Nandy to tighten doxxing law after RNLI volunteers targeted

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she will tighten the law to make doxxing, the publishing of people's home addresses online, a criminal offence, after lifeboat volunteers involved in migrant rescues had personal details posted on the internet.

Ministers said the current law only applies where there is clear intent to cause fear, harm and distress. Ms Nandy said that test leaves too much abuse outside the criminal law. She spoke bluntly.

Ms Nandy spoke after chairing a meeting with social media firms about online abuse linked to doxxing. X did not attend. She called the company a disgrace for staying away. TikTok told her it would automatically remove doxxing posts, while Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, said it would not, according to her account of the talks BBC.

She said she was appalled that RNLI volunteers, police officers, social workers and journalists had been doxxed, with names, photos and addresses published. The RNLI chief executive condemned the online and physical abuse aimed at volunteers over Channel crossings.

The immediate trigger was events around Portsmouth. Ms Nandy acted after 120 people arrived on the shores at Portsmouth from France with RNLI help, an operation that came before protests about Channel crossings. BBC Verify found viral posts about the operation that wrongly named RNLI crew members and called for their families to be tracked down. In a separate case reported earlier this month, an RNLI volunteer was called a traitor online after being wrongly identified as having helped people arriving by small boat.

Ms Nandy had told RNLI volunteers she would raise the abuse in talks with the platforms. That promise led to this week's meeting.

The RNLI said only 109 of its 9,058 lifeboat launches last year were to help people in distress in the Channel, or 1.2% of its rescue work. Its chief executive said about 95% of small boats were stopped by the UK Border Force BBC. The charity describes doxxing in its internal guidance as sharing personal details such as names, locations, contact details or other identifying information, and it publishes a 'See it - report it' guide on how to report social media posts.

On enforcement, Ms Nandy said progress on the Online Safety Act, the law that sets safety duties for tech firms, has been incredibly slow, with two penalties issued to companies so far but no fines yet paid. She has previously said she decided to leave X, the platform owned by Elon Musk, over abuse and misinformation.

The broader context here is what this means for policymakers. The questions fall into three parts. The first is law-making: whether to create a separate offence of publishing home addresses, or change the existing test of fear, harm and distress. The second is pace, given ministerial frustration that the Online Safety Act has yet to lead to a fine being paid. The third is how platforms respond, with TikTok and Meta taking different views on automatic removal. For officials advising on next steps, how those three tracks fit together will matter more than any single announcement, as a wider offence still relies on posts being spotted, referred and prosecuted to change behaviour on the ground.