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UK's Chief Troll Hunter Targets Doxxing, Virtual Mobbing, and Nasty Images (arstechnica.co.uk)
Some bad news for trollers on the internet who use sophisticated techniques to hurl abuses at others. The UK's top prosecutor has warned that they are introducing new regulations to take these matters carefully and punish offenders with jail time. From an ArsTechnica report:New guidelines have been released by the Crown Prosecution Service to help cops in England and Wales determine whether charges -- under part 2, section 44 of the 2007 Serious Crime Act -- should be brought against people who use social media to encourage others to harass folk online. Over the past four years the CPS has repeatedly tweaked its guidelines on offensive behaviour on social media sites. The latest overhaul, among other things, addresses doxxing, where a person's personal information such as bank details or home address are published online; violence against women and girls such as "baiting" -- which labels someone as sexually promiscuous and can include the use of humiliating photoshopped images; and online harassment campaigns that encourage the use of derogatory hashtags. "Social media can be used to educate, entertain, and enlighten but there are also people who use it to bully, intimidate, and harass," said director of public prosecutions Alison Saunders. "Ignorance is not a defence and perceived anonymity is not an escape. Those who commit these acts, or encourage others to do the same, can and will be prosecuted."
Just wondering
And this guy's living proof...
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Gotta punish that wrongthink. How much you want to bet they'll vigorously prosecute those who say mean things about immigrants or women, but gosh just never find the time to investigate someone who bashes white people or men...
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
but more than just a little bit difficult to enforce.
harassment is already illegal.... so just add some bits to include "...on the internet" and call it a day. the law will be there for when its needed.
Cue some company lawyer using this to crack down on angry rants from customers of their shitty service...
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
I am a victim, I don't like what this bad man/woman said. I want him/her punished for saying it because it made me feel bad. I should be free to accuse them of being bad, and protected from people saying I am bad. Based on the arbitrary judgement of Alison Saunders.
Ignorance of Alisons choices is not a defence. Speech is a serious crime.
I predict the Anonymous Cowards aren't going to like this one bit, no sir. Not one bit.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Game on.
-Skankhunt42
If this is what it takes to get more people taking their online anonymity seriously, I'm all for it.
Part 2, section 44 of the 2007 Serious Crime Act :
"Intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence (1)A person commits an offence if— (a)he does an act capable of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence; and (b)he intends to encourage or assist its commission. (2)But he is not to be taken to have intended to encourage or assist the commission of an offence merely because such encouragement or assistance was a foreseeable consequence of his act."
It's not a crime to label someone with a #UnfitForJobAtCPS hashtag, and thus not a crime to ask people to label someone as such. Trying to silence free speech is clearly a breach of a core freedom.
If someone says something that upsets you, get a thicker skin.
When these people talk about "trolls," they're not talking about your garden-variety asshole that stirs up trouble for his own amusement. They're talking about the other kind of troll, the one that hides inside the term and uses the harmless ones for cover. These people are a menace. Stalking and harassment are just the appetizers for these psychos -- swatting is more their style. They want to hurt people and the internet exports that misery all over the world.
There are some kinds of speech that can be criminalized, or at least made into civil matters. Shout fire in a crowded theater, urge on a violent mob, or, on the civil side, call your neighbor a pedophile because he dog craps on your lawn, and you'll find out awfully fast that freedom of speech is not limitless, and that like any liberty, there are edges.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Threatening a person with violence is criminal behavior already covered in the penal code.
That's where I see this going: They'll hunt down these nasty trolls, only to find they're just '2edgy4u' 12-year-olds who aren't supervised in their internet usage. What do you do then? Can't put them in prison. Do you put their parents in prison? Huge fine? LOL. I think the best you could do is ban their household from the internet for some period of time, and inform the kids school that he's not to be allowed to use the internet except when 100% supervised. This does not even address the problem of trolls outside the jurisdicton of the UK, for which there's basically nothing they could do about it; do they really think Timbuktwoistan's government is going to give a damn about someone posting mean things on the internet? I think this is, once again, a case of politicians and government workers who don't understand the technology of the internet, and how unenforcable things like this really are because of that. What they ought to be doing is working to educate people that they should not be posting personal information on the internet in the first place, so no doxxing can happen.
Sounds like a great time to start an American VPN company. Let's see them try to extradite for enabling free speech.
Our police state will know everything about everything said using it, but doesn't care. They think the masses should be allowed to vent, knowing it has as much meaning as the squeals of puppies in a box. It's a little surprising the UK doesn't seem to understand how effective the 2 Minute Hate is considering it was invented by a British author. Perhaps they think undirected hate undermines its effectiveness.
Let us know when the list of allowed hate targets is released in Britain. Then we'll know for certain that they're using 1984 as a manual.
I haven't seen a law yet that explicitly states that it is illegal to yell "fire" in a theater. So you can toss that out.
Common sense says not to do it, but there are no laws prohibiting it.
I certainly can call my neighbor anything I want, including pedophile if his dog shits on my yard, that is absolutely protected speech.
If I try and make a false police report to that effect, that's entirely different. I'd be more likely to call him an underage dog fucker myself, but whatever floats your boat.
... couldn`t care less. I`m not under this specific jurisdiction.
I predict the Anonymous Cowards aren't going to like this one bit, no sir. Not one bit.
Brandenburg v. Ohio gives the police and prosecutors the power to charge someone if their speech leads to imminent danger. In other words, you incite a riot, you'll be charged.
And if you call your neighbor a pedophile because his dog shits on your lawn, he'll likely own your law after the civil trial is over. Ever heard of slander?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I haven't seen a law yet that explicitly states that it is illegal to yell "fire" in a theater. So you can toss that out. Common sense says not to do it, but there are no laws prohibiting it.
.
Maybe, maybe not. I don't know all the laws in the US, so I can't say for sure. What I can say for sure is that falsely yelling 'fire' in a crowded theatre is not protected speech under the 1st amendment, so if you do that you're likely to be prosecuted for something.
Meanwhile shouting racist at peoples you disagree is protected speech, falsely accuse men of rape will not be prosecuted and using violent mob to exclude Whites and/or males from public space is protected under the Safe-space amendment that was passed by congress in the current year.
So, when The Hair, aka Groper in Chief, visits the UK, you can do the world a favor by throwing him in jail and throwing away the key???
please
Please
PLEASE???
Given the accuracy of most police attempts to track down and accurately attribute malicious internet postings, this is an absolute gold mine for trolls.
I can whip up a fake account/profile tied to someone I don't like, start spewing odious garbage and have the police lock them up, fine them and drag their reputation through the mud - it's hard to think of a better troll.
and a very sophisticated fuck you to you too
got to watch the unsupervised 60yrlds as well
Go well
This policy is not sexist in the least!
Free speech is NOT a free license to attack people
Having free speech is great, if you are mature enough and do not attack others out of nastiness.
Bullying DOES destroy lives (and even kills).
Grow up and stop using the excuse of free speech, use your free speech appropriately and CORRECTLY. It is not a free license to attack others.
Separate but equal. It works.