About the words harassment and threats... I think I define these differently than is being used here. If someone shows up to where you work, in person and starts making a stink, or runs into you in the store, etc that to me is harassment. If someone says they are going to do you harm, and then shows up at your house... that is a threat. When I was a kid, getting a threatening phone call to my father's house...it was called Tuesday, not a threat. Now when the guys, came to kill him, and attempted to ambush him in the front yard by opening all the doors on my mother's car and turning her lights on...that was a threat. A true threat condition then, my brother and I could not live at home for a month.
The words threaten and harass get over used a bit. Talking shit online, to me is just words. I guess online campaigns to get you fired that have some traction, then we can talk harassment. I just think those words are way, way over used today. Every person who gets a message online where someone says they hope they die is a death threat. No, that is some spurg spouting off online.
I'm sorry you had to go through that, oggsmash, and obviously, actual murder attempts are far worse than words. Still, that doesn't mean that behavior like doxing and online harassment is acceptable.
Too often, I think online behavior is given a pass which would be unacceptable in real life. Even if there wasn't a physical threat, having people following my wife around and telling her to suck a cock whenever she appeared in public would be unacceptable behavior. I don't know the exact legalities of it, but I'm pretty sure I could call the police to get them to stop - even though it was just words. But when the trolls were posting this on her different social media accounts, it seemed more dismissed. Thankfully, at that time my son was only 7 and he didn't have any social media yet. Trolls posted his picture around saying things like how they wanted to punch him in the face, but he didn't see that.
Physical violence would be much worse, and I'm not trying to draw any equivalence, but I can still say that both are frickin bad and shouldn't happen.
I think the online harassment comes from the simple fact a person can do it and have zero balls. Where I live, if a guy comes up to me and tells my wife to suck his cock, I beat the shit out of him, the police come, tell him he used fighting words, and he learns a hard lesson. I have no idea how other states handle this (I know there is a massive range on what one can and can not do in response to provoking language). The simple fact is, people posting things online are not threats or harassment, they are cowards doing what they do. Now, I will say doxxing is a bit different, because that is more a case of a coward attempting to shine a light on you for some nut to see. I guess if I got doxxed in that scenario, I would hire an investigator to track down my doxxer, and I would go to their house and fix it. I am not suggesting that is the correct action for everyone, but people act as they do online because they do not get their teeth broken when they say rude things about people's spouses, kids, etc.
I just think the nature of the people who do that sort of stuff make it not a threat (to me, a threat has to be credible), with the exception of doxxing being an implied threat, to which I would do as I said, I would go to their residence and we would work it out. I also do not mean to single you out on this, I constantly see people on tv, from right, left and center, call things that are not really harassment or threats just that. I think these things are extremely rude, and are behaviors the people who engage in them certainly would not do if there was any chance of a real consequence. The main reason my father did not get killed, is he did not go outside when traps were set, and the people who wanted to do harm were not going to actually attempt to break in (as they would have likely died then) to do their thing. As it was, they were not motivated enough to continue their attempts, as they likely got caught up in other crime crap. They were after my father due to a dude who had assassinated a police officer who looked a lot like my father. My father had arrested this guy for a DUI a year or so before, and he made a phony police call to lure a cop as he thought the other cop was my father. When the guy got there, the assassin shot him 3 times in the head, killing him on the spot. After he was in jail, a TV reporter, on tv (back then for all to see with the grand 3 channels everyone had to watch) asked my father if he was concerned for his safety, after making a big deal as to how much the two men looked alike. Needless to say my father was pissed off, knowing the reporter had a source telling him my father was the intended target, and explained to the reporter if he did not inform him of any impending harm and any harm came to his family, he would react in an impulsive manner. Mr reporter about shit his pants.
Any how, I think lots of people play up some of these things bigger than they are with regard to physical safety. Most cowards making threats are not going to do anything. The people who do real harm are the people who attempt to get people de-personed, or character assassinated digitally in such a way they never find work again. That...is more grey to me, and I think a problem, and what the SJW left engages in big time these days, and I know the 'right' did it in the past, but I do not live in the past, and what I called wrong then is wrong now. But reality is, even though a person who actively works to have you fired and unemployable likely would not mind if you died, they are not willing IMO to actually do physical harm to anyone (again, cowards).
Rambling aside, I do have some concerns that these online behaviors could possibly spill over into real life to some degree, Likely carried out by some moron who is heavily medicated and looking for a problem. I just think we need to be careful in how we talk about what is going on and what could be going on. Famous people constantly talk about "death threats" they get online, and I think almost all of those are doofuses with access to the internet, and in no way credible threats. I do not blame you for taking their words seriously, they were putting your family into the picture. I do think if you are going to call what they did threats, you should have either talked to the police (granted they are not likely to do shit, but it helps to have a paper trail started if something did ever happen, or... you had to do a bit of problem solving yourself) or taken my route and hired someone to track them down and speak with them.