
Is it right to jail someone for being offensive on Facebook or Twitter? - coffeeyesplease
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/jun/13/jail-someone-for-being-offensive-twitter-facebook
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zxcdw
What about situations in which someone deliberately tries to cause misery to
those suffering a loss? A prime example would be a family losing a child and
someone just deliberately mocking and teasing them over it. What can you do?
How can you prevent this? How should society act and take a stance about this?
Obviously the "But free speech!"-camp doesn't even try to solve the problem at
an individual level. What other options are there, apart from punishment of
the perpetrator?

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k-mcgrady
Harassment. If you are directing the negative comments at someone in
particular I think you would be charged with harassing that person.

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hga
Exactly, or at least in the US we have laws to deal with harassment, although
they'll vary from state to state.

However the "directing" part is as I understand it critical. I.e. saying
something in isolation, that won't through some mechanism come to the
attention of the targeted party, doesn't qualify.

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k-mcgrady
If you post something offensive and direct it at someone I'd say it's
harassment and you could be taken to court.

Just saying something offensive though, undirected, should not be an offence.
Or at least it should be a new category of offences not deserving of jail
time.

I seriously doubt it the people who got jailed for certain tweets walked up to
a policeman in the street and made the same comment they would get the same
punishment.

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mpyne
> I seriously doubt it the people who got jailed for certain tweets walked up
> to a policeman in the street and made the same comment they would get the
> same punishment.

That's true, but there's a difference between being offensive to the
government and being offensive to people. The government is supposed to be
able to take that kind of punishment (which is, after all, why these related
rights are enshrined in the very first Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights).

So I'd caution about focusing attention on offensive speech only on how it
applies when that speech is directed against government and its agents, or
society as a whole, since the possible kinds of damage would be different if
directed against individuals.

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k-mcgrady
I agree, I should have made my point clearer. I suppose a better analogy would
be the person shouting the tweet in a public place where a police officer was
present to witness it. They aren't directing the offensive comment at anyone.
In that situation I doubt an arrest would be made.

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gte910h
Harassment laws should be enforced on twitter as much as anywhere else.

"Generally, criminal harassment entails intentionally targeting someone else
with behavior that is meant to alarm, annoy, torment or terrorize them. Not
all petty annoyances constitute harassment. Instead, most state laws require
that the behavior cause a credible threat to the person's safety or their
family's safety. - See more at: [http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-
charges/harassment.html...](http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-
charges/harassment.html#sthash.pMyFFct5.dpuf")

"I'm going to rape/kill/etc you" should probably end up with you in front of a
prosecutor in many states.

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ipince
Well... Is it right to jail someone due to bullying? what if it's only verbal
bullying? What if the bullying caused the victim to hurt him or herself? What
if you threaten to kill somebody?

I don't know. I want to answer "no" to the title's question, but it seems more
nuanced than that. I think the distinction of a targeted comment vs a
"general" one is an important one to make.

I'm curious on what the law is for similar actions outside of social media..

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dotcoma
in a dictatorship, perhaps so.

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mistakoala
A really easy one: no.

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daveqr
No. Next question?

