn't said that public info is exempted from the law, we also have to determine if there is intent to harass.

as of now, this is a temp lock until admin reply
 
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