Doxxing is the publishing of a person’s private information without their consent. It’s generally regarded as a pretty nasty thing to do — depending, of course, on who it’s done to. What is met, in one instance, with smug, tacit approval by the media — if it isn’t actually done by the media themselves — is condemned with pearl-clutching hysteria in another.
There’s a stunning my-side bias, when it comes to doxxing.
Consider, for instance, a young man associated with the Freedom protests in Melbourne — the media had no compunction in publishing his full name, workplace, and home suburb: doxxing him, in a word. Media outlets also published the private phone number of MP Craig Kelly, well known for opposing vaccine mandates. The journalist concerned maintained that he had done nothing wrong.
But when a pro-vax politician’s mobile number is published? Cue the outraged screeching.
Tasmanian independent Jacqui Lambie on Tuesday accused One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts of posting her private mobile number on social media without her consent, demanding an apology for the number of “nasty, abusive and threatening” messages and calls she had received.
Senator Lambie took aim at the “right-wing nut jobs” who berated her following an impassioned plea for anti-vaxxers to “grow up” and do the right thing by their community […]
Labor Senator Penny Wong said the attacks directed at Senator Lambie were a “new low”.
“Some things have to be off limits,” she told RN Breakfast.
But then comes this curious bit of information.
Senator Roberts on Tuesday said he was not responsible for the phone number leak – shifting the blame onto Tasmanian One Nation senate candidate Steve Mav.
“Steve was sent the phone number by a Tasmanian voter that got it from Senator Lambie’s Facebook post with an invitation to contact her,” Senator Roberts said.
The Australian
Which seems to suggest that the number was, in fact, made publicly available by Lambie herself. Now, I’m no fan of Steve Mav, but if Senator Lambie published her number in a Facebook post, surely her constituents have every right to contact her and make their views known?
This, in fact, was the exact excuse used by journalist Ben Eltham, who tweeted Craig Kelly’s mobile number:
That’s just the mobile number that is on the bottom of his public media releases,” Eltham said. “I believe I was providing my followers with his mobile number to express their opinions back to an elected representative. I mean he’s an MP. He’s not a private figure.
So, does the same argument not apply to Jacquie Lambie?
One final word for Senator Lambie:
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson attempted to introduce a bill trying to overturn states’ ability to mandate vaccinations and protect non-vaccinated Australians from “discrimination”.
In response, Senator Lambie slammed Senator Hanson, telling her, and her anti-vax supporters to “grow up”.
“Being held accountable for your own actions isn’t called discrimination, it’s called being, you wouldn’t believe it – a goddamn bloody adult,” she said on Monday.
Sydney Morning Herald
Being, as you say, “a goddamn bloody adult” (an ironic turn of phrase, considering she has been shrieking blue murder about people swearing at her) also entails the right to make your own medical decisions, without coercion.
Apparently Jacquie Lambie thinks Australians are only so many children, to be ordered about by their “betters”.
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