during the doxing craze on old SC i did a bit of research on doxing and swatting.
California has been very pro active in creating laws to protect people from cyber harassment.
people dying tends to create new laws, just google "swatting"
in 2008 California passed the indirect electronic harassment Penal Code 653.2 PC so this is not a new law.
the US federal government has laws in this area also.
it gives legal teeth to childish retaliatory online behavior.
The legal definition of posting harmful information on the internet under California Penal Code 653.2 is as follows:
You used an electronic communication device to electronically distribute, publish, email, hyperlink or make available for downloading personal identifying information or an electronic message of a harassing nature about another person;
You did so without that person's consent;
You did so with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his/her safety or the safety of his/her immediate family;
You did so for the purpose of imminently causing that other person unwanted physical contact, injury or harassment; and
The personal identifying information or message you shared would be likely to incite or produce that unwanted physical contact, injury or harassment.4
For purposes of California's indirect internet harassment law, “harassment” means a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that a reasonable person would consider as seriously alarming, seriously annoying, seriously tormenting or seriously terrorizing that person, and that serves no legitimate purpose.5
