It can be. Posting someone’s home address or other identifying information online is a misdemeanor under Penal Code section 653.2 when it is done without consent, with intent to place the person in reasonable fear for their safety, and for the purpose of getting a third party to cause imminent unwanted contact, injury, or harassment, in a way likely to produce that result. Since 2025 the same conduct can also support a civil lawsuit, and separate laws cover posting the addresses of public officials and certain health care workers and patients.
The elements of Penal Code 653.2
Penal Code section 653.2(a) applies to a person who, without the other person’s consent, electronically distributes, publishes, e-mails, hyperlinks, or makes available for downloading someone’s personal identifying information (including a digital image) or “an electronic message of a harassing nature about another person,” and who acts:
- “with intent to place another person in reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of the other person’s immediate family”;
- “by means of an electronic communication device,” which the statute says includes telephones, cell phones, computers, and Internet Web pages or sites (subdivision (b));
- “for the purpose of imminently causing that other person unwanted physical contact, injury, or harassment, by a third party”; and
- in a way “which would be likely to incite or produce that unlawful action.”
Harassment here means “a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person” that a reasonable person would find seriously alarming, annoying, tormenting, or terrorizing, and that serves no legitimate purpose (subdivision (c)). A conviction can bring as much as a year in county jail, a fine of no more than $1,000, or both. The statute has no bias or hate requirement.
How it differs from stalking and criminal threats
Stalking under Penal Code section 646.9 requires repeatedly following someone, or harassing them through a course of conduct of two or more acts, plus a credible threat; section 653.2 can be violated by a single posting. Criminal threats under Penal Code section 422 requires a threat to commit a crime that would result in death or great bodily injury, meant to be taken as a threat and so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific that it causes the person threatened reasonable, sustained fear. Section 653.2 has no threat element; it turns on the poster’s intent and purpose and on how third parties are likely to react.
Doxxing can also lead to a civil lawsuit
Since January 1, 2025, Civil Code section 1708.89 lets a person sue someone who “doxes” them, using a definition that tracks section 653.2’s elements almost word for word. A prevailing plaintiff “who suffers harm as a result of being doxed” may recover economic and noneconomic damages, statutory damages of $1,500 to $30,000, punitive damages, and, after a properly noticed hearing, reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. A court can also issue a temporary restraining order or an injunction ordering the defendant to stop. The plaintiff may sue under a pseudonym such as Jane Doe and keep other identifying details out of court filings.
The civil claim does not depend on a criminal charge. It does not apply to someone who solely provides the information in reporting criminal activity to law enforcement, reasonably believing the report is true, or who shares it to report conduct reasonably believed to be unlawful.
Separate rules protect officials and some health care workers
Penal Code section 76.5 makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly post on the internet the home address or telephone number of an elected or appointed official, or of the official’s residing spouse or child, knowing the person is an official and “intending to cause imminent great bodily harm that is likely to occur or threatening to cause imminent great bodily harm.” If the posting leads to bodily injury, it can be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony. The definition of “elected or appointed official” in Government Code section 7920.500 includes judges, district attorneys, public defenders, city council members, county supervisors, mayors, police chiefs, sheriffs, and public safety officials, among others. Section 76.5 took effect January 1, 2026, but it is not a new prohibition: AB 1521 (2025) moved the same rule from the Government Code into the Penal Code.
Government Code section 6218.01 bars posting online the personal information or image of a patient, provider, or assistant of reproductive or gender-affirming health care services (as section 6218.05 defines them), or of someone at the same home address, with intent that another person imminently use it to commit a crime involving violence or a threat of violence against them. Punishment can include a fine as high as $10,000 per violation, custody (up to a year in county jail, or felony imprisonment under Penal Code section 1170(h)), or both.
If a doxxing offense is committed in whole or in part because of the target’s actual or perceived disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or association with a person or group with those characteristics, it also fits California’s definition of a hate crime (Penal Code section 422.55). The hate crimes page covers what that can add to a case.
What this means for you
- If you posted someone’s information, stop and do not repost it anywhere. Taking a post down does not erase liability that already attached, and deleting records can create evidence problems, so talk to a lawyer promptly about removing it in a way that keeps a record.
- If you were targeted, save copies of the posts, links, dates, and any contact or threats that followed. If you are in danger, call 911.
- Criminal and civil cases are separate, and one posting can lead to either or both.
Talk to a lawyer about your situation
If you are under investigation or have been charged over something you posted, ask the Law Offices of David S. Chesley to go through the posts with you and explain how these laws apply. Call (800) 755-5174 to discuss your situation.