We’d all prefer that the internet was a more civil place. For every well-reasoned, considerate comment out there, there a dozen violent, all-caps homophobic rants. But it’s hard to do anything about it. Unfortunately, part of freedom of speech on the Internet seems to be the freedom of huge numbers of people to be jerks.
Arizona, however, which doesn’t have the best reputation for protecting civil liberties, is doing something about it. The legislature recently passed House Bill 2549, which uses broad language that could turn a troublingly large swath of online chatter into a class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 25 years in jail. It reads:
“It is unlawful for any person, with intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend, to use any electronic or digital device and use any obscene, lewd or profane language or suggest any lewd or lascivious act, or threaten to inflict physical harm to the person or property of any person.”
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund argues that because the law is not limited to covering one-on-one communications, it could potentially open up the entire world of comments, forums, blog posts and more to criminal scrutiny. Gizmodo notes that because Reddit isn’t exactly a physical location, the law could become concerning to people outside of Arizona as well.
This doesn’t seem like a malicious attempt to curtail free speech. The language is a straight update of old telephone harassment laws with words like “electronic” and “digital” thrown in. It makes sense from that perspective – all the legislators did was update an old law for new technology. But by failing to recognize that intensely personal telephone communication is inherently different from comment sections, they’ve crafted a misguided law.
I’m all for striving towards civility on the internet. And I’m all for opening up cyberspace to law enforcement investigating true harassment and real crimes. But a law with the power to criminalize such a vast proportion of irritating speech is a dangerous thing indeed. The law is reminiscent of SOPA – legislators trying to clamp down on something they conceive of as dangerous but don’t understand well enough to effectively regulate.
House Bill 2549 is currently sitting on Governor Jan Brewer’s desk, awaiting approval.
Forbes: Arizona Law Could Punish Trolling With 25 Years
Forbes: Arizona Law Could Punish Trolling With 25 Years
- Wrath Oskvro
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^THIS.Silvertoad99 wrote:looks like we forgot how to use the block button.
Also..2 things. 1. Unconstitutional. It's called freedom of speech. With that logic, school bullies should get the death penalty. 2. Can they really even define trolling?
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- Killer French Bread
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You think that's bad, some guy was actually sent to prison over here recently for 56 days for an offensive tweet. Fucking terrifying what's happening to civil liberties now everyone feels they have a right to take offence. The left wing white knights egging everything on just makes the politicians feel they are doing something noble as they strip away fundamental western values. We lost the double jeopardy rule a while back too - 800 year old law that survived the middle ages gone just because da baddies in a closed case had to be put away to satisfy the tabloids and the usual offended blowhards. I dunno why the public, who apparently distrust the government and politicians so much, are happy with handing over so much power. Are people that short sighted?
Tic Tac, sir?
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Wrath Oskvro wrote:^THIS.
Also..2 things. 1. Unconstitutional. It's called freedom of speech. With that logic, school bullies should get the death penalty. 2. Can they really even define trolling?
this is true, sure bbc defined trolling as making fun of dead people, in my opinion this is not trolling, trolling is just people wanting to be stupid and catch people out.
- Wrath Oskvro
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Our government is intimidating the American people and making them scared for their freedom. By the logic of that bill, THEY should be arrested.
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