Add Nikki Haley to the List of Public Figures Who Have Been “Swatted”

AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Nikki Haley is the latest politician to have been “swatted”—a term used to describe a form of harassment in which a hoax call is made to emergency services to try to spur a SWAT team to show up at a person’s home. The incident occurred last month when a man called 911 and said he had shot a woman at Nikki Haley’s South Carolina home and was threatening to self-harm, according to Reuters, which first reported on the swatting.

Public records reviewed by the outlet showed that police said that they planned to open a “threat assessment” and were trying to trace the number that made the call. Haley’s office did not issue a statement about the incident.

In the past, the tactic was generally employed by extremely online people, often directed at extremely online targets,........

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