TL;DR Often, yes — whether doxxing is illegal depends on why the information was posted and what happened because of it. No single federal law bans doxxing by name. But publishing someone’s home address, phone number, or workplace to threaten, stalk, or harass them can be prosecuted as cyberstalkingCyberstalking: under 18 U.S.C. § 2261A, using the internet with intent to harass or intimidate, through two or more acts that cause reasonable fear of serious harm or substantial emotional distress. or as a true threatTrue threat: a serious expression that the speaker means to commit unlawful violence. Not protected by the First Amendment — Counterman v. Colorado (2023). under federal law, and states including California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Illinois, and Washington have their own doxxing laws — some criminal, some civil. If it happens to you, save the evidence, report the post, and report any threat to police — and if you’re under 18, tell a parent or trusted adult the same day.
Your Address Just Showed Up in the Comments: What the Law Does About It
It starts as an argument in a comment thread. By midnight a stranger has replied with your full name, your street, and a photo of your front door. Then it spreads. Accounts you’ve never seen start messaging: “we know where you live.” Food you didn’t order shows up at the house. Your mom asks why someone called her at work. That is doxxing: your private details, published so other people can come after you. Whether it’s a crime turns on what was posted, why, and what it led to. Here’s where federal law draws the lines, how six states handle it, and the steps to take that day and in the week after.Is Doxxing Illegal? The Short Answer
“Doxxing” is internet slang, not the name of a federal crime. What federal law punishes is what doxxing is usually for:
- Cyberstalking — 18 U.S.C. § 2261A. Using the internet with intent to harass or intimidate, through two or more acts that put someone in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury, or would reasonably be expected to cause “substantial emotional distress.” Up to 5 years in an ordinary case; more if the victim is physically hurt.
- Interstate threats — 18 U.S.C. § 875(c). Transmitting a threat to kidnap or injure someone in interstate commerce — the statute charged over Facebook posts in Elonis v. United States. Up to 5 years. Anonymous messages sent to abuse, threaten, or harass a specific person fall under 47 U.S.C. § 223 (up to 2 years).
- Doxxing protected officials — 18 U.S.C. § 119. The one federal statute that reads like a doxxing law: knowingly making public the home address, phone number, personal email, or Social Security number of a federal officer or employee, juror, witness, or informant with intent to threaten, intimidate, or incite a crime of violence. Up to 5 years.
- California — criminal and civil. Penal Code § 653.2: a misdemeanor (up to one year in county jail, a $1,000 fine) to electronically distribute someone’s personal identifying information without consent, intending to put them in reasonable fear for their safety and to imminently cause harassment, injury, or unwanted contact by a third party. Civil Code § 1708.89, in effect since January 1, 2025, adds a lawsuit with $1,500 to $30,000 in statutory damages.
- Texas — criminal. Penal Code § 42.074: posting a person’s home address or phone number on a public website, or disclosing it through an electronic communication, “with the intent to cause harm or a threat of harm” to that person or their family or household. Class B misdemeanor; Class A if bodily injury results.
- Florida — criminal. § 836.115: electronically publishing someone’s personal identification information intending — or intending that a third party will use it — to incite violence or a crime against them, or to threaten or harass them into reasonable fear of bodily harm. First-degree misdemeanor.
- Arizona — criminal. A.R.S. § 13-2916: a class 1 misdemeanor to distribute someone’s personal identifying information without consent to imminently cause harassment, injury, or unwanted contact by a third party — and only if the post actually produces it.
- Illinois — civil. The Civil Liability for Doxing Act, 740 ILCS 195: you can sue someone who intentionally publishes your personally identifiable information without consent, intending it to be used to harm or harass you, while knowing or recklessly disregarding that you’d likely suffer death, bodily injury, or stalking — and it must cause real harm.
- Washington — civil. RCW 4.24.792: a lawsuit for publishing personal identifying information without express consent, with intent, knowledge, or reckless disregard that it will be used to harm you, when harm follows. Statutory damages are $5,000 per violation.
Doxxing Situations, One by One
Situation 1 · Group harassment Someone posts your address and tells people to use itThis is the version state doxxing laws were written for. The poster doesn’t have to show up at your door. Florida’s statute reaches publishing your information “with the intent that a third party will use the information” to threaten or harass you; California’s and Arizona’s are built around harassment “by a third party.”
If it keeps coming — repeated posts, messages, new accounts — it can also become federal cyberstalking.
Situation 2 · The threat The post comes with a threat to hurt youA threat of violence doesn’t need a doxxing law. Section 875(c) covers “any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another.” The constitutional line comes from Counterman: the government must show the speaker at least consciously disregarded a substantial risk that the words would be viewed as threatening violence. “I was joking” is not an automatic defense — and not every angry post is a crime. See our guide to going to jail for what you post.
A threat plus your address is an emergency. If anyone is at your door or says they’re coming, call 911.
Situation 3 · Public info “It was already public” — true, and not the end of the questionSharing truthful, lawfully obtained information is often protected speech — naming a business in a review or linking a news story isn’t doxxing. But the laws above focus on the poster’s purpose and the harm that follows, not on whether the address could be found somewhere.
One post that gathers a person’s details and nudges others to act can turn public facts into evidence of intent.
Situation 4 · You’re the poster You’re angry and about to “expose” someoneStop before you publish an address, school, or workplace. If the post is meant to send people after someone, you’re inside the statutes above. If you’ve identified the wrong person, a stranger takes the harm — and you may also be sued over what you posted.
The lawful route: report the conduct to the platform, the school, or the police. Reporting a crime to law enforcement isn’t doxxing — Illinois’s and Washington’s laws both say so expressly.
Situation 5 · At school A classmate doxxes you — or you doxx a classmateSchool discipline is separate from criminal law. In Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021), the Supreme Court limited schools’ power over off-campus speech but named “serious or severe bullying or harassment targeting particular individuals” as behavior a school may still have reason to regulate. Details are in our guide to whether your school can punish you for what you post.
If you’re the target and under 18, tell a parent or trusted adult first, then the school in writing.
What to Say and Do If You Get Doxxed
Save it, report it, lock it down — in that order
1. Before anything disappears:
Screenshot every post and message with the username, the URL, and the date and time showing. Save the links. Don’t reply and don’t argue.
2. When you report the post to the platform:“This post shares my home address and phone number without my consent and is being used to harass me. Please remove it.”
3. If there’s a threat — 911 for immediate danger, otherwise the police non-emergency line:“I’d like to file a report. Someone posted my home address online along with threats against me. I have screenshots, links, and usernames. May I have the report number?”
4. For online threats and stalking, also file with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov:Give the same facts: what was posted, where, by which account, and what happened next. IC3 is not an emergency line.
5. If you’re under 18, say this to a parent or trusted adult today:“Someone posted where we live and people are messaging me. I saved everything. I need help reporting it.”
Keep every report calm and factual — who, what, where, when. Don’t threaten the poster, and don’t post their information in return.What to Do in the Week After You’re Doxxed
- Lock your accounts. New passwords, two-step login, private profiles, and no address, school, or phone number in bios.
- Protect your credit if a Social Security number was exposed. A credit freeze is free; you place it with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. If your identity is misused, the FTC’s IdentityTheft.gov builds a recovery plan.
- Ask for your details to be taken down. Google’s “Results about you” tool takes requests to remove search results showing your phone number, home address, or email. People-search sites have opt-out pages; the FTC says opting out is free and that your information can reappear, so check again later. California residents can use the state’s free DROP tool to send one deletion request to every registered data broker.
- Keep a dated log. Every new post, call, delivery, or visit, with the police report number beside it.
- Ask about a court order and a lawsuit. A court clerk or victim advocate can tell you which protective orders your state offers; a lawyer can tell you whether you can sue.
Posting About Other People: What You Can vs. Can’t Do
✓ YOU CAN
- Criticize, review, or disagree with someone by name
- Share truthful, lawfully obtained information on a matter of public concern
- Report a crime or a threat to police, a school, or a platform
- Save and hand over evidence of harassment aimed at you
- Ask platforms, search engines, and people-search sites to remove your own details
✗ YOU CAN’T
- Post someone’s home address or phone number to threaten them or send others after them
- Send or post a true threat of violence
- Keep up online harassment that puts someone in reasonable fear or causes substantial emotional distress
- Threaten someone’s reputation or property to extort money or anything of value
- Break into an account to get the information — a separate federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1030
The retaliation trap: the urge after being doxxed is to doxx back. Don’t. Posting the other person’s address is the same act with your name on it. Evidence goes to the police and the platform, not into a public post.
Doxxing Myths, Busted
Myth: “Doxxing is a federal crime, period.”
Not exactly. There’s no general federal doxxing statute. Federal charges come from cyberstalking, interstate threats, or the narrow law protecting federal officials, jurors, and witnesses.
Myth: “I only posted the address. What other people did with it isn’t on me.”
Dangerous myth. Florida’s law covers intending that a third party will use the information; California’s and Arizona’s are written around harassment by third parties; Washington’s reaches reckless disregard for the risk of harm.
Myth: “The platform’s rules are the law.”
False both ways. A platform can remove a legal post and leave up an illegal one. A ban isn’t a legal penalty, and a post staying up doesn’t make it lawful. Report to the platform and, when there’s a threat, to police.
Myth: “I’m a minor, so nothing can happen to me.”
False. The statutes quoted here apply to “a person” or “whoever.” How a case against someone under 18 is handled depends on your state’s juvenile system, and school discipline is a separate track.
Doxxing Questions People Actually Ask
Tap a question to open it.What counts as doxxing?
Doxxing means publishing someone’s private identifying information — home address, phone number, workplace, school, Social Security number — without consent, usually so others can find or harass them. There’s no single legal definition; each statute writes its own. Texas’s covers a home address or phone number; Arizona’s covers information that would let a person be located, contacted, or harassed. Criticizing or naming someone is not, by itself, doxxing.
Can you go to jail for doxxing?
Yes, when the conduct fits a criminal statute. Federal cyberstalking, an interstate threat, and doxxing a covered federal official each carry up to 5 years in an ordinary case. California’s doxxing offense carries up to one year in county jail; Texas, Florida, and Arizona also classify theirs as misdemeanors. Illinois’s and Washington’s doxxing laws are civil — money, not jail.
Is it illegal to post someone’s address online?
Not automatically. It becomes illegal when the address is posted with the intent the statutes describe: to threaten, to harass, or to send other people after the person. Under 18 U.S.C. § 119, doing that to a federal officer or employee, juror, witness, or informant is a federal crime.
Can you sue someone for doxxing you?
In some states, yes, under a specific statute. California allows $1,500 to $30,000 in statutory damages plus other damages and attorney’s fees. Illinois allows damages, attorney’s fees, and court orders. Washington allows $5,000 per violation. Elsewhere, an older state-law claim such as invasion of privacy may fit, depending on the facts and the state — a question for a lawyer.
Is threatening to dox someone illegal?
It can be. When a threat to damage your reputation or property is used to demand money or anything else of value, 18 U.S.C. § 875(d) makes sending it in interstate commerce a federal crime punishable by up to 2 years. A “do what I say or I post your address” message may also violate state harassment, stalking, or extortion laws, which vary. Save the message and report it.
What should I do if I get doxxed?
Act in this order: screenshot everything with usernames, links, and times; report the post to the platform; call 911 if you’re in immediate danger and report any threat to police; file a complaint at ic3.gov; then lock down your accounts and ask search engines and people-search sites to remove your details. If you’re under 18, bring in a parent or trusted adult at step one.
Doxxing Law: Key Terms, Explained
Doxxing — publishing someone’s private identifying information without consent, typically so others can locate or harass them.
True threat — a serious expression that the speaker means to commit unlawful violence. Not protected by the First Amendment.
Cyberstalking — the federal crime in 18 U.S.C. § 2261A: online conduct, with intent to harass or intimidate, that causes reasonable fear or substantial emotional distress.
Course of conduct — defined in federal law as a pattern of two or more acts showing a continuity of purpose.
Recklessness — consciously disregarding a substantial risk. After Counterman, the minimum mental state the government must prove in a true-threat case.
The Court Cases Behind Doxxing Law
The linked card opens a full breakdown in our case library.Counterman v. Colorado (2023)A man sent hundreds of Facebook messages to a local musician. Voting 7–2 on the outcome, the Court held that in a true-threat prosecution the government must prove the speaker was at least reckless about how the words would be received.
Elonis v. United States (2015)Violent Facebook posts charged under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c). The Court held that negligence isn’t enough to convict — what the speaker was thinking matters.
Florida Star v. B.J.F. (1989)A newspaper printed a crime victim’s name taken from a police report. The Court held that punishing truthful, lawfully obtained information of public significance takes a state interest of the highest order.
Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021)The school-speech piece: off-campus posts get broad protection, but severe harassment and threats targeting individuals remain within a school’s reach.Read the full case →
Doxxing Law That’s Still Moving
The edges to watch as of October 2026:
- New and wider state laws — Texas and Washington passed theirs in 2023; Illinois’s took effect in 2024 and California’s civil law in 2025. Texas widened its statute in 2025, and Indiana added doxxing to its intimidation law effective July 1, 2026.
- Bills in Congress — Senate bills introduced in June 2025 (S. 1952) and January 2026 (S. 3651) would add federal crimes for exposing certain federal officers and special operations personnel. We found no record of either becoming law.
- Data-broker deletion rights — California’s DROP platform opened in January 2026; data brokers had to begin processing its deletion requests on August 1, 2026.
One important note: doxxing law is a patchwork. The six states above are examples, not the whole map. To check yours, search your state legislature’s official website for “doxxing,” “harassment,” “stalking,” and “personal identifying information,” and look at your state attorney general’s site. Federal law applies alongside whatever your state does — here’s how federal and state law fit together.
The Bottom Line on Whether Doxxing Is Illegal
Doxxing isn’t one crime — it’s a behavior that several laws catch from different angles. The information is rarely the problem; the purpose is. Post someone’s address to send a crowd after them and you can face criminal charges, a lawsuit, and school discipline. Get doxxed, and the law gives you real tools — which work best when you save the evidence first. Screenshot, report, lock down, tell an adult, and never answer a doxx with a doxx. Now you know.The related questionCan you go to jail for what you post? → The school sideCan your school punish you for what you post? → The whole subjectExplore Internet Law →
Sources
Primary sources:- 18 U.S.C. § 2261A — Stalking — law.cornell.edu
- 18 U.S.C. § 2261(b) — stalking penalties — law.cornell.edu
- 18 U.S.C. § 2266 — “course of conduct” — law.cornell.edu
- 18 U.S.C. § 119 — restricted personal information — law.cornell.edu
- 18 U.S.C. § 1114 — covered federal officers — law.cornell.edu
- 18 U.S.C. § 875 — interstate threats — law.cornell.edu
- 47 U.S.C. § 223 — harassing communications — law.cornell.edu
- 18 U.S.C. § 1030 — law.cornell.edu
- Counterman v. Colorado, 600 U.S. 66 (2023) — supreme.justia.com
- Elonis v. United States, 575 U.S. 723 (2015) — supreme.justia.com
- Florida Star v. B.J.F., 491 U.S. 524 (1989) — supreme.justia.com
- Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., 594 U.S. 180 (2021) — supreme.justia.com
- California Penal Code § 653.2 — law.justia.com
- California Civil Code § 1708.89 — law.justia.com
- Texas Penal Code § 42.074 — statutes.capitol.texas.gov
- Texas H.B. 3425 (2025), amending § 42.074 — capitol.texas.gov
- Florida Statutes § 836.115 — leg.state.fl.us
- Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-2916 — azleg.gov
- Illinois Civil Liability for Doxing Act, 740 ILCS 195 — law.justia.com
- Revised Code of Washington § 4.24.792 — app.leg.wa.gov
- Indiana S.E.A. 140 (P.L. 146-2026) — legislative update — courts.in.gov
- S. 1952, 119th Congress — as introduced — congress.gov
- S. 3651, 119th Congress — as introduced — congress.gov
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center — frequently asked questions — ic3.gov
- FBI IC3 — 2023 Internet Crime Report (complaint types include harassment/stalking and threats of violence) — ic3.gov
- How to report cyberbullying — stopbullying.gov
- FTC — people search sites — consumer.ftc.gov
- Credit freezes — usa.gov
- FTC — What To Know About Identity Theft — consumer.ftc.gov
- California DROP platform — privacy.ca.gov
- Google — “Results about you” tool — support.google.com
LawJustic is for educational purposes only and does not provide legal advice. Doxxing, stalking, and harassment laws vary by state and change often. If you are in danger, call 911. If you’re facing charges, discipline, or a lawsuit over a post, talk to a licensed attorney in your state. Last reviewed: October 2026.