section_path: Internet/Social networking/Online harassment
section_name: Online harassment
paragraph_text: Online harassment
  
  An invasion of someone's privacy may be widely and quickly disseminated over the Internet. When social media sites and other online communities fail to invest in content moderation, an invasion of privacy can expose people to a much greater volume and degree of harassment than would otherwise be possible. Revenge porn may lead to misogynist or homophobic harassment, such as in the suicide of Amanda Todd and the suicide of Tyler Clementi. When someone's physical location or other sensitive information is leaked over the Internet via doxxing, harassment may escalate to direct physical harm such as stalking or swatting.
  
  Despite the way breaches of privacy can magnify online harassment, online harassment is often used as a justification to curtail freedom of speech, by removing the expectation of privacy via anonymity, or by enabling law enforcement to invade privacy without a search warrant. In the wake of Amanda Todd's death, the Canadian parliament proposed a motion purporting to stop bullying, but Todd's mother herself gave testimony to parliament rejecting the bill due to its provisions for warrantless breaches of privacy, stating "I don't want to see our children victimized again by losing privacy rights."
  
  Even where these laws have been passed despite privacy concerns, they have not demonstrated a reduction in online harassment. When the Korea Communications Commission introduced a registration system for online commenters in 2007, they reported that malicious comments only decreased by 0.9%, and in 2011 it was repealed. A subsequent analysis found that the set of users who posted the most comments actually increased the number of "aggressive expressions" when forced to use their real name.
  
  In the US, while federal law only prohibits online harassment based on protected characteristics such as gender and race, individual states have expanded the definition of harassment to further curtail speech: Florida's definition of online harassment includes "any use of data or computer software" that "Has the effect of substantially disrupting the orderly operation of a school."