DENVER (KDVR) — FOX31 is looking into something many of you probably have never heard of before. It’s called doxxing.
Doxxing is when someone shares private information online belonging to an organization or an individual. It usually ends up with someone contacting that person, maybe leading to harassment, threats and even violence.
Last year, the state of Colorado banned the doxxing of some workers and state health officials are working to expand this law to protect doctors and nurses as well.
On Monday, House Bill 22-1041 passed the House by a vote of 52-10.
“That would extend protections from doxxing to healthcare workers in addition to a number of county-level public officials,” said Joshua Ewing, vice president of legislative affairs for the Colorado Hospital Association.
He’s testified about the importance of expanding this bill to include healthcare workers.
During the pandemic, healthcare workers have remained committed to thwarting the threat of COVID-19. Ironically, the political climate during the pandemic has now intensified threats against them.
“So since the start of the pandemic, we’ve seen increases in online threats, verbal threats and actual physical violence to our frontline healthcare workers,” Ewing said.
Violence against health care workers has been on the rise over the last 10 years. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, violence-related healthcare worker injuries skyrocketed by 67% between 2011 and 2018.
“I think the escalation we’ve seen during the pandemic has forced state legislatures like Colorado to take certain actions to protect individuals who, again, just in there in the capacity of their job serving others are seeing these threats,” Ewing said.
The bill now hangs in the House, following a bipartisan effort to nurse an already plagued profession back to health.
This bill would also expand protections to other public officials including animal control and code enforcement officers.