Should You Go To Prison For Sending A Tweet?

[Gromit]

This young woman nearly did. The Tweet was an horrible thing to say. But it was her opinion no matter how ghastly. It reflects extremely badly on her. But it seems over the top to jail someone for a wicked thought. This week on here we had someone saying someone should be boiled alive. And it was also suggested on here that Abu Qatada should be dropped from a plane without a parachute. What do you think?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22821484

Rather amusingly, it was her who complained, after she received some offensive Tweets in reply.

Oh, and her father advises the Met Police on diversity.

[emmie]

it makes me damn cross to be honest, it was a vile tweet from someone who should know better, sadly it seems in this day and age it's anything goes.

[Brenden]

Apparently not em, see AOG's link 16.45.

[Gromit]

AOG

We had a long thread on the Liam Stacey conviction when his jailing occurred. You didn't exactly support that conviction. You wrote...

// Although I don't in anyway condone what this idiot wrote, the justice system in this country is totally unfair. //

Of course, you are perfectly allowed to change your mind. Not sure what the difference is, except Mr Stacey is white and this woman is black.

[Just-Jude]

Frankie Boyle probably said it first. The biggest idiots in this were the police, the CPS and the court...not the tweeter!

[emmie]

Free speech in this country, no there isn't, as some people have said not very nice things about Muslims and been hauled into police stations and had their hands slapped nice and smart. EDL get a pummelling every minute of every day for their views, i don't like them, but they have a right to express those views, some people don't think they have that right, calling them knuckle dragging fascists, morons, skin heads, yet dare criticise the person who made this remark, citing whatever happened to free speech, then all i see is double standards.

[jno]

that's funny, aog, you haven't answered my much earlier query about the tweets threatening to kill this woman and yet here you are demanding replies to something you asked later on. The mote in others' eyes and the beam in your own, perhaps?

[emmie]

so a bloke goes to prison for 56 days for what he said about that poor footballer, yet she gets 250 hours community service, some disparity there, good grief. Bet her dad is really proud.

[emmie]

no one should be sending anyone threatening tweets, or farcebook nonsense, what is wrong with people.

[jno]

threats are, in my opinion, worse than abuse. The difference might be between "em is an idiot" (or "jno", if you prefer) and "em, I know where you live and I'm going to kill you." You might find the latter much scarier - I would.

[emmie]

i might find that scarier too, but i have had vile e mails from someone i didn't know, i got the person banned off the site i was using, then closed my account, i won't stand for that nonsense, not ever.

[emmie]

perhaps her father can remind her of where she is living, do something like this in saudi and likely you would end up in jail or worse.

[Kromovaracun]

I don't think she should have been sentenced. While it is not my own opinion, it shouldn't be illegal to be anti-army, or even anti-Help for Heroes. And if it shouldn't be illegal, then people need to have some kind of outlet to express that - and I'm far more comfortable with idiots like this running their mouths off on Twitter than with any more severe disruption.

[emmie]

if that is the case why did the man go to prison for 56 days for his message about the footballer.

[jno]

because twitter and FB are still new; the justice system hasn't yet figured out how seriously they are to be taken and at what point free speech tips over into hate speech. This could take years. Meantime, if everyone thought "Could this land me in jail when I tweet it?" before sending a tweet, that would be no bad thing, because the public too needs to reach some consensus on how serous an abusive message may be.

[emmie]

that isn't the answer is it, a guy goes to prison for 56 days for an offensive message, a woman sends an equally vile message, irrespective he was a soldier, and gets 250 hours community service, wouldn't you say there is something wrong with that disparity, either no one goes to prison for their tweets or it becomes law that abusive tweets on twitter or facebook are punishable by a fine or prison time. Free speech for some, but not for others, as i already said, that is double standards. You want equality in law as in other aspects of life, no?

[emmie]

facebook has been going long enough now, nearly ten years, so don't see how this isn't better policed. Some long ago colleagues learned a harsh but very valuable lesson when they e mailed a woman colleague, rude and offensive material, which was eventually shown to their boss, they were fired on the spot.

[jno]

that's a different matter, one of management policy. Companies can set their own rules. FB's not that old; it didn't become really big till about 5 years ago when it overtook MySpace etc. But people still don't know what its boundaries should be (old people are shocked at the stuff that goes on it, young people would be shocked if it was taken away from them.) You can't really expect the law to step in when the public is so divided over what it wants. So you do get inconsistencies.