Prompted by Covington Scandal, Kentucky OK's Bill to Criminalize the "Doxing" of Minors

Calvin Freiburger : Mar 8, 2019
LifeSiteNews.com

"My son, Nicholas Sandmann, was the victim of the most sensational Twitter attack in the history of the internet. It shows how far out of control social media has become ... We are still a [long] way from winning back my son's reputation." -Ted Sandmann, testifying on behalf of his son

(Frankfort, KY)—[Lifesitenews.com] Legislation to ban the "doxing" of minors overwhelmingly passed a Kentucky Senate committee on Wednesday, inspired by the torrent of threats aimed at Covington Catholic High School Students after a video from the March for Life inspired a wave of false accusations against the boys. (Photo: Ted Sandmann, father Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann/Credit: Sam Upshaw Jr.-Louisville Courier Journal)

The Senate State and Local Government Committee voted 8-3 to approve Senate Bill 240, the Louisville Courier Journal reports. The bill would make it a crime to disseminate personal identifying information about a minor on the internet—such as names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, schools, or contact info—for the purpose of harassing or intimidating that person. "Doxing" would start out as a misdemeanor but become a felony if it resulted in physical or financial harm to the victim.

Opponents of the legislation, such as Rebecca DiLoreto of the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Democrat state Sen. Morgan McGarvey, argued the bill was broad enough to potentially infringe on free speech and criminalize students simply taunting each other online.

"I think it would force people to think before they tweeted," Todd McMurtry, an attorney representing the family of Covington student Nick Sandmann, said in support of the measure. "I think it would do a lot to make the internet, Facebook and Twitter at least a little bit safer."

Immediately following January's March for Life in Washington, DC, the press erupted with claims that a video showed Covington students harassing Nathan Phillips, a Native American activist, outside the Lincoln Memorial. But additional extended video and firsthand accounts soon revealed that Phillips was the one who waded into the group waiting for its bus and decided to beat a drum, inches from Sandmann's face, while members of the Black Hebrew Israelites fringe group shouted racial taunts at the kids... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Click here to continue reading.