Sums up my opinion on the matter. He didn't objectively do anything to anyone, his very existance could be negated by ignoring him. Why jail him.Calibanbutcher said:
Man Jailed for 3 months over Facebook Jokes
- Thread starter Zombiefish
- Start date
I guess it's our best shot, regardless.JoJo said:
It's been a LOOONG while since i've actually cared about anything like this. So this must've really rustled my political jimmies.
Looks like a lot of people didn't actually read the article.
He wasn't arrested for a bad joke, he was taken into protective custody because he caused an angry mob to show up outside his house.
Then jailed because causing shit like that is against the law in Britain.
He wasn't arrested for a bad joke, he was taken into protective custody because he caused an angry mob to show up outside his house.
Then jailed because causing shit like that is against the law in Britain.
This is the worst thing I have ever heard of. A serious breach of free speech, and beyond that simply bullshit in every way possible.
So I read the article and get that he said enough nasty things on the interwebz that a crazy angry mob showed up and he had to be arrested for his own safety or whatnot (I'm not about to question the laws in a country I don't live or vote in), but I feel like the whole world is sort of slowly defaulting to Orwellian, here...
Employers are now asking for your Facebook login and password, so they can keep track of you. If you don't have a password, this is suspicious. In Britain (for now, anyway), if you say a bad on the tubes, you have a chance at some prison time. In the US, we happily let our freedom go for "security," because if you're not a terrorist, who cares if you're wiretapped, right?
I'm not about to take the next shuttle to Mars or hide in Antarctica and start a crappy conspiracy theory website--I mean, this could be as far as it goes--but I feel like there's not enough communal head scratching going on. Honestly, I think being able to prevent people from being cyber bullies is an important thing, I just feel really awkward when the solution is jail time. This might not be happening in the place where I live, but it really shouldn't be happening anywhere.
Maybe there needs to be less emphasis on conforming to society's favorite form of mass media? Then, if you know you have the chance of typing something stupid while drunk, you won't have to put yourself in the temptation seat (and won't get labeled as an outsider). I honestly don't know what we should do, but before we have our Facebook statuses updated by our thoughts, we ought to figure this one out.
Employers are now asking for your Facebook login and password, so they can keep track of you. If you don't have a password, this is suspicious. In Britain (for now, anyway), if you say a bad on the tubes, you have a chance at some prison time. In the US, we happily let our freedom go for "security," because if you're not a terrorist, who cares if you're wiretapped, right?
I'm not about to take the next shuttle to Mars or hide in Antarctica and start a crappy conspiracy theory website--I mean, this could be as far as it goes--but I feel like there's not enough communal head scratching going on. Honestly, I think being able to prevent people from being cyber bullies is an important thing, I just feel really awkward when the solution is jail time. This might not be happening in the place where I live, but it really shouldn't be happening anywhere.
Maybe there needs to be less emphasis on conforming to society's favorite form of mass media? Then, if you know you have the chance of typing something stupid while drunk, you won't have to put yourself in the temptation seat (and won't get labeled as an outsider). I honestly don't know what we should do, but before we have our Facebook statuses updated by our thoughts, we ought to figure this one out.
Actually, in California (not sure about other states), they passed a bill that prohibits employers and colleges from requiring you to give your Facebook information, as the bill's author considered it an "invasion of privacy".Catrixa said:
Well, hopefully other states catch on if they haven't already (I haven't seen anything in Oregon, but I've never had an employer require that information either). That's not to say they won't still e-track you when you apply to make sure you're not getting drunk with friends too often, but I like steps in the right direction.thebobmaster said:
Just a heads up, Britain doesn't have a formally written constitution so the exact definition of what entails rights etc. is/has the ability to be ever changing (legally, at least).109 said:
Plus, forgive me if I'm getting my wires crossed, but isn't there an Act that makes it an offence to misuse public forums (like facebook and twitter). While the joke is tasteless, wouldn't inciting 50 people to come knocking on his door angrily be enough to count as inciting hatred/violence/ breach of the peace and would therefore come under the act as 'misuse'?
Out of curiosity, I would want to see what else he had written and possibly his replies on facebook before passing any judgement. If someone had called him out on it online and he responded in an argumentative/aggressive/inflammatory/in some way unrepentant and not nice manner, that could also be grounds for arrest under the act.
While I wouldn't write off Britain as gone-to-the-dogs-pc-gone-mad-1984 hell hole just yet, it is pretty unsettling the see this kind of thing cropping up lately.
Maybe I'm just one of those Constitution-waving Amurkins (the real kind, not the ultra-conservative kind), but do you guys in the UK not have some kind of protection of free speech? I don't care which country you're from, it's a gross violation of freedom and ethics to send someone to prison over a joke (no matter how tasteless).
Though maybe it's not so bad, since the UK apparently has so little crime that the police don't have anything better to do than arrest you for tasteless humor. Then again, I suppose that's true here in the US as well - only they arrest you for smoking the wrong plant instead of telling jokes. And it's the same in some middle-eastern countries, only they arrest you for worshiping the wrong god. Gosh, what a crime-free world we must live in!
Though maybe it's not so bad, since the UK apparently has so little crime that the police don't have anything better to do than arrest you for tasteless humor. Then again, I suppose that's true here in the US as well - only they arrest you for smoking the wrong plant instead of telling jokes. And it's the same in some middle-eastern countries, only they arrest you for worshiping the wrong god. Gosh, what a crime-free world we must live in!
This is absolutely shameful.Zombiefish said:
Telling bad jokes can lead to imprisonment? What crime did he commit exactly?
There is a post on here of a man blatantly sexually assaulting women at a video game convention and filming it, and this guy goes to jail?
I think what a lot of (especially younger) people confuse is the 'Right to Free Speech' with 'No consequences for anything I say or type.'
As has already been pointed out, there are a lot of double standards and hypocrisy when it comes to judicial matters and I suspect this guy's sentence will be overturned on appeal, especially as a similar case (the chap who tweeted about blowing up Robin Hood airport - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19009344 ) was overturned. If Woods goes to jail, Boyle should too.
I'll be the first to trot out the Steve Hughes 'offended' video clip when talking about trivia, but trolling and cyberbullying has caused suicides. Your right to free speech does not extend to driving someone's daughter to hang herself, for example. Or, rather, you can say it... but expect to pay the bloody price for it.
You have a right to walk up to that really big bloke with a shaved head in a bar and tell him his girlfriend is ugly, or what you did with his mother last night. These keyboard cowards will do it online, not to someone's face.
Should he have gone to jail? Not really.. if I'd have been in the police car approaching the house with a mob outside it, I might have quietly found something else to do than take him into protective custody.
Actions... consequences. The internet does appear to be teaching our younger generation that the two words are not connected when, in reality....
As has already been pointed out, there are a lot of double standards and hypocrisy when it comes to judicial matters and I suspect this guy's sentence will be overturned on appeal, especially as a similar case (the chap who tweeted about blowing up Robin Hood airport - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19009344 ) was overturned. If Woods goes to jail, Boyle should too.
I'll be the first to trot out the Steve Hughes 'offended' video clip when talking about trivia, but trolling and cyberbullying has caused suicides. Your right to free speech does not extend to driving someone's daughter to hang herself, for example. Or, rather, you can say it... but expect to pay the bloody price for it.
You have a right to walk up to that really big bloke with a shaved head in a bar and tell him his girlfriend is ugly, or what you did with his mother last night. These keyboard cowards will do it online, not to someone's face.
Should he have gone to jail? Not really.. if I'd have been in the police car approaching the house with a mob outside it, I might have quietly found something else to do than take him into protective custody.
Actions... consequences. The internet does appear to be teaching our younger generation that the two words are not connected when, in reality....
Daystar would face the firing squad.Calibanbutcher said:
Hmmmmm while I support freedom of speech(both the right to say what ever you want and then being responsible for everything you said) and believe more idiots should be responsible for that they say over the internet.... Being arrested over that weak of a joke is pathetic. Its no less than what the police have intimated before(the parents are always prime suspects) and it isn't very graphic. Dead baby jokes are more graphic and offensive(and hilariously funny) so i can only imagine the jail time on those.
I would agree with you on this, but...Elementary - Dear Watson said:
Well, I have the darkest sense of humor of anyone I know.
If he were like those people who got put down for spamming relevant people's facebook and twitter, yeah. String 'em up[footnote]Metaphorically speaking[/footnote]
That said, according to the article, it's a case of police protection because people were that upset, they were going to his house.
That's an overreaction.
Salman Rushdie - a great example. He was perfectly free to write or say whatever he wanted. He chose to do so. His expression of free speech, I think all would agree, had some consequences for him that he might not have enjoyed, rightly or wrongly.PanasonicYouth said:
If, however, anyone would like to compare a trolling pre-pubescent child or self-congratulory twenty-something with Rushdie, please, please have a go! People who have nothing better to do than inflict further pain on people suffering to the extreme are probably more deserving of our pity, and a session with an analyst, than a jail sentence.
The snag with this case is the young lad involved appears to be horrified at the outcome of what he typed. He's not some arrogant 'fuck the state, fuck the family' kind of idiot, but someone who did something without thinking (and we've all been there). When you do that in a small community, though, it's hard just to say 'oops... my bad.'
I'm a hypocrite, though. I would quite happily nuke 4-chan from the 'net and delete any comment on YouTube that originated from anyone under the age of 25. I don't see that either of those two sections serves any useful purpose to society but I have to support their right to be there.
Damn...!
Being arrested for 3 months for his own safety is pretty damn drastic. If a 50-man mob can warrant a man's arrest over a few Facebook comments, they need to start working on actual criminals. But what I find the strangest, and most messed up, is that they're not lifting any fingers over the mob that was dangerous enough to warrant his arrest for 3 months. I'd be more worried about them than a someone who made an offensive comment.
I know theres alot of facts missing from the case, due to the comments being withheld from the public, although most forums ive read on this topic agree they were all made in a 'joke' nature rather than malice.
"no other sentence this court could have passed which conveys to you the abhorrence that many in society feel this crime should receive" - magistrate
Is not up to society to make laws however. Its up to professionals who understand the concepts and complexities and can write applicable laws that society can then approve.
The guy shouldn't have been jailed because society wanted it. If the facts proved he deserved the sentence then OK but it seems this judgement was made because a crowd of people demanded it, which shouldn't happen.
The problem I see is this guy is going to have a criminal record for life, meaning he will struggle to gain a well paid job or have any kind of future because of a facebook comment.
Why they couldn't have given him public service or something instead is beyond me.
"no other sentence this court could have passed which conveys to you the abhorrence that many in society feel this crime should receive" - magistrate
Is not up to society to make laws however. Its up to professionals who understand the concepts and complexities and can write applicable laws that society can then approve.
The guy shouldn't have been jailed because society wanted it. If the facts proved he deserved the sentence then OK but it seems this judgement was made because a crowd of people demanded it, which shouldn't happen.
The problem I see is this guy is going to have a criminal record for life, meaning he will struggle to gain a well paid job or have any kind of future because of a facebook comment.
Why they couldn't have given him public service or something instead is beyond me.
Did he KNOW the family? Is there a single conceivable normal scenario in which the family of that missing kid (what the joke was about) would have read his posts, let alone is there any proof that he intended to bring emotional harm to said family?
No?
Then why in the ever-loving fuck was he put in jail?
That judge is a joke. So is any law that would allow for such a punishment. A SINGLE joke (with follow-up posts that are not described but are presumably small in number) about a missing kid should never warrant jail time. Hell, even if he knew the kid, I don't see an issue with a single post on his own page. That is, after all, what the internet is for.
Edit: How many celebrities joke about other celebrity deaths without consequence? Making fun of others in itself does not equate to harassment.
No?
Then why in the ever-loving fuck was he put in jail?
That judge is a joke. So is any law that would allow for such a punishment. A SINGLE joke (with follow-up posts that are not described but are presumably small in number) about a missing kid should never warrant jail time. Hell, even if he knew the kid, I don't see an issue with a single post on his own page. That is, after all, what the internet is for.
Edit: How many celebrities joke about other celebrity deaths without consequence? Making fun of others in itself does not equate to harassment.