Re:FBI didn’t prosecute gamergate death threats, even with c...
by wildmusings on Tuesday January 02, 2018 @12:29PM
(#16053430)
The Supreme Court has ruled that only specific and credible threats can be prosecuted. Other threats, distasteful and disgusting as they are, are protected as free speech. It's gonna be very hard to prove that an online troll mouthing off constitutes a specific and credible threat. And the Justice Department is usually not interested in borderline cases, both for efficiency and out of fear of creating unfavorable precedent.
This is a country where you're allowed to burn someone in effigy and call for their execution, protest soldiers' funerals and celebrate their death as punishment for America tolerating gays, call for the overthrow of the US government, hold up a mock severed-head of the President, publicly hope for his assassination, etc. We take a rather expansive and absolutist view of free speech.
Re:FBI didn’t prosecute gamergate death threats, even with c...
by manicdee on Tuesday January 02, 2018 @03:21PM
(#16055216)
Does ringing a wonan’s Phone number and threatening rape, torture and murder count as a death threat?
What about turning up on her doorstep and threatening her in person? At what point does a threat become specific and credible?
Her article seems to be about what could be done to stop anonymous trolls from terrorizing and threatening women. How about prosecuting them, since terroristic threats is already a crime? Unfortunately, as Hess discovers, the police don't care much about online stalking, which is consistent since they don't care about IRL stalking either.