In UK, social media rants land some in jail

News24 Capetown ^ | November 15, 2012

[2ndDivisionVet]

London - One teenager made offensive comments about a murdered child on Twitter. Another young man wrote on Facebook that British soldiers should "go to hell".

A third posted a picture of a burning paper poppy, symbol of remembrance of war dead.

All were arrested, two convicted, and one jailed - and they're not the only ones. In Britain, hundreds of people are prosecuted each year for posts, tweets, texts and e-mails deemed menacing, indecent, offensive or obscene, and the number is growing as our online lives expand.

Lawyers say the mounting tally shows the problems of a legal system trying to regulate 21st century communications with 20th century laws.

Civil libertarians say it is a threat to free speech in an age when the internet gives everyone the power to be heard around the world.

"Fifty years ago someone would have made a really offensive comment in a public space and it would have been heard by relatively few people," said Mike Harris of free-speech group Index on Censorship. "Now someone posts a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook and potentially hundreds of thousands of people can see it...

[2ndDivisionVet]

Anyone here think "Oh, that'll never happen here" and shrug it off as a UK thing?

[SWAMPSNIPER]

You must keep order in a termite colony!

[Hardraade]

The problem isn’’t 20th century laws, but 7th century laws.

Humanity is devolving right back to not quite even animal, more like hive.

[Vanders9]

I think you’d have to be very naive (or a fervent believer in an extreme form of American “exceptionalism”) to think that it won’t.

[Vanders9]

"Fifty years ago someone would have made a really offensive comment in a public space and it would have been heard by relatively few people," said Mike Harris of free-speech group Index on Censorship. "Now someone posts a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook and potentially hundreds of thousands of people can see it...

This is a very true statement, but it's also a completely irrelevent one. Remarks do not become MORE offensive just because more people see or hear them, they simply become just as offensive to more people. You can't increase the severity of punishment for offensive remarks on the mere basis that more people are exposed to them. That's nonsense.

In any case, having laws against "offending" people is a very disturbing trend for any nation with even a pretension to free speech and democratic process. Progressives, nationalists, secularists and militant atheists offend me very deeply on a regular basis, but I don't call for them to be locked up for it, (and not just because I know it would be counterproductive to do so).

There are, and should be, some laws limiting freedom of speech. You dont, and shouldnt, have the freedom to tell lies about someone, for example. But I don't see how the growth of social media justifies any extension to those laws at all.

[Oztrich Boy]

But I don't see how the growth of social media justifies any extension to those laws at all.

No it doesn't. Solution is simple. Any post that would lead to a charge of offensive behaviour if shouted in a public place is charged as the same if published in the interspace.

[driftless2]

"disturbing trend"

Don't worry...you won't be alone with these kinds of laws. We have hate crimes now in the U.S. which are basically thought crimes. If the trend towards socialist presidents keeps going after Obama is out, expect to see Dem pols push for tougher laws against "harmful" speech. Of course, that harmful speech must be directed against certain, select ethnic groups. Otherwise it doesn't count. Eventually we'll get rid of that pesky first amendment.

[rarestia]

The leftists, Fabians, socialists, communists, Islamists, and Marxists have been using England as a test bed for laws and fraud for decades. They’ve perfected their craft and made it offensive simply to draw breath. With it perfected, they’re going to foist it upon the American people very quickly and with striking precision. It truly is only a matter of time.

One thought on a “fix” for this: DON’T use social media. Twitter, Facebook, whatever else is out there... deliberately abstain from it. You’ll cut out 80% or more of the bullshit today’s society has to say. Sanity has a price. Mine is worth a lot more than caring about what some girl in my 8th grade social studies class is doing with her lesbian lover’s chihuahua “Ricky.”