[Lady Maleficent]

The media and others appear to be jumping on the free speech bandwagon with regards to the Tom Daley Twitter row.

The Guardian have made a comment piece saying state action is essentially wrong, and even the Daily Mail agrees.

And on TSR, a lot of people are going down the 'free speech is dead' route.

But, this mood seems hypocritical to me. We all heard about the student who was jailed for mocking Fabrice Muamba on Twitter and the man who sent threats to Louise Mensch. Yet, there did not appear to be hardly anyone, most of all the media, jumping on the free speech bandwagon.

Personally, I believe all of the above should be illegal, as I am not one who subscribes to absolute freedom of speech.

But why the hypocrisy in the Tom Daley case? Why are people all of a sudden jumping on the free speech wagon?

[Arva]

I think lots of people are just reading the daily mail articles or other crap that completely glosses over the fact that the guy is actually getting arrested because of threats and other offensive messages he posted after the initial one. Complete misrepresentation by those sources.

I just had a read of the Daily Mail one, and it even mentions the fact that this guy said he wanted to "drown Daley" - it then goes on to complain that people are being jailed just for insults? Stupid.

If he was getting arrested just for the dad tweet, that would be ridiculous in my opinion. Yes it was really offensive but that's what trolls do, unfortunately. Luckily he said some stuff stupid enough to get arrested for, so we can all be happy it's dealt with.

[Elwyn]

Freedom of speech wasn't brought about to allow people to be hateful and malicious. People who think freedom of speech means he can get away with being a worthless scumbag need to think again.

I came across this whilst browsing my twitter feed:


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Lady Maleficent]

(Original post by Joe909)
U wot mate?

u are 1 ****ing cheeky **** mate i swear i am goin 2 wreck u i swear on my mums life and i no u are scared lil bitch gettin your mates to send me messages saying dont meet up coz u r sum big bastard with muscles lol ****in sad mate really sad jus shows what a scared lil gay boy u are and whats all this crap ur mates sendin me about sum bodybuildin website that 1 of your faverite places to look at men u lil ****in gay boy fone me if u got da balls cheeky prick see if u can step up lil queer

Poor analogy.

[DalePie]

How do you torture a house with a lighter...?

[Aspiringlawstudent]

Well, excuse some of us for believing that what people say ultimately is of no concern of the state. It's positively Orwellian.

[Aspiringlawstudent]

(Original post by Elwyn)
Freedom of speech wasn't brought about to allow people to be hateful and malicious. People who think freedom of speech means he can get away with being a worthless scumbag need to think again.

I came across this whilst browsing my twitter feed:


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Ultimately, those are completely empty threats. He doesn't know where any of those people are and it's not possible for him to carry out any of those threats.

[Straight up G]

When the Danish Cartoonists insult Islam it's free speech but when Team GB's golden boy (or is that 4th-placed boy ) is insulted there is a massive fuss and widespread outrage

[Snagprophet]

(Original post by Straight up G)
When the Danish Cartoonists insult Islam it's free speech but when Team GB's golden boy (or is that 4th-placed boy ) is insulted there is a massive fuss and widespread outrage

There's freedom of speech and then there's death threats and e-thuggery. This nonce's death threats to multiple people hit the news due to his stupid attack on a 17 year old athlete attacking him for being a particle away from coming first in a competition which he had trained hard physically and mentally for seeing as his father and coach had recently died of cancer. That is evil.

Mocking religious beliefs is completely different. The Danish cartoonists have never attacked anyone in this way. Mocking Islam is like mocking any other ideology and it's hypocritical and complete nonsense to place Islam higher than Christianity in sacredness in what is meant to be a secular society. If an ideology is so sensitive to you that it makes you murder for it then you're obviously doing it wrong and you're obviously not fit to live in the Occident.

[Repressor]

(Original post by DalePie)
How do you torture a house with a lighter...?

I going to presume he meant 'torch'.

[Clare~Bear]

(Original post by Straight up G)
When the Danish Cartoonists insult Islam it's free speech but when Team GB's golden boy (or is that 4th-placed boy ) is insulted there is a massive fuss and widespread outrage

Drawing a picture of Muhammed is different to sending death threats. The former somehow insults people, the latter makes someone fear for their life.

[Chi019]

(Original post by Lady Maleficent)

But, this mood seems hypocritical to me. We all heard about the student who was jailed for mocking Fabrice Muamba on Twitter and the man who sent threats to Louise Mensch. Yet, there did not appear to be hardly anyone, most of all the media, jumping on the free speech bandwagon.

Free speech should be absolute.

[Chi019]

(Original post by Elwyn)
Freedom of speech wasn't brought about to allow people to be hateful and malicious. People who think freedom of speech means he can get away with being a worthless scumbag need to think again.
d App

You would perhaps be more at home in China? You could send the hateful and malicious people for "re-education".

[lukas1051]

He wasn't arrested over the Tom Daley tweet like the media are making out, I think it's unfair they're putting that spin on it. The police even confirmed today he is,being held over "other tweets". While horrible, I don't believe the tweet warranted arrest, and it didn't, it merely brought the user to public attention. I'm pretty certain he was arrested over the string of malicious and credible death threats he made to several people on repeated occasions, not just after the Tom Daley tweet bit for months before. This article shows a lot of the tweets made after the incident: http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.c...h-and.html?m=1 as I'm sure you can seethere are definite threats of death and violence. I support the right to free speech, but this is no different to phoning someone up and telling them you're going to kill them, just because it's over Twitter that doesn't make it OK.

[rockrunride]

Astounds me that people are giving this kid the time of day.

[trudy13]

I've seen ordinary people from school have their lives ruined by Cyber Bullying/Trolling! I think in a way it's good to bring attention to the fact that this behaviour is unacceptable in society, but at the same time I think all the "free speech" stuff is kinda to do with the fact that only "celebrities" get protection over these types of things, not your average person!

[ForKicks]

(Original post by Elwyn)
Freedom of speech wasn't brought about to allow people to be hateful and malicious. People who think freedom of speech means he can get away with being a worthless scumbag need to think again.

I came across this whilst browsing my twitter feed:


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Who would people neg someone who actually reveals a legitimate reason as to why he was arrested? Threats should never be tolerated.

[skotch]

I was following the row on twitter and checked out the abuser's page and it's just full of tweets abusing other people, threatening kill and rape them and their relatives in various ways and full of racist stuff as well. Pretty glad he's being reprimanded for what he said to Tom Daley. That kid was a sick, messed up person.

[moonkatt]

(Original post by lukas1051)
He wasn't arrested over the Tom Daley tweet like the media are making out, I think it's unfair they're putting that spin on it. The police even confirmed today he is,being held over "other tweets". While horrible, I don't believe the tweet warranted arrest, and it didn't, it merely brought the user to public attention. I'm pretty certain he was arrested over the string of malicious and credible death threats he made to several people on repeated occasions, not just after the Tom Daley tweet bit for months before. This article shows a lot of the tweets made after the incident: http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.c...h-and.html?m=1 as I'm sure you can seethere are definite threats of death and violence. I support the right to free speech, but this is no different to phoning someone up and telling them you're going to kill them, just because it's over Twitter that doesn't make it OK.

Agree completely, you do know what you've said here will fall on deaf ears though?

Also, those who seem to think you should be able to say what you want no matter what, have a go at saying what this lad has said to people on twitter in the pub without the protection of anonymity and the distance of being on the internet and see how it goes. I'm guessing it would result with a pint pot to the face.

[Friar Chris]

If 'free speech' is a 'bandwagon', then I want to be on that wagon the full way. I'm not a fan of what a liberal minority consider to be the 'greater good'; free speech is an end in itself as far as I'm concerned.

If in his tweeting he has thereby committed a separate crime anyway - blackmail, threats of violence etc. then that's one thing; but to say that something should be illegal just because it's offensive is scary. As far as I care, the putative idiot would best be let to rot with the ridicule and hatred he will (and has) in turn received from society.