[Miracle Day]

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/08/03...ller-arrested/

I've seen so many of these recently, I hear the Americans have gone all out taking the piss out of us..

[internetguru]

The twitter arrests have gotten out of hand who the hell decided that we should start arresting people based on tweets?

[cid]

Police are target driven morons, as long as they get a charge to add to the end of year tally so their higher ups get their pat on the back and maybe a nudge towards an MBE, and the lowers get that extra sniff at making sergeant they don't care how stupid something is.


Just to clarify, i am in no way an anarchist, i do however think our police force ...sorry service, should be re hauled from the ground up.

[boba]

as far as I know he also made death threats, which whether he actually intended to kill the people or not (I doubt he did), is most definitely illegal.
posting one or two horrible comments on the internet is just being a dick but doing it repeatedly to the point where it could be considered harassment is also definitely illegal and always has been.

[ThePants999]

Clearly the police farce (oh, dreadfully sorry, force) is overstaffed.

[+ polarity -]

(Original post by internetguru)
The twitter arrests have gotten out of hand who the hell decided that we should start arresting people based on tweets?

You're the internet guru

[Pandabär]

So, out of interest, if someone tweeted something abusive to my brother, could he go to the police station and demand that the person be arrested? Or does it only work with famous people, as it's more in the public interest?

I'm not talking death threats here as that's obvious. I mean what some would call 'banter', yet others may take as an offence. Beacuse he and his friends tend to wind each other up all the time...

I'm not a law student and am genuinely interested to know.

[TenOfThem]

As a teacher who deals with students and their offensive/threatening tweets on a weekly basis ... I would like to see more restrictions on the use of the internet to abuse

[internetguru]

(Original post by TenOfThem)
As a teacher who deals with students and their offensive/threatening tweets on a weekly basis ... I would like to see more restrictions on the use of the internet to abuse

There aren't any restrictions on students abusing each other face to face so why should there be restrictions on typing it?

[TenOfThem]

(Original post by internetguru)
There aren't any restrictions on students abusing each other face to face

Of course there are

Threatening behaviour can be reported to the police and can result in a warning at least

[thecrimsonidol]

Just because it is done online doesn't mean people should be able to get away with saying anything any more than they would in real life.
What the response should be is more the question to deal with, in my opinion. But the idea of people being liable for what they say online (provided it's always looked at within context) is a good thing.

[internetguru]

(Original post by thecrimsonidol)
Just because it is done online doesn't mean people should be able to get away with saying anything any more than they would in real life.
What the response should be is more the question to deal with, in my opinion. But the idea of people being liable for what they say online (provided it's always looked at within context) is a good thing.

I've never had to report anyone for saying anything in real life. I've always just insulted them back twice as hard.

[internetguru]

(Original post by TenOfThem)
Of course there are

Threatening behaviour can be reported to the police and can result in a warning at least

Yeah it CAN but generally people just insult them back. 99.9999% of the time they are just empty words they don't intend to follow through with so simply threatening them back is sufficient.

[TenOfThem]

(Original post by internetguru)
Yeah it CAN but generally people just insult them back. 99.9999% of the time they are just empty words they don't intend to follow through with so simply threatening them back is sufficient.

I suppose my point is that people say things believing there will be no follow up

And now they tweet things to a worldwide audience expecting no come back

I see the impact on bullied students at work and I see the people who believe there are no consequences developing worse behaviours as they become adults

Actions/Words/Behaviours should have consequences ... in my opinion

[Miracle Day]

(Original post by TenOfThem)
Of course there are

Threatening behaviour can be reported to the police and can result in a warning at least

But the thing is, for example .. someone messaging Tom Daley "I'm going to drown you in a pool.." etc.. common discretion tells me a 15 year old saying this isn't being serious -.-

[Marco1]

(Original post by ThePants999)
Clearly the police farce (oh, dreadfully sorry, force) is overstaffed.

It is the Police Service now actually. It is politically incorrect to say refer to them as a Force now, thanks to the misguided sensitivities of the fickle British general public. Policing by consent and all that linguistic Tom Foolery. You wanted a pink and fluffy police service so that's what you've got! The French, Spanish and German models of policing for example, are far more effective and focused on crime, rather than dealing with time-wasting law suits from ill-conceived complaints and petty perceived injustices. Mind you such countries have an entirely different legal system to work from. Unfortunately we are stuck with the over-complicated and selfdefeating, organic nightmare of English Law. It is not the police who set the targets. You can blame the Home Office for that.

[Pandabär]

Posted twice...sorry.

[Pandabär]

(Original post by TenOfThem)

Actions/Words/Behaviours should have consequences ... in my opinion

I'm sure everyone thinks that. I certainly do, and that's kind of the whole reason behind having a judicial system in the first place. But how on earth are we going to organise and finance the arrest of so many people on a daily basis?

Again, not taking about threats here, only insults and offensive stuff.

I think it needs to be made clear what is and isn't acceptable... If I think of my brother's somewhat dubious college classmates- what can they class as 'banter' and what is going too far?

[Astronomical]

(Original post by boba)
as far as I know he also made death threats, which whether he actually intended to kill the people or not (I doubt he did), is most definitely illegal.
posting one or two horrible comments on the internet is just being a dick but doing it repeatedly to the point where it could be considered harassment is also definitely illegal and always has been.

Wrong guy.

This tweeter said: "If there is any consolation for finishing fourth at least Daley and Waterfield can go and bum each other #teamHIV."

[internetguru]

(Original post by TenOfThem)
I suppose my point is that people say things believing there will be no follow up

And now they tweet things to a worldwide audience expecting no come back

I see the impact on bullied students at work and I see the people who believe there are no consequences developing worse behaviours as they become adults

Actions/Words/Behaviours should have consequences ... in my opinion

But then we are in a situation where Americans can insult British people with no consequences as they have freedom of speech. Then we insult them back and get arrested.