3 ms·
Many internet death threats are not "true threats" and are indeed protected speech. Not all, but a surprising amount of it is. You can read more starting with
by throwaway76543 8y ago
Many internet death threats are not "true threats" and are indeed protected speech. Not all, but a surprising amount of it is.
You can read more starting with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elonis_v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elonis_v._United_States
- kolpa 8y agoThis is a subtle point. The court ruled that you can't be guilty of threatening to hurt someone unless you actually intend to hurt them. But if you play in the grey space, by intending to create fear of harm without (in the vein of It's Always Sunny's infamous "because of the implication" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yUafzOXHPE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yUafzOXHPE), that's apparently legal. Presumably because to some extent the law is not intended to directly prevent crime, but only to deter crime by punishing it. At a social level, it may make sense to "sacrifice" a few people to murder in order to maintain a free society while detering most murders by punishing completed murders, but that's cold comfort to victims and potential victims, and not particularly fair if the risk of victimhood is not uniform across the population.