Online Bullying Laws Now In Full Effect For Iowa

Hard to believe that online bullying has gotten so extreme that the government has had to step in, but here we are. Sadly things have started to get out of hand with threats and violence. Law enforcement are taking steps to prevent future swatting and doxxing attempts. This new law kicked off at the start of 2024 and is now in full effect.

Make no mistake this is more than just bullying.

Massive Online bullying issues in America are much larger then just "bullying" They are legit crimes that are now being taken seriously. Doxxing and Swatting are the main focus of this law.

Doxxing In Iowa

This is nothing new, and has been a popular form of harassments for years. Doxxing is the result of someone leaking all your private info onto the internet for others to see. The full answer is as follows,

Doxxing (also spelled “doxing”) is the act of revealing someone’s personal information online. Doxxing is a form of online harassment that means publicly exposing someone’s real name, address, job, or other identifying info without a victim’s consent. The aim of doxxing is to humiliate, bully, harass, or otherwise harm a victim.

The New Doxxing Law

Once again, reports indicate that this law has been in effect for nearly a year, which underscores the fact that there is little to no justification for continued ignorance of its provisions or implications

The Civil Liability for Doxxing Act (Public Act 103-0439) is a new anti-doxxing law recently passed in Illinois. While Governor Pritzker signed and approved the bill on August 4th, 2023, the law will not go into effect until January 1, 2024.

Thankful This is punishable by law in Illinois. New reports state that If you or a family member are affected by this actions can be taken. The law allows doxing victims to take civil action against their attacker to recover damages. To take civil action, the following should be true:

An individual intentionally publishes another person’s information without consent.
The person whose information is published can, in fact, be identified by that information.
The person posting personally identifying information does so with the intent to harass or cause harm and knows (or recklessly disregards) that the person whose information is published may suffer harm as outlined in the act.
The published information causes a person to suffer economic injury; emotional distress; fear of bodily injury or death to oneself and loved ones; or substantial life disruption.