***- Russians are hunting for the private data of thousands of people they consider Putin’s enemies. They use the data for doxing – exposing them to online attacks.
- Deploying a method that had previously proven successful in Ukraine, they published a list of Poles—activists, politicians and journalists—who support Ukraine.
- The “doxing Wikipedia” includes names from many countries, including Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.
- In Central Europe, no one is effectively countering doxing.***
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On Facebook, Kateryna comes across a photo of Oleksiy [her husband who volunteered in the Ukrainian army, both his and his wife's name have been changed to protect their identity], uploaded by an unknown woman. The caption under the photo says in Russian that the man is wanted. Kateryna writes to the author: how does she know her husband? Why is she posting his photo online? What is he wanted for?
The stranger’s account immediately disappears.
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According to Mykola Balaban, deputy head of the Center for Strategic Communications of Ukraine (Stratcom), doxing is one of the key tools of Russian information and psychological warfare. It is meant to create an atmosphere of fear, to weaken morale. To destabilize the opponent’s base.
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This is confirmed by Maria Pavena, a specialist working for the Ukrainian government on the search for missing persons in the central and northern regions of Ukraine. On a daily basis, Pavena works with families who have lost contact with their loved ones, helping to get information and advising on how to respond in similar situations. She hears horror stories about victims of Russian doxing.
“Scammers found a contact for one woman on social media and demanded $15,000 from her,” she says. “They threatened that if she didn’t pay, her relative, who is in captivity, would spend the night naked outside. They sent a video as proof. After she told them that she had no such money, the contact stopped.”
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Doxing poses a challenge to legal systems. We asked institutions in Poland, as well as the neighboring Czech Republic and Slovakia, how they are approaching the problem.
The Polish Ministry of Justice explains that doxing is not a separate crime under Polish law. However, it can be classified as stalking, defamation or illegal solicitation of information. The most common actions in such cases are the initiation of criminal proceedings, securing data on the internet, imposing a penalty and, in some cases, a ban on contact or an order to refrain from certain activities.
There is also no separate criminal provision for doxing in Czech law. “It is an act that can be of a very diverse nature,” explains Hanna Malá from the communications department of the Czech Interior Ministry. “Therefore, each time the legal qualification depends on the specific case: it could be a crime of unauthorized access to a computer system, a violation of the confidentiality of transmitted information, or a violation of RODO regulations [the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection is responsible for enforcing the latter – ed]”.
Slovak police spokeswoman Martina Sláviková responds similarly. In response, she stresses that the term “doxing” is not in the Slovak Criminal Code, but that actions of this type—depending on their scale and consequences—can be classified as dangerous electronic harassment or violation of the rights of others, among other things.
Sláviková adds that police do not keep separate statistics on doxing. These cases are recorded under other crime categories.
Why doesn’t Telegram block sites that directly incite hatred and murder?
The platform has not answered our questions for months. Last August, police in France detained Telegram’s owner, Pavel Durov. French prosecutors accused him of not doing enough to moderate toxic material on Telegram.