US congressman Joaquin Castro posts personal information of Donald Trump supporters on Twitter.

Joaquin Castro.

A sitting US Congressman, Joaquin Castro, has posted personal information of several President Trump donors on his Twitter account. The Hill. The 44 people doxed were residents of San Antonio which is included in Castro's congressional district. All of those people donated the maximum allowable to President Trump's campaign, $2700. Republican leaders have criticized Castro and have reported the tweet to Twitter. It is against the terms and rules of Twitter to spread private information on the platform. Joaquin Castro is the brother of Julian Castro who is running for President of the United States. 

People should not be personally targeted for their political views. Period. This isn’t a game. It’s dangerous, and lives are at stake. I know this firsthand. https://t.co/PbxUMIOhae

— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) August 6, 2019

EVERYONE needs to tone the hateful partisan rhetoric way down. This is WRONG & Castro should retract it. In our constitutional Republic, the People rightly hold their representatives accountable; elected representatives should not be vilifying & doxxing their own constituents. https://t.co/rrgQbK7PLU

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 6, 2019

This is grossly inappropriate, especially in the wake of recent tragic shootings. This win-at-all-costs mentality, publicly targeting an opponent’s supporters, and encouraging retaliation is dangerous and not what Texans have a right to expect from their members of Congress. https://t.co/Ecw4mszp4Y

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) August 6, 2019

My Comment:
This behavior is beyond the pale. Sending out personal information is always a bad thing, especially when you post it on social media where millions of people can see it. Doing so invites harassment at least and could even lead to physical violence.

All of that isn't arguable, but what is worse is that Joaquin Castro is doing this to the very people he is supposed to serve. They aren't his supporters but he is more than willing to put their names out there so they face harassment, job loss or even violent attacks. That is a huge betrayal of what it means to be an elected official.

Some people are saying that since this information is public, it's ok to send it out. Well, for one thing, Twitter rules say you can't dox people and have said so for years. It also says that targeted harassment is a ban-worthy offense and I am pretty sure that this qualifies. Neither of these things are ok and I have reported the tweet to Twitter. I don't expect anything to be done, Twitter is horribly biased, but the fact remains that if they were fair, Castro's election account would be banned.

I also think that regardless of Twitter's rules, what Castro did was harassment. Just because information is publicly available doesn't mean you have a right to do what Castro did. Posting a list of names and employers while essentially calling them racists and responsible for mass shootings is very close to the line of what will get you charged with inciting assault. There's no direct call for action so Castro is probably safe in terms of criminal charges but only just barely.

I think that the Democrats have completely lost their minds. They are trying to blame everything that goes wrong in this country on President Trump while ignoring their own role in everything. Some of that is normal as the incumbent president always gets blamed for everything, but the tone and frequency is beyond reason at this point. Just because President Trump and the El Paso shooter used the same words, invasion, does not in fact mean that 1. those words are wrong and 2. either person supports the other. It's just stupidity.

This kind of behavior will likely have a chilling effect on political donations. If people widely fear getting doxed for donating to a campaign, then they won't do it. Nobody wants to go through a twitter harassment mob, or worse, just to give money to their preferred candidate. It's one of the reasons I have never donated to a political campaign, even if donors under $200 are theoretically safe from this kind of harassment.

With tensions as high as they are right now I would not be surprised if this results in violence. If there is a mass shooter out there (or an arsonist or bomber or what have you), looking for a target, Castro just gave them a list of targets. Given how these kinds of attacks happen in streaks and thrive on media attention, it's very possible that the next mass shooting will be at one of the businesses named in this attack.

What should happen to Joaquin Castro? At the very least his re-election account should be banned from Twitter. I would also argue that his other account should be de-verified and banned as well. I don't think criminal charges can be placed here but there could certainly be some kind of repercussion for Castro in the House. And I sincerely hope that someone runs against Castro and defeats him in the 2020 election.