Trolling Now A Criminal Offense in the UK

[SciFi Chick]

Well, this is worrisome. Political correctness is truly out of control.

[Swift]

Well, this is worrisome. Political correctness is truly out of control.

I'm a little unclear what you think is worrisome, the crime or the punishment, but the fact that you said "Political correctness is truly out of control" makes me think you think the punishment is out of control.

From the article:

Daniel Kilvington, 23, sent malicious messages to four young people, who he had never met, and all of whom had suffered personal tragedies in their lives.

He was found guilty of seven counts of sending malicious communications using social media between January and March last year.

District Judge Fred Rutherford sentenced Kilvington, of Spring Bank, to 18 weeks in prison when he appeared at Hull Magistrates Court this week.

...

"Kilvington sent malicious messages to four strangers on social media with the sole intention of causing them upset and anger.

"The victims had suffered personal tragedy and he chose to target them for no discernible reason.

"His actions made his victims lives misery and made already difficult situation worse.

You really think that is political correctness out of control? He tries to make strangers deal with even more suffering than they are apparently already dealing with, and he shouldn't be punished for it. Its not like he was sentenced to life in prison or death; in the US 18 weeks would be for a misdemeanor.

If he had written them hasty letters or made nasty phone calls, would you call that political correctness out of control?

[SciFi Chick]

Well, this is worrisome. Political correctness is truly out of control.

I'm a little unclear what you think is worrisome, the crime or the punishment, but the fact that you said "Political correctness is truly out of control" makes me think you think the punishment is out of control.

From the article:

Daniel Kilvington, 23, sent malicious messages to four young people, who he had never met, and all of whom had suffered personal tragedies in their lives.

He was found guilty of seven counts of sending malicious communications using social media between January and March last year.

District Judge Fred Rutherford sentenced Kilvington, of Spring Bank, to 18 weeks in prison when he appeared at Hull Magistrates Court this week.

...

"Kilvington sent malicious messages to four strangers on social media with the sole intention of causing them upset and anger.

"The victims had suffered personal tragedy and he chose to target them for no discernible reason.

"His actions made his victims lives misery and made already difficult situation worse.

You really think that is political correctness out of control? He tries to make strangers deal with even more suffering than they are apparently already dealing with, and he shouldn't be punished for it. Its not like he was sentenced to life in prison or death; in the US 18 weeks would be for a misdemeanor.

If he had written them hasty letters or made nasty phone calls, would you call that political correctness out of control?

Yes, I would. If there are no threats involved, it should not be illegal to be an asshole. All the victims have to do is block him. Protecting people from speech at the point of a gun is a step on the road to totalitarianism.

[Rommie]

So I've poked around a bit but I haven't found anything- do you have examples of the type of stuff he said? Because all the article says is it's "disturbing."

The reason I ask is because death threats, for example, are illegal to make in most jurisdictions I'm aware of for pretty obvious reasons. I'm personally more than ok with this, because if you've ever seen the effects from that it's pretty damn terrifying, and it's also a pretty clear tool of coercion and witness intimidation. I happen to know a ton about this firsthand btw- there was a girl in my middle school who likely had mental issues, and was emailing anonymous death threats to her "friends." The FBI was involved, and eventually that girl was caught, and I have no idea what happened to her after she was expelled, but the idea that "all the victims had to do is block him" is one I 100% disagree with.

My point is unless we actually know what the messages were about, I'm not sure how you know this was just political correctness gone too far.

[SciFi Chick]

So I've poked around a bit but I haven't found anything- do you have examples of the type of stuff he said? Because all the article says is it's "disturbing."

The reason I ask is because death threats, for example, are illegal to make in most jurisdictions I'm aware of for pretty obvious reasons. I'm personally more than ok with this, because if you've ever seen the effects from that it's pretty damn terrifying, and it's also a pretty clear tool of coercion and witness intimidation. I happen to know a ton about this firsthand btw- there was a girl in my middle school who likely had mental issues, and was emailing anonymous death threats to her "friends." The FBI was involved, and eventually that girl was caught, and I have no idea what happened to her after she was expelled, but the idea that "all the victims had to do is block him" is one I 100% disagree with.

My point is unless we actually know what the messages were about, I'm not sure how you know this was just political correctness gone too far.

Since I already said he should go to jail for death threats, I have no idea why you would say to me that you disagree with the suggesting of blocking for death threats since I never said that.

I also don't understand why I'm not allowed to take an article at face value and comment that it's political correctness run amok if true.

Finally, Great Britain has gone crazy with prosecuting "hate speech" of late. One guy went to prison for staring in a window at someone. Another region has made wolf whistling illegal. Children have been arrested for saying inappropriate things at school. So I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that this article is true.

[Rommie]

Sorry, I misread your comment earlier. Apologies!

Re: UK, they’ve had really odd internet censorship laws for awhile. Look up their rules to censor internet porn for example.

[SciFiFisher]

I am concerned that he was being prosecuted for saying "distressful things". I think here in the U.S. he probably would have been protected by the 1st Amendment (Free Speech).

I think that without knowing the exact nature of the communications I am not going to pile on and say "Political Correctness Run Amuck!".

OTOH I think that if he did communicate things that crossed that line i.e. Death threats or Hate Speech he should be prosecuted. I understand that the UK has stricter hate speech laws than we do here in the U.S. and that it can be rather easy to run afoul of those on social media especially.

[Rommie]

Yes. To articulate my point further, I think it's really difficult to compare the UK to the US on this perspective. This is because the US has the first amendment and the UK just plain does not have any guarantee to freedom of speech. They also have insanely strict libel laws, and a bunch of other things that just don't apply and are even more strict than much of Europe, even.

The Wiki article on censorship in the UK is an interesting read for those who are unfamiliar.

[SciFi Chick]

Sorry, I misread your comment earlier. Apologies!

Re: UK, they’ve had really odd internet censorship laws for awhile. Look up their rules to censor internet porn for example.

No worries. Also not comparing them to the U.S. I get concerned by any clamp down in a free country. I'll read that link you provided further down.