RECONTEXTUALISING DOXING: : DISCURSIVE PRACTICES BEFORE AND AFTER THE U.S. CAPITOL RIOTS

Abstract: This paper provides a closer analysis of the discourse in doxing in a sample of digital and printed US and European media with a particular focus on the Capitol riots. The analysis centers around the following questions: How is doxing portrayed? How are its victims and perpetrators portrayed? What expressions about doxing appear depending on who performs the act versus being exposed? When it comes to how doxing is valued in the discourse, there are three categories that determine how the discourse is portrayed. (1) Who is behind the doxing? (2) who is the target of doxing? (3) What is the purpose of doxing? These categories work in symbiosis with each other. A positive notion of the doxxer, a negative notion about the person being doxxed and a justified purpose is needed for it to be valued in the discourse. Two main types of doxing could be distinguished that are framed in different ways in the discourse, doxing for malicious purposes and doxing for political purposes. In relation to the U.S capitol riots, Doxing was recontextualized. The change is explained trough (Re-) definition, a ‘theoretical legitimation’ strategy where actions are legitimized through defining an action in terms of ‘another, moralized activity’.