internet trolling become crime in UK. 2years prison for offenders.

internet trolling become major crime in uk from today. if proven, trolls will be sentence to 2 years in prison.
law makers call the issue as, (trolls are) poison seeds in the society.

Google uk news for more information.

if you ask me, the global racism in the rise due to free speech in the internet. i.e. youtube. particularly in youtube racism is casually accepted and no one do nothing about it..

laws like above, will make the vile poison seeds in the global society, think twice.

Please provide a link. This sounds like satire.

Before everybody panics, remember that the legal definition of "trolling" will be much narrower than the popular usage of the word on this forum.

PS From BBC news site;

Those who subject others to sexually offensive, verbally abusive or threatening material online are currently prosecuted in magistrates' courts under the Malicious Communications Act, with a maximum prison sentence of six months.

Under the act, it is an offence to send another person a letter or electronic communication that contains an indecent or grossly offensive message, a threat or information which is false and known or believed by the sender to be false.

More serious cases could go to crown court under the proposals, where the maximum sentence would be extended.

The law change is to be made as an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill going through Parliament.

www.bbc.co.uk..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow">http...://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29678989
P.P.S. There is a link that works four posts down.

a reply to: Emerald53

its in the news since yesterday.. in every channel. all channel.

As the OP you are supposed to provide the links your thread needs. I see that you are fairly new here and you might not have known. One usually copies/pastes the link to the story they are referring to and then they share what their opinions are on the subject to get the news out or the discussion going.

Welcome to ATS by the way. You'll get the hang of it in no time.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

thanks mate.. will take care of it from now on.

originally posted by: Emerald53
Please provide a link. This sounds like satire.

Unfortunately it isn't satire , more knee jerk reactions from our knee jerk government.
Internet trolls face up to two years in jail under new laws
Pathetic.

originally posted by: Pandaram
a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

thanks mate.. will take care of it from now on.

Hey... No problem. We've all been there.

originally posted by: gortex

originally posted by: Emerald53
Please provide a link. This sounds like satire.

Unfortunately it isn't satire , more knee jerk reactions from our knee jerk government.
Internet trolls face up to two years in jail under new laws
Pathetic.

That's a little scary IMO. What's next? I just can't believe that!

Under the act, it is an offence to send another person a letter or electronic communication that contains an indecent or grossly offensive message, a threat or information which is false and known or believed by the sender to be false.

Good Lord, that opens the flood gates to all kinds of crap...

Death threats are one thing, but what one defines as grossly offensive can vary widely from person to person.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe
What comes out in the story, though not the headlines, is that the law has been there for years.
All he's proposing to do now is beef up the penalties.

Huh. This could turn out bad because I could see people's accounts being hijacked and be used to troll.

Cyber bullying should not be taken lightly, however, and those who threaten physical harm are bad people and should be punished.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

Death threats are one thing, but what one defines as grossly offensive can vary widely from person to person.

Exactly , there are many things this government has said and done I find deeply offensive but they define it as fairness.
It seems to me when faced with a problem the only response this Tory goverment has is the threat of prison , I believe if they win the next election any criticism of the govenment will likely carry a 6 month minimum term.

Hehehe so a British government cover up results in less freedoms for the British people. This story is very familiar

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

I think its actually the end of free speech in our 'big society'. As you say, where does it end, will fair criticism of bankers be deemed by the legal sheep-heads as deeply offensive?

It is meant to cover things like in the UK Madelaine McCann disappeared and many think the parents may have been involved (I hasten to add along with the Portugese Police). Strangely for this one couple who lost a child, huge funds have been raised in order to try to find the little girl, but to no avail. Huge publicity and government involvement etc - has also been involved - the man is a heart surgeon and his wife a GP. A woman sent a message apparently trolling the McCanns direct to them. The media got involved and we saw her quite un-bothered by them questioning her, next she committed suicide. What can one say - apart from another very strange suicide.

a reply to: gortex

Same old 'strong politics' that it always is. These overreactions keep chipping away at people's liberties and rights of expression. They also increase the justifications for the monstrous surveillance mechanisms.

Do you remember the 'chav' panic? The 'gangs' hysteria? That old terrorist madness? One after another with threats of jail-time. Jeez, it's supposed to be a five-year term for possessing a knife and it rarely happens. If some asshole wants to terrorise someone over the internet, there are existing laws to deal with them. Cameron overreacts to noisy public panics and leaves the Nation with less overall freedom.

Then again, I'd be in favour of bringing the stocks back for anyone that sets out to intimidate, abuse, terrify, threaten or harass. Just because we're separated by monitors and miles of internet cables doesn't mean people don't have feelings does it? Where's empathy gone?!

originally posted by: Kandinsky
If some asshole wants to terrorise someone over the internet, there are existing laws to deal with them.

As everybody keeps failing to notice, this is not a new law.
It is the existing law (2003) with harsher penalties (2 years instead of 6 months).

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe
Huge props for being so nice Kanga. And welcome new member.

Totally get that people are worried about free speech, but the UK has never really had it in the first place. These types of messages were always somewhat illegal, but law hasn't been so good at handling the whole issue.

As always though, its difficult to say who this law will be protecting. When a feminist hashtags 'diecisscum' is that a credible threat? If you're sent a message that says 'I'd love to destroy you' is that person trying to sleep with you? Men use the oddest language discussing sex. Also we've already seen that trolls themselves aren't always stable people. 'Outting' a troll can be someone's suicide button and lets face it, some demographics of people will get hate mail rightly or wrongly. I feel this will unfairly target the mentally ill, the vocabularly challenged, and communities with colorful language. OR it will obviously not target them and just further drive a wedge between POC and white folks.

Guess I'm more worried about person's privacy, and potential troll 'cascades'. Imagine a troll posts evil hatred on a deceased person's social media ... then another troll sends them a threat ... then troll #1 litigates against troll #2. I'm already going cross eyed just thinking about the potential of it all.

I'm always torn about this type of issue. Has been the same thing with 'revenge porn'. It's disgusting and evil that people would do that to someone, but it sends all kinds of messages and implications about image ownership and what is 'shameful' also.

Is it trolling that's a crime there now, or bullying?

a reply to: Pinke

Thank you kindly Pinke. I agree with you on this. As much as we all hate the dreaded "slippery slope" analogies... I feel like that is what we have here. Where does it stop? A pastor may find something much more offensive than your average joe. A mother may find something more offensive than a teenage boy full of angst.

Whose offense matters more? Whose offense is worth jail time?

I'm not talking about death threats because that is common sense. The language used here can be interpreted a million different ways by a million different people.

Who sets the bar for "Grossly Offensive" and why is their bar more valid and acceptable than anyone else's?