OLYMPIA—A bill proposed by state Rep. David Frockt would give victims of vicious online impersonations the legal power to fight back.
“Online impersonations at social networking and on-line bulletin boards can destroy reputations and lives because the law hasn’t caught up with the technology,” said Frockt (D-Seattle).
Online impersonation—also known as e-personation—is a rapidly growing phenomenon where perpetrators pretend to be someone else, often combining the victim’s name with photos and personal information taken from the web to make the impersonation more convincing.
On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing on Frockt’s HB 1652, which aims to deter some of the ugliest forms of e-personation by giving victims the ability to pursue justice in the courts when they have suffered personal harm.
California became the first state to take aim at online impersonation when lawmakers voted unanimously to make e-personation a crime punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail. The California law took effect Jan. 1.
Frockt’s bill would not make e-personation a separate crime, but would empower victims to sue for damages when they have been harmed. The law singles out e-personation at social networking sites and online bulletin boards, where the most egregious cases have taken place.
Several high-profile cases of e-personation have garnered attention over the past year.
- The current issue of Salon Magazine includes an essay by a woman whose name and photograph were used to create a pornographic persona of a woman who was trolling for sex and willing to pay for it. Even a friend who had known the victim for 20 years was fooled. “They stole a chunk of my soul. Our laws have yet to catch up with that,” the woman said.
- In early February, the head of Staten Island’s Administration for Children’s Services in New York was arrested for using a woman’s picture and phone number to impersonate her on a lesbian dating web site. He allegedly used her identity to court a 15-year-old girl. The imposter was discovered after the victim started getting strange phone calls from solicitors, according to news reports.
- A woman was bound and raped in her Wyoming home last year after a former boyfriend posted a Craigslist ad in her name that said, “Need a real aggressive man with no concerns for women.”
When online impersonation is used to obtain money through extortion or access to the victim’s financial accounts, it may be liable to prosecution under current laws. But there is no clear remedy when the harm is to a person’s reputation or to their personal or professional financial standing.
“Stealing and destroying a person’s good name is one of the ugliest forms of identity theft,” said Frockt. “Victims and potential perpetrators need to know the law is on the victim’s side.”
Frockt’s legislation is narrowly drawn to ensure that individuals cannot be sued for exercising their free speech rights through spoofs or satires.
The January incident where someone posted a fake resignation on the Facebook page of French President Nicolas Sarkozy is an example of a spoof that would not be covered by the proposed law, according to Frockt.