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Re:New Zealand is making cyber bullying a specific crime by pjc50 on Tuesday July 07, 2015 @06:22AM (#9844543)
This is the "if you didn't want to get abuse from white people you should have sat at the back of the bus" / "you should have known that being a prominent woman on twitter would get you daily rape threats" argument. As others are saying, it's not costless, in fact its quite damaging to the psyche.

Because you can't know, until communication starts, whether it's going to be vicious. And you can't walk around with your fingers in your ears all the time.

Some internet services get this, but it's awfully easy for people to generate new accounts to route abuse through.

We could do well to develop anti-abuse technology in the same mode as anti-spam.

Re:New Zealand is making cyber bullying a specific crime by venomsnake on Tuesday July 07, 2015 @06:30AM (#9844562)
> And you can't walk around with your fingers in your ears all the time.

I can only assume you have not talked with antivaxxers, climate change deniers or people taking their religion too seriously.

Whether insult hurts or not is your choice. If you have such weak control over your inner world - learn to not give a fuck. not that hard.

Re:New Zealand is making cyber bullying a specific crime by elemenopy on Tuesday July 07, 2015 @06:56AM (#9844646)
> Whether insult hurts or not is your choice.

This is nonsense. If you are subjected to continuous, vitriolic, realistic rape threats on Twitter then this is inevitably going to stress you and make you feel somewhat unhappy or unsafe. But if you are a 14-year-old, or otherwise particularly vulnerable, then they may cause acute depression or suicide.

This Act isn't about antivaxxers or climate change deniers. It is about revenge porn and vicious cyberbullying, and I am not prepared to stand up for either.

Re:New Zealand is making cyber bullying a specific crime by onion2k on Tuesday July 07, 2015 @10:21AM (#9845583)
Whether insult hurts or not is your choice. If you have such weak control over your inner world - learn to not give a fuck. not that hard.

The problem here is that most people who suggest 'just ignore it' as a solution haven't ever faced the sort of abuse that the proposed law is designed to deal with. You're quite right that it's easy to ignore an insult. It's much harder to ignore a believable death or rape threat, racist remark, misogyny, etc. That is what you're suggesting people should 'learn to not give a fuck' about. As someone who believes quite strongly that we shouldn't just ignore those things and that we should actively try to stop them, I find your argument incomprehensible.

Re:New Zealand is making cyber bullying a specific crime by venomsnake on Tuesday July 07, 2015 @10:50AM (#9845780)
While ignoring a believable (whatever that means) death treat is probably hard, why put racism, misandry and misogeny in the same stuff - you are totally free to talk to the harassers back - find what makes them sensitive and make them hurt. You have the same tools as them. Make a psychological profile, find what makes them tick and talk back in a way to inflict maximum hurt feelz.