Swatting

Swatting is the act of making a false emergency call — reporting a fabricated hostage situation or bomb threat — to send an armed police response to a target's home or workplace. It's a dangerous physical-world extension of online harassment: the perpetrator uses doxxed location information to direct law enforcement as a weapon against the target. Swatting incidents have led to serious injuries and worse.

What it means

Swatting became a recognized tactic in gaming communities in the early 2010s, where streamers were targeted during live broadcasts. It has since been used against journalists, politicians, and political activists. The harm is multiple: physical danger from armed police response, psychological terror, public embarrassment via the stream or social media, and the message to anyone watching that this kind of speech comes with physical risk.

It's a federal crime in the United States — the FBI has prosecuted numerous cases — but charges require identifying the caller, which sophisticated attackers take steps to prevent.

How it works on Gab

Swatting is categorically prohibited under Gab's terms of service. It is both illegal and a direct threat to physical safety. Gab's prohibition on doxxing with intent to harm is connected: you can't swat someone without first doxxing their location. The platform's support for pseudonymous accounts reduces the attack surface by making it harder to link an online identity to a physical address.

Related terms

Swatting is the physical escalation of doxxing. Both depend on identifying someone's real-world location, which is why anonymity and operational security matter. The chilling effect of swatting extends well beyond its direct targets.