Kansas City Council criminalizes doxxing, despite fear of unintended consequences
Kansas City Council members on Thursday criminalized “doxxing,” or maliciously posting someone’s personal information online to threaten them.
Mayor Quinton Lucas had introduced the ordinance, intending it to protect police officers and public officials. But the version the full City Council passed 7-5 on Thursday expanded the law to apply to anyone whose information is leaked.
Lucas announced the proposal on Twitter last month, saying it stemmed from a conversation he had with officers’ families concerned about the growing trend of doxxing. He said the ordinance was “trying to find a way to keep family out of” disputes between public officials and members of the public.
The legislation makes it illegal to “willfully or maliciously publish any personally identifying information” with the intent to “threaten or stalk” another person or their domestic partner or immediate family members. The City Council’s Special Committee on Legal Review had voted 4-0 to approve the amended version to protect anyone, not just police and public officials.
Representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri objected to the narrower version in committee, according to their statement read into the record by Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McManus, because it would have prioritized public officials over the general public.
“A police officer or mayor could find and publish the phone number and email address of a protester and see no repercussions, but the protester could not do the same,” the statement said. “An officer could see a protester with their nametag from work and blast that information to other officers with no recourse or protection for the resident.”
“We agree that safety is a priority, privacy is a priority, however this ordinance goes too far and violates the First Amendment.”
McManus clarified that the committee was adopting new language to broaden who was protected.
“The substitute before us does not treat elected officials or government officials or P.D. different from anybody else in the city, and I think that’s an important change with what you’re proposing,” he said. “’Cause I don’t think they should be treated differently.”
In the ordinance, personally identifying information includes a Social Security number, birthday, home address, email address, phone number, financial information, health or insurance information or school or employment location.
Concerns around doxxing have made national headlines as protests against police brutality and racism continued across the country after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The Kansas City Police Department has said on Twitter that multiple officers had been doxxed. Sgt. Jake Becchina, a spokesman for the department, said there were similar incidents around protests in June and one following protests in July.
Several council members on Thursday objected to the new ordinance, saying it is overly broad.
Councilwoman Katheryn Shields, 4th District at-large, said she believed state law already protected people from doxxing, and she feared the legislation “impedes people’s right to speak out on issues of concern to them.”
Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, 3rd District, objected to a clause saying the goal of the legislation was intended to target situations where someone caused a “reasonable fear” of physical harm. Robinson said that would have unintended consequences and disproportionately affect people of color.
“To me, that’s very subjective in terms of one’s feelings about if they’re afraid, so I wouldn’t be able to vote on this as it stands now,” Robinson said.
Robinson said she agreed with the intent of the ordinance but wanted to avoid unintended side effects.
Council members Robinson, Shields, Brandon Ellington, Eric Bunch and Ryana Parks Shaw voted against the legislation. Councilwoman Teresa Loar was absent, and the remaining six members and Lucas voted in favor.
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 6:49 PM.
