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What about situations in which someone deliberately tries to cause misery to those suffering a loss? A prime example would be a family losing a child and someon

by zxcdw 12y ago

What about situations in which someone deliberately tries to cause misery to those suffering a loss? A prime example would be a family losing a child and someone just deliberately mocking and teasing them over it. What can you do? How can you prevent this? How should society act and take a stance about this? Obviously the "But free speech!"-camp doesn't even try to solve the problem at an individual level. What other options are there, apart from punishment of the perpetrator?

k-mcgrady 12y ago
Harassment. If you are directing the negative comments at someone in particular I think you would be charged with harassing that person.
- hga 12y ago
  Exactly, or at least in the US we have laws to deal with harassment, although they'll vary from state to state. However the "directing" part is as I understand it critical. I.e. saying something in isolation, that won't through some mechanism come to the attention of the targeted party, doesn't qualify.
blauwbilgorgel 12y ago
That is why I am conflicted about all this. Two cases where this is iffy: Azhar Ahmed prosecuted for treason on Facebook for the statement: "All soldiers should die and go to hell" [1] and Joe Lipari getting a visit from a SWAT team for quoting Fight Club on Facebook as a joke [2]. On the other hand you have vicious griefer groups which stalk memorial pages like hacker groups do old Joomla installs. These are organized groups who will drive people to suicide by massive cyberbullying campaigns, then gloat about it online, for as much relatives to see. Real unadulterated meanness. They don't seem to get arrested as much as the people who will say stupid stuff under their real names. And complaining to Twitter or Facebook about these groups seems futile. In the case of blatant racism or harassment these forums have a responsibility too: They could remove it, say it is against their TOS and no complex or biased legal system would have to get involved. In my opinion it is a form of malignant spam and is to be treated as such: employ filters, community feedback and manual reviewers to solve it as a spam problem. Spammers, like griefers, will continue. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2012/mar/15/azhar-ahmed-treason-army-facebook-comments http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2012... [2] http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/transcript http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/t...
ASneakyFox 12y ago
Why would you be face book friends with some one who would speak that way about your children? If the person is harassing you online that's one thing. But if you're subscribed to them online that's another thing.

by zxcdw 12y ago

k-mcgrady 12y ago

Harassment. If you are directing the negative comments at someone in particular I think you would be charged with harassing that person.

hga 12y ago
Exactly, or at least in the US we have laws to deal with harassment, although they'll vary from state to state. However the "directing" part is as I understand it critical. I.e. saying something in isolation, that won't through some mechanism come to the attention of the targeted party, doesn't qualify.

blauwbilgorgel 12y ago

That is why I am conflicted about all this. Two cases where this is iffy: Azhar Ahmed prosecuted for treason on Facebook for the statement: "All soldiers should die and go to hell" [1] and Joe Lipari getting a visit from a SWAT team for quoting Fight Club on Facebook as a joke [2]. On the other hand you have vicious griefer groups which stalk memorial pages like hacker groups do old Joomla installs. These are organized groups who will drive people to suicide by massive cyberbullying campaigns, then gloat about it online, for as much relatives to see. Real unadulterated meanness. They don't seem to get arrested as much as the people who will say stupid stuff under their real names. And complaining to Twitter or Facebook about these groups seems futile. In the case of blatant racism or harassment these forums have a responsibility too: They could remove it, say it is against their TOS and no complex or biased legal system would have to get involved. In my opinion it is a form of malignant spam and is to be treated as such: employ filters, community feedback and manual reviewers to solve it as a spam problem. Spammers, like griefers, will continue. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2012/mar/15/azhar-ahmed-treason-army-facebook-comments http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2012... [2] http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/transcript http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/t...

ASneakyFox 12y ago

Why would you be face book friends with some one who would speak that way about your children? If the person is harassing you online that's one thing. But if you're subscribed to them online that's another thing.