Beware Trolls! New Libel Law in UK

Not yet - it's a proposed law, and this UK government throws them about like confetti, then back-tracks on them like crazy.

Still - not a bad idea to pre-empt them and start enforcing the general principal here anyway.

 

Oh, yeah. I got it.

 

i would like to retract my previous statements

 

Bullshit.

You're basically saying "Fuck you free speech!"...

I mean as long as you're not trying to hurt someone who cares about trolls?


Just ignore them.


I think that I'm going to start trolling more in protest of this.

Fuckin a!

 

Defamatory and libelous means "hurting somebody".

 

Obviously you don't get my sense of humor.

 

This whole thing just makes it harder for site owners and its sad

 

nuts..

 

It's bullshit.

The Internet NEEDS to stay free - for better or for worse. It is the only place where anyone is truly free anymore, if we allow legislation to affect it much more than it already does, we will lose humanity's last free harbor.

You could reasonably argue that this proposed legislation does no harm and might do some good, but IMO anything that limits how we can use the Internet is inherently a bad thing. It sets a precedent for the future and any proposed legislature to do with the Internet will be that much easier to pass, and we will find ourselves with shrinking liberties.

Those willing to give up liberty for security deserve neither and shall lose both.

 

Having freedom of speech is one thing but it cannot include things such as terroristic threats. You have freedom of speech until the point that you infringe on another's freedom to enjoy their life free of harassment, defamation, and terroristic threats (which is what this Bill will address).

IMO, to think that any webmaster would offer safe harbor to criminals who committed those, or other illegal acts, is beyond ridiculous.

 

I like how the law comes in when it's convenient for the website. At all other times it's an evil device of the government to control people. Just shows that absolutely nothing is free from the laws of self-preservation.

Terrorist threats aren't the target of the law, according to the article - it's anonymous posters who post "vile and hateful" comments. These aren't criminals.

 

Trolling is now considered personal attacks? What a bunch of bullshit, that shit doesn't even amount to trolling. Since when has trolling become attacking someone verbally? Tsk tsk, generalizing a word/meme to the point where it basically becomes common slander. There are no trolls in HF, the only attempts of trolling have been outlandish posts or threads about having sex 45 times and even then they were bad attempts.

Skip you can ban people for attacking their invisible alias (as ridiculous as it sounds) but please don't call it trolling.

(Paying harbor to criminals is one thing but that's why people are payed to look for jihad sites and terrorists hives.)

The article talks about serious accusations not petty words on forums.

 

about time and thank you, makes me feel more comfortable being here but suprised that youve singled out the ppl from the uk though, are we really that bad skip? havent been here very long so dont know whats gone on in the past, but as a generalisation we are usually a polite and quite reserved nation on the whole.

edit...time restraints this morning prevented me from putting a more full reply here. the article in the mail newspaper, and you can't believe everything that you read in that newspaper by the way was addressing the problems that happen on social networking sites such as facebook and the trolls that seem to inhabit there but surely this isnt just a problem for uk, this kind of thing happens everywhere in the world, there are good and bad in all countries, good and bad on all forums. our government seems to be doing something about this, isnt yours too?
governments the world over interfere too much in peoples lives, they're supposed to be there FOR us, not against us, but if they can stamp down on this what is frankly wicked bullying then im all for it and its good to see that you are too.
dont know why this has to come into law though, complaints against trolls are already dealt with on a daily basis here in the uk, taken seriously and peoples details passed to the relevant authorities.

freedom of speech is one thing but for someone to deliberately wreck someones elses life is another. whats happened to respect, peace, love, live and let live?

 

Yes they are.

I'm referring to the story there with the article where a woman was told that her children would be killed. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/06/12/article-2157937-1390AAF9000005DC-760_634x894_popup.jpg

Telling someone that you will kill them is one of the things that qualifies as a terroristic threat.

http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/making-a-terrorist-threat.html

The degree of "trolling" being talked about involves Defamation and Libel; as in spreading a rumor that someone is a pedofile.

It's not talking about "vile and hateful comments" like "You are an asshole".

 

Just for the sake of argument. Let me see if I got this right.

A foreign government that is thinking about passing a law, and it will not pass, and it is and will not become a law, is now forcing website owners to become judge, jury, cop, and executioner (or hangman), worldwide, and we are all mindless sheep who don't seem to see anything wrong with this? Won't even discuss it?

In fact we are FIRST in Line. Now that's scary!

Libel is handled by counts on a case by case basis.
Not by BLANKET edict.

If we're going to have a one world dictatorship, then I'm going to run it.

No further discussion. This Thread is CLOSED!
LOL

Under my all powerful regime, the wardens will decide what free speech is. The penalty is death. And may God have mercy on your soul.

 

So it's ok to harbour a peadophile, just don't call them out on it. Gotcha.

 

I don't think it would force website owners into all that. It will force them to turn over identifying information on the accused user or face fines:

"Internet companies will be expected to agree to rules over how to deal with libellous comments posted on their sites.

They will be told that – provided they agree to hand over the identity of the abuser to their victim – the internet company itself will be protected from legal action by the victim of abuse.

If they refuse, however, they could be hauled before the courts and fined thousands of pounds for the hateful comments, even though they were made by a visitor to their website."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nternet-trolls-unless-them.html#ixzz1xgWBHT5N

 

"…on the accused user or face fines:"

Yeah, That's called legal extortion.
If I did that I'd be in jail. Do this or give me your money.

A seven-year-old can start their own website. So, then governments can make seven-year-olds into judges and juries?

governments can fine seven-year-olds

Where does it all end?

Six year old American girl fined $500,000 by the Singapore government, for not knowing how to use the BBS software to find the name of a suspected libelous person, on her website bulletin board that her parents thought that it would be fun to set up for her and her school friends.

2 months later
Girl can't pay fine and the family's lawyers fights extradition.

2 months later
Girl loses extradition battle. Flown to Singapore and hand cuffs.

4 months later
Singapore Court finds Six year old American girl guilty, and sentences 20 years and half million dollar fine.

1 year later.
Person accused of libel, acquitted in court case. Goes free and files civil sue again the person who accused, and against the Six year old American girl. for $300,000 each.

Grandma's own websites. Kids own websites. I owed a website back in '97. Anyone can be a website owner. People seem to believe that that team means the you are a giant major corporation or something. Everybody who does business with Go Daddy and the like, own a website. This arm twisting will apply to 5 million individuals. However, once you pass a law. The law is the law. And how can one nation create a worldwide law, anyway?

A: They can't. It's impossible.

But the threat of extortion will work. And that in itself is terrorism.