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."

Comments

Re:To Mr. Saunders, aka Mr. Fucktard...

[MightyMartian]

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.

Re:Selective enforcement

[AmiMoJo]

What's with all the alt-right troll headlines on Slashdot lately?

I submitted the same story without the trolling. It's not nearly as bad as this makes it. The threshold is very high. Grossly offensive has a specific meaning in British law. If you want to discuss the facts of the issue feel free, but I'm pretty sure you aren't familiar with them.

I'm not really happy about it either, by the way, because the CPS is incompetent, but that's not what the summary or you address.