Illegal Things Are Illegal on Facebook and Twitter
THIS might come as a surprise to some or even many, but things that are illegal in the real world are also illegal on Facebook and other social media.
Yes, even Twitter.
More than half of Facebook and Twitter users could be routinely risking prosecution according to research exposing mass ignorance of basic legal dangers among internet enthusiasts.
It’s not just the two dingbats who got jailed for trying to organise riots on Facebook. One MP has been reprimanded (but as she’s a Labour MP she should of course have been jailed pour encourager….well, no, just becvause she’s a Lab MP really) for Twittering from an election count and I’m sure that more than one person has had an angry word or two with a judge as they are told off for doing so from inside a court room.
Because, you know, trying to organise a riot is illegal. As is telling anyone anything from an election count before the final announcement and we do not allow live reporting from court rooms either.
And yes, all the other laws like incitement to violence, libel, racial hatred, the lot of them they all apply here online just as they do if you do them in front of a policemen who is already looking for a way to get you.
You know the sort of thing: “We should gather, storm Parliament and hang all MPs as they are, every last one of them, corrupt and stealing our money” isn’t the sort of thing you should say online. No, not even if it’s true.
For that is, in order, incitement to riot, incitement to violence, conspiracy to commit murder and libel. That last because not all of them are corrupt.
Noon Tuesday then?
Posted: 28th, December 2011 | In: Technology Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
