Doxxing - A Buddhist View
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me,” a child’s rhyme, taught as armor against schoolyard bullies. That armor has rusted. Its bits and pieces have flaked and are falling away, useless.
The words that harm in the 21st century reach far beyond the schoolyard. Few are safe if they become targets of today’s cyber bullying. The CDC data shows that about 15% of adolescents have been cyberbullied and about 13% of adolescents have made serious suicide attempts.1
I began to question the Buddhist view on bullying and doxxing, a new form of cyber bullying on a global scale for those caught in its crosshairs. Merriam Webster defines doxxing as “to publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge.”
What made me take notice were news articles covering college students who were protesting. Those wanting to silence the protests said they would dox information about them that would make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to obtain desirable future employment upon graduation. It worked. It silenced many students who understood the power of doxxing and how their entire future was on the line for their current beliefs.
First Amendment and ethical/moral arguments aside, what would a Buddhist response look like? I’m not sure there is a simple answer, and certainly not one answer. We can start with the teachings the Buddha left us. Are they enough to deal with a 21st century cyber world and AI that targets messages that “ping” us to be read and influence our beliefs?
Right Speech as understood in the Eightfold Noble Path has been a topic of discussion at the Cleveland Buddhist Temple. We discovered it’s hard to practice right speech, even for a day. It takes great effort to catch years of unthinking habits of speech. But remember, right speech is about our speech and words we speak.
Since the Eightfold Noble Path was intended for the nuns and monks, disciples of Buddha, we catch a break as ordinary lay people like us are not “required” to follow the precepts of right speech, or are we? Today’s The Nightstand Buddhist includes some of what the Buddha had to say on right speech. To be on the “path” is to be on the Eightfold Noble Path – or at least, to try.
But what exactly is my responsibility, as a Buddhist, when others use false speech, malicious speech, harsh speech, idle chatter/gossip all summed up as verbal misconduct? “It depends” I say, but in general, I’m not sure. In our Golden Chain, it is my responsibility to protect those who are weaker than myself. In some cases it is obvious what needs to be done and I do it. In others, I have doubts.
It would be so simple to live in a monastic setting but we don’t. This messy, confusing and ever changing world surprises us at almost every turn. And each time it does, and each time we confront verbal misconduct, not only our own, but that of others that carries harm and destruction, what do we, as Buddhists do?
In gassho
Rev. Anita
Namo Amida Butsu
Namo Amida Butsu
Namo Amida Butsu
1 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36822834/
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