Getting punished for what you say on the internet

[Mr Poltroon]

I was watching the news today, when I saw a couple of funny situations.

 

Some government official slandered another one on his Facebook profile page, and that went to court. Being a government official, of course he made it out without any punishment, but he still had to change his profile.

Some police officers were fined for bad-mouthing their commanding officer on Facebook. 

 

Do you think this is fair?  

Do you think that you should be allowed to post your thoughts and badmouth on the internet? If so, does it have to be anonymously? 

Can it be against a single person? What if it's not directly at them? What if it's somewhere where they can't see? 

Do you think that laws should be established for these situations?

 

Personally...

Plenty of people speak badly of various personages and they don't get fined or arrested. I honestly think that if you aren't sending hate mail or directly insulting him in his face, badmouthing on the internet is totally fine.

But what do you think? I may actually be on a minority.

[Flutterz]

I think it depends mostly on what you say and where you say it. For example if you send someone death threats, I'm fairly certain that's illegal in the US and Canada, so if the other person goes to the authorities you can get punished.

There's also slander, which I think is basically treated in US and Canadian law as "falsely damaging reputation", so if you say something terrible about a person in a PM I guess that wouldn't count because you're telling them directly but if you start posting horrible lies about them all over the internet with the intent of damaging their reputation rather than simply insulting them, it crosses over to illegal.

Basically there are things you can say irl that you can get punished for, and so you can get punished for saying them on the internet too.

Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a lawyer!

[Cyrillej1]

Do you think this is fair?  

Do you think that you should be allowed to post your thoughts and badmouth on the internet? If so, does it have to be anonymously? 

Can it be against a single person? What if it's not directly at them? What if it's somewhere where they can't see? 

Do you think that laws should be established for these situations?

I know there was that huge news a long while back about a teacher bad-mouthing her students on her blog. Apparently some students recognized the situations she was talking about, so it spread all around the school and everyone found out it was her. It blew up in her face in a huge backlash from students/parents and the school didn't support her either. She lost her job, but also became really popular for it, lol.   But yeah, lesson learned, posting things online can have huge affect in your real life obviously. Just because it's online doesn't mean you won't suffer consequences for what you say.

 

I don't really know if it's fair.. but, I if you're willing to badmouth someone/something on the internet then you may have to be prepared for the backlash (especially if not done anonymously, that's your own fault). 

 

I personally think, yes you're allowed to post your thoughts and all, but be prepared for the consequences if you post it publicly. There are things you can't really say openly in real life for a reason, so it'd still apply online I think. If you don't want to suffer the consequences, it's best to do it anonymously or privately.

 

I think stuff is similar to Cyber Bullying. Just because it's online, doesn't mean its okay to harm/ruin other people's lives.

 

 

Regarding my thoughts on the teacher incident... I think it's funny and brave of her (or maybe stupid) that she posted those things openly.. Freedom of speech is nice, but I mean.. need to also use some common sense not to get into trouble xD.  I'm willing to bet she didn't expect to lose her job and be hated so much after posting her blog.. lol. But c'mon... a teacher badmouthing her students... of course people are going to be angry (even if it could be true).

[OriginalRen]

Having the law come after you for saying something bad about another person and/or company? No. Getting fired for saying something bad about another person and/or company? Yes.

[solidbatman]

I know companies and colleges in the US will look up your social media to see what you say. Thats why a lot of people don't talk much about work on these. At will employment means they can fire you without warning or reason. 

 

Some states have been cracking down on this practice though, making it illegal for companies to use social media as a reason to fire you, but, its not easily enforced. 

[Fiddle]

In America, I don't see how this wouldn't be construed as a violation of one's First Amendment rights. Of course, if you do it in such a manner that it will inflict considerable psychological harm or irrevocably damage their reputation (slander), there should be consequences. However, some middle-aged magnate isn't going to fall into chronic depression when people call him a boner on Facebook. -_-

[suikashoujo]

When I was in middle school, a kid got in pretty big trouble for talking on Facebook about how much they hated a certain teacher, I think to the point where they were wishing death on her. It didn't sound like they were very serious about it, but iirc they faced consequences from the school at the very least.

 

I think there's a fine line between venting, which is probably not going to hurt anyone in the long run and may actually be somewhat healthy, and publicly threatening to do something to the person that's being talked about. Complaining about someone is fine, talking in graphic detail about wanting to murder them is reasonable cause for some sort of punishment, whether from the government or the school/workplace.

[Zenophilious]

I remember a news story about a cop complaining on Facebook about a bunch of black "welfare queens" in his neighborhood, and saying that if he ever went on a murderous rampage he'd kill them first.  He lost his job.  I don't really think any other outcome would have been correct.  He's expected to act professionally as a cop, and his private behavior, if it becomes public, will have an effect on his image, and the image of the city's police force, as a whole.

 

I do think that a line needs to be drawn that makes it illegal to fire people over what they say online, but again, some things are reasonable to fire people over saying.  The cop in the previous example made the entire police force of his town look bad, and even if it wasn't an actual threat, he still expressed a want to harm and kill people.

[Clephas]

Every action has a reaction.  If you try to harm someone else, it comes back to you, eventually.  That applies to the internet as well.

[OriginalRen]

Every action has a reaction.  If you try to harm someone else, it comes back to you, eventually.  That applies to the internet as well.

 

Says the man who eats people as a side persona. Are you ready to be devoured Clephas?

[Darklord Rooke]

Life is full of choices and consequences. I won’t go into whether I think it’s fair, but if people like this 

 

 

Some police officers were fined for bad-mouthing their commanding officer on Facebook. 

 

can’t foresee the possible consequences to their actions then that’s their problem. I have little sympathy for these people.

[Mr Poltroon]

Life is full of choices and consequences. I won’t go into whether I think it’s fair, but if people like this can’t foresee the possible consequences to their actions then that’s their problem. I have little sympathy for these people.

I'll agree on how it affects your image and all that, but it's not like a commanding officer doesn't already know what his subordinates think of him. 

It was a chat between the lads, no different from at work when no officers are nearby. 

 

But I won't go into defending them, it's not exactly a good thing either.

[Zenophilious]

I also remember someone in the US Army badmouthing Obama on Facebook; don't remember what punishment he got, but he was either demoted or put on unpaid leave for a while or something similar.  Not exactly a good idea to publicly insult your Commander in Chief.  I'm not saying that you should be punished for your beliefs, but that's like publicly insulting the CEO of the company you work for.  That can, will, and should get you fired.

[Darklord Rooke]

I don't understand people's need to make things public. Some people need to get a diary (or as men like to call things, a "journal".)

[Okami]

I agree with Tiago as long as you don't insult someone to his face I don't think there should be legal actions to it, offcourse exception would be if you ware to talk about harming someone. I am pretty sure most countries have a thing called freedom of speak.

[Darklord Rooke]

 

I am pretty sure most countries have a thing called freedom of speak.

 

I think America's the only place that has freedom of speech protected by the law. I know Australia doesn't have a right to free speech, for example.

[Mr Poltroon]

I agree with Tiago as long as you don't insult someone to his face I don't think there should be legal actions to it, offcourse exception would be if you ware to talk about harming someone. I am pretty sure most countries have a thing called freedom of speak.

Indeed.

There's not a day my father doesn't speak ill of his boss when he gets home. Should he be prohibited to vent his thoughts online? 

It's a pretty darn stupid thing to do, let there be no doubt, but should the law intervene?

 

I'm not talking about image here. Doing things society doesn't approve of or speaking badly of those with more influence than you doesn't do any wonders for your image, both online and offline.

 

 

I think America's the only place that has freedom of speech protected by the law. I know Australia doesn't have a right to free speech, for example.

Us uncultured commoners don't know these things. We are told by our parents that we have freedom of speech and we just go along with it, eventually telling our children too. We don't go around examining and studying all the laws on the subject. 

[Heizei_koukousei]

Well government officials are supposed to maintain some degree of integrity due to their position. It does not surprise me that a court case was filed.

 

I don't understand people's need to make things public. Some people need to get a diary (or as men like to call things, a "journal".)

This.

I believe that talking shit openly about someone isn't going to solve any problems.

[Darklord Rooke]

I made a mistake. It seems Europe has varying forms of protection for freedom of speech. Hooray Australia!

 

I predict Zeno is going to comment about this. With glee...

[Mr Poltroon]

I made a mistake. It seems Europe has varying forms of protection for freedom of speech. Hooray Australia!

 

I predict Zeno is going to comment about this. With glee...

You just made a mistake on the internet.

You've lost the interwebz, gg.

 

And yes, I would've been surprised if we didn't have freedom of speech. That's one of the things that got thrown around since my childhood, considering we had a revolution quite recently.

[Okami]

I made a mistake. It seems Europe has varying forms of protection for freedom of speech. Hooray Australia!

 

I predict Zeno is going to comment about this. With glee...

 

Yea you are definitely wrong, even in my country there is a freedom of speech and my country is very old fashioned. I am very sure about it because I grown up listening about stories from older people (Age of my parents) how when they ware young there ware special prisons in witch both physical and psychical torture ware used and people ware being send to those prisons just for being heard talking bad about politicians but those days we have freedom of speech and legal actions can't be taken against you for badmouthing someone. Well it's mostly thanks to USA that we have it those days.

[Zenophilious]

I made a mistake. It seems Europe has varying forms of protection for freedom of speech. Hooray Australia!

 

I predict Zeno is going to comment about this. With glee...

...what did I do?

[Darklord Rooke]

...what did I do?

 

If I remember correctly you regard the democratic system in Australia and Japan in poor light. I thought you would have pounced onto the idea that Australia has no "freedom of speech" so to speak

[Zenophilious]

If I remember correctly you regard the democratic system in Australia and Japan in poor light. I thought you would have pounced onto the idea that Australia has no "freedom of speech" so to speak

Not so much the democratic systems themselves as much as how much they censor things.  Kinda hard to democratically get the government to stop censoring content 

[sanahtlig]

I'm very pro freedom of speech.  But I also believe in saying what you mean and arguing ideas, not people.  I try to talk and act in such a way that I would not be ashamed if such conduct became public knowledge.  That's just my concept of integrity.

 

Yet we live in a world where people are judging you every moment, trying to identify you as "friend" or "foe" and whether you'll be an asset or an obstacle to them.  That's why I strongly believe in privacy and the protection of anonymity.  You should be free to speak your mind without fear of consequences, so long as you're not propagating lies or infringing on the rights of others.  But that's limited to private communications and anonymous discussions.  As soon as you put your name and face behind it and post it publicly, you should be prepared for the consequences.  This is why I keep my Facebook profile mostly anonymous (and mostly devoid of content) and shy away from Internet activities that could be easily linked to my public identity.