Doxxing (or doxing) is the act of publicly publishing someone’s private or personal data on the internet without their permission, most often with the intention of harassing, intimidating or endangering that person. In the middle of a doxxing internet scandal is the company Air Serbia, which revealed the name of a user on a popular social network who, under a pseudonym, posted that salaries in this company are low. Everything took place on March 12, and reactions from other users immediately followed, writing that this is not the first time someone’s private data has been publicly published without their permission because of criticism of the state or one of the state-owned companies.
It all started with a post by one user who criticized a job advertisement from the company Air Baltic, whose majority owner is the state of Latvia, which offers a small salary for cabin crew in Belgrade. This post was followed by a user, who is signed under a pseudonym and whose social media profile does not reveal her identity, who commented that salaries in Air Serbia are even lower.
“And with Air Baltic you don’t even have contributions because it is ACMI. They are recruited by the agency ProHuman, which used to be called CityScope, through which they hired cabin crew in Air Serbia so they would not give permanent contracts but instead transfer them to two-year contracts,” she wrote in the reply.
Her comment was followed by the official profile of Air Serbia, which targeted the user by name and claimed that she continuously spreads false information with the aim of damaging the reputation of Air Serbia.
“The Serbian national airline is guided by clearly defined internal and legal procedures, which you, during your work engagement as a member of the cabin crew, failed to respect on multiple occasions. As you are aware — your employment contract was terminated due to an unprofessional attitude toward the work process and the company, after numerous warnings you received for violating internal procedures.
We understand your dissatisfaction due to the inglorious end of your flying career, but responsibility for such an outcome is solely yours. For any further presentation of false information about the operations of the company Air Serbia, which damages its reputation, we will use available legal remedies against you. Kind regards,” reads the response from Air Serbia, which has not been removed even two days after it was published, although they revealed the name of the user, who, as we stated, is signed under a pseudonym on the social network.
Air Serbia’s response currently has over 400,000 views and hundreds of negative reactions and criticisms. The question most frequently repeated is why and for what reason the user’s name was disclosed.
Lawyer Ivan Ninić also commented on the case and wrote: “By the way, our fellow citizen posted a drone photo of Slavija on a locked, private Instagram… the little bosses went crazy, someone doing that in Malović’s ‘kingdom’. But she is waiting for the verdict and a return, because THE TIME OF RESPONSIBILITY IS COMING… and those who fly to Verona to choose ceramics know that…”
We contacted Air Serbia and asked whether they are aware that the administrator on the social network published personal data without permission and whether there will be sanctions. By the time of publication of this text, we had not received answers from the official media representatives of Air Serbia.
Penalties for doxxing
Doxxing, or the public publication of someone else’s personal data without permission, is considered a serious violation of the law in many European countries, although the term itself is often not specifically defined in legislation. Such behavior is usually punished through other criminal offenses, such as misuse of personal data, harassment, stalking or endangering safety. Penalties depend on the severity of the case but can include high fines reaching tens of thousands of euros, prison sentences ranging from several months to several years, as well as civil lawsuits in which the victim can seek financial compensation for violation of privacy or caused damage.
In Serbia, doxxing is also not specifically named in the laws, but such actions can be prosecuted through several criminal offenses, such as unauthorized collection and publication of personal data, stalking or endangering security. Depending on the circumstances, penalties may be financial or prison sentences. For unauthorized publication of someone else’s personal data, a fine or imprisonment of up to one year is prescribed, while in cases where the publication of data includes threats, harassment or places a person in serious danger, the punishment can be several years in prison.
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Source: Nova , Foto:Air Serbia