An Indiana bill criminalizing doxing passed on second reading in the Senate Thursday with an amendment attached. Doxing is when a person who knowingly or intentionally posts information, like address or phone number, of a targeted person in retaliation. Under Senate Bill 140, authored by State Sen. Vaneta Becker, doxing will become a Class A misdemeanor and a Level 6 felony if the posting of the personal information results in the targeted person or someone closely connected to the person suffering serious injury or death. Under the bill, doxing would become a Level 5 felony if the posting of personal information of a specific person or someone close to the targeted person experienced catastrophic injury or death. The bill defines a person closely connected to the targeted person as a child, parent, sibling, grandparent, person living in the same household and a person involved in a dating relationship with the targeted person. The bill defines personal information as a person’s Social Security number, address, legal name, telephone number, and employer information. Becker, R-Evansville, said in committee last week she filed the bill because of what many State Senators experienced with doxing and swatting, or false police reports to generate a large law enforcement response, amid the state’s discussion around mid-census redistricting. State Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, proposed an amendment Thursday to include language about intent “to simply make that the crime” when it comes to doxing. “It’s abhorrent, and this should not happen,” Freeman said. The motion to amend passed on a voice vote. It moves forward for final consideration by the Senate. The bill was amended in the Senate Corrections and Criminal Law committee to remove a coworker as a person closely connected to the targeted person. In committee, State Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, said she was concerned about the broadness of the bill as it relates to private communications being used as doxing incrimination. She voted against the bill in committee. “I know the bill will pass, but I just need to preserve my reservations on this. It’s pretty broad right now, so I’m a ‘no’,” Brown said ahead of her vote. The doxing bill was a reaction to a wave of threats toward Indiana Republican Senators when they expressed skepticism to President Donald Trump’s desire to redraw the state’s Congressional district boundaries in order to ensure two more Republican seats. In November, Gov. Mike Braun called a special session to vote on redrawn maps, but Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, initially said he would cancel the early December session because the chamber did not have the votes to pass the measure. Two days after the cancellation announcement, Trump issued a statement on his social media site Truth Social calling out “RINO” Bray and Greg Goode, R-Terre Haute, “for not wanting to redistrict their state, allowing the United States Congress to perhaps gain two more Republican seats.” Hours after Trump posted his comment, Goode received a false swatting call. After Organization Day, when the Senate voted to reconvene in January, at least seven more State Senators — Dan Dernulc, Spencer Deery, Rick Niemeyer, Greg Walker, Kyle Walker, Linda Rogers and Andy Zay — received swatting calls. Mid-census redistricting conversations and actions began in August when Texas redrew its Congressional map to give Republicans five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. In response, Democratic states, like California, have taken steps to redistrict to gain Democratic seats. In early December, the Indiana legislature went into session to consider the maps, but after passing the House, the measure failed in the Senate, 19-31. [email protected] ...read more read less