Local Nazis in your area : public shaming and communal disgust in the doxing of white nationalists at Charlottesville

Abstract

Eagerness to ‘name and shame’ neo-Nazis after alt-right violence and intimidation at the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has revitalised the ethical debate over the practice of ‘doxing’ (dropping documents) to publicly shame previously unidentified white nationalists.

Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s politics of emotion to analyse the affective politics of doxing as a weaponised form of public shaming and expression of personal disgust raises urgent questions about the effects and ethics of doxing as an activist practice and form of cyber-harrassment.

["Doxing – the intentional, non-consensual, public online release of personal identifying information about an individual, “often with the intent to humiliate, threaten, intimidate, or punish” – has become an established means of public shaming and credibility delegitimisation in the internet era"]