Hard time for trolling!

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Arizona, as usual in the vanguard of progressive social reform, is contemplating a bill which could make internet trolling a Class 3 felony.


Trolling Could Get You 25 Years in Jail in Arizona
One of the Internet's basic tenets—the right to be as much of a myopic, infantile asshat as humanly possible—is currently under attack in Arizona. A sweeping update to the state's telecommunications harrasment bill could make naughty, angry words a Class 1 misdemeanor. Or worse.


Arizona House Bill 2549 passed both legislative houses last Thursday and is now awaiting approval from Arizona's governor Brewer. The statute states that:

"It is unlawful for any person, with intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend, to use a 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."

Emphasis added. If the electronic devices and means are employed to stalk a victim, the penalty bumps up to a Class 3 felony.

Opponents of the bill argue that the wording is overly broad and could easily be interpreted to include not just one-on-one communications but public forums like 4Chan, Reddit, and anywhere else that allows commenting. You thought the banhammer was bad? Try handcuffs.

It could also have a chilling effect on free speech by prohibiting shocking or "profane" language online. And since the bill stipulates that the offense only has to occur on Arizona soil (since a Facebook comment is definitely a geographic place, right?) that basically puts the entire Internet on notice.





http://gizmodo.com/5898585/itll-soon-be-illegal-to-troll-in-arizona

[PC LOAD LETTER]

Whelp, there goes RevLeft

[TheGodlessUtopian]

How quickly do you guys think this bill will not be defended and left on the backburner of "World's Stupidest Laws"? I am thinking pretty fast.lol

[Prometeo liberado]

This will probably be used not so much as an arrestable offense as an additional charge added after the fact. The ACLU will take it's usual sweet-ass time to figure out the best and most high profile way in which to challenge it in court. It's vague and has some jurisdictional questions. Arizona. Priorities I guess.:rolleyes:

[roy]

"what are you in the joint for?"

"i defaced a facebook page"

thug life

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

And from the UK govment...

Websites will soon to be forced to identify people who have posted defamatory messages online.
New government proposals say victims have a right to know who is behind malicious messages without the need for costly legal battles.
The powers will be balanced by measures to prevent false claims in order to get material removed.
Last week, a British woman won a court order forcing Facebook to identify users who had harassed her.
Nicola Brookes had been falsely branded a paedophile and drug dealer by users - known as trolls - on Facebook.
Facebook, which did not contest the order, will now reveal the IP addresses of people who had abused her so she can prosecute them.
The new powers, to be added to the Defamation Bill, will make this process far less time-consuming and costly, the government said.

(More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18404621)

[¿Que?]

To be fair, internet trolling gets pretty fucking vicious at times. I remember reading about one girl who died in a car accident. Apparently some trolls on 4chan found leaked or hacked pictures of the girl's mutilated body, presumably taken by either the press, the police or medics, and these douchebags, besides posting really shitty messages on her facebook page, also mailed pictures of the girl's mutilated body to her parents. It's shit like that that people look at when they make these laws.

There are tons and tons of cases of trolls going too far. I'm not saying these laws are just or an appropriate response to those trolls, but I can see why people would (wrongly) think such laws are necessary.

[Firebrand]

On a related note

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/901770-louise-mensch-internet-troll-frank-zimmerman-is-spared-prison

Turns out technically they can already put you away for trolling over here.

[Comrade Samuel]

To be fair, internet trolling gets pretty fucking vicious at times. I remember reading about one girl who died in a car accident. Apparently some trolls on 4chan found leaked or hacked pictures of the girl's mutilated body, presumably taken by either the press, the police or medics, and these douchebags, besides posting really shitty messages on her facebook page, also mailed pictures of the girl's mutilated body to her parents. It's shit like that that people look at when they make these laws.

There are tons and tons of cases of trolls going too far. I'm not saying these laws are just or an appropriate response to those trolls, but I can see why people would (wrongly) think such laws are necessary.

I think they should see there's a difference between what the fine people st 4chan do and what most people define as "trolling". They always take it a step (or 12) further than childish pranks and what not, 4chan is the lowest place on the Internet full of grotesque images, disturbing pornography not to mention all of it's illegal tutorials such as "how make bombs" or "how to make meth". The point I'm getting at is that kids having fun on the Internet shouldent deserve prison time for what a few dumbasses who are incapable of controlling themselves do. Are you really surprised about this though? Arizona has a history of taking drastic action against something they know nothing about because most everyone running the state is an old out of touch reactionary.

[X5N]

Looks like Arizona's jimmies are rustled.