The Utah House of Representatives proposed a new bill Monday that amends the state’s criminal code to include so-called doxing — the process of leaking someone’s personally identifiable information online against their consent — but, critics fear the bill’s broad language would stifle free speech, Ars Technica reports. Utah HB 255 includes provisions that would outlaw denial-of-service attacks and false emergency reports — also known as swatting. Though the state already has a law that makes it illegal “to annoy, alarm, intimidate, offend, abuse, threaten, harass, frighten, or disrupt the electronic communications of another,” HB 225 would add specific language that would include “distributing personal identifying information” to the law. Electronic Frontier Foundation Staff Attorney Nate Cardozo said, however, “This bill as drafted is clearly unconstitutional.”
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