{"id":3160,"date":"2014-10-24T17:30:22","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T17:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncjolt.org\/?p=3160"},"modified":"2020-06-04T20:53:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T20:53:40","slug":"trololololegislation-the-u-k-considers-harsher-penalties-for-online-trolling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/blogs\/trololololegislation-the-u-k-considers-harsher-penalties-for-online-trolling\/","title":{"rendered":"Trololololegislation: The U.K. Considers Harsher Penalties for Online Trolling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Internet trolls in the U.K. could face up to two years in prison if proponents of a new proposal set for Parliament have their way.<\/a> The proposal, put forth last Sunday, seeks to quadruple the current maximum penalty of six months. Its author, MP Angie Bray, says she decided the change was necessary \u201cafter one of her constituents said her 14-year-old daughter had been \u2018verbally raped\u2019 by 2,000 obscene texts sent by an older man, who escaped conviction.\u201d<\/a>
\nAnyone who has spent any amount of time online is aware of internet trolls and the mischief they revel in creating. Although annoying enough in their traditional form, some of these Poe\u2019s-Law-loving rapscallions\u2014perhaps emboldened by the relative anonymity of the internet\u2014have evolved into something much worse. These individuals use the web to stalk, threaten, and harass others. Proponents in the U.K. say the proposal is being put forth in an effort to discourage these crimes.
\nUnsurprisingly, this action comes in the wake of a series of high-publicity trolling incidents. A particularly brutal instance of online bullying occurred two days prior to the proposal. Chloe Madeley was attacked <\/a> by several users online after her mother, Judy Finnigan, made a comment<\/a> downplaying the heinousness of the rape of a woman by professional footballer Ched Evans. Finnigan argued that Evans should be allowed to return to professional football in part because the rape he committed was not violent as, in her view, it did not \u201cphysically harm\u201d the victim. Understandably, this sparked a great deal of criticism on social media sites, but some users took it too far. In retaliation for Finnigan\u2019s remarks, multitudinous online culprits threatened (via Twitter) to rape her daughter.
\nThe Madeley incident is not the only trolling trouble in recent memory for citizens of the U.K. Kate and Gerry McCann, whose four-year-old daughter disappeared in 2007, were attacked viciously and for years<\/a> by online trolls who, despite the evidence, believed the McCanns were at fault for their daughter\u2019s disappearance.
\nThe cybercrimes of super-trolls are not confined to just the U.K. In 2013, a Canadian teen hanged herself after she was mercilessly bullied for being the victim of a gang-rape.<\/a> Even after her death, sexist slurs continued to be posted on a Facebook page dedicated to her memory.<\/a> Sri Lanka has suffered race riots<\/a> as a result of online hate speech.
\nAs a result of these race riots, Sri Lanka has considered legislation<\/a> similar to the new laws in the U.K. Arizona passed legislation<\/a> broadening its telephone harassment laws to include all forms of electronic communications in a move that upset many First Amendment groups.<\/a> The groups are opposed to the legislation because they feel it is overly-broad and too limiting of First Amendment rights. The strong feelings on both sides of the discussion are evidence of the difficulty of crafting a legislative solution.<\/p>\n

Due to the relatively anonymous nature of online communication and the ever-growing importance of computers in daily life, politicians of almost every state are under pressure to promulgate stricter rules for online activity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a result, each must undertake the difficult task of balancing the public\u2019s interest in preventing the social harm caused by trolling against the dangers of restricting free speech and invading personal privacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Internet trolls in the U.K. could face up to two years in prison if proponents of a new proposal set for Parliament have their way. The proposal, put forth last Sunday, seeks to quadruple the current maximum penalty of six months. Its author, MP Angie Bray, says she decided the change was necessary \u201cafter one …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7409,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160\/revisions\/7409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}