Trolls Face Two-Year Jail Terms

[Jazzy]

Internet trolls who target people with abusive material online will face up to two years in jail under Government plans being set out by the Justice Secretary.

Chris Grayling said he was determined to crack down on trolling with harsh punishments because it was leading to "absolute misery for victims".

He said the venom thrown at people over the internet would never be acceptable in real life.

Mr Grayling said it was "terrible" that the model Chloe Madeley recently received rape threats after defending controversial comments made by her mother, Judy Finnigan, about convicted rapist Ched Evans.

He said: "We already have offences in place to deal with this appalling behaviour, but we've toughened up the law to make sure these crimes can be properly investigated and those who commit the most serious offences face a longer prison sentence."

Cases are currently dealt with under the Malicious Communications Act in the magistrates courts, with a maximum sentence of six months.

Now Mr Grayling is changing the law so the most serious cases can be passed on to the Crown Courts where they could result in much longer sentences.

It comes after Peter Nunn was sentenced to 18 weeks in jail after an online "campaign of hatred" against the Labour MP Stella Creasy.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Mr Grayling said trolls were "cowards who are poisoning our national life".

And Ms Madeley told the paper she supported the change, describing the current laws as outdated.

They were drawn up 10 years ago before Twitter existed.

She said: "The current law obviously needs to be reviewed. It needs to be accepted that physical threats should not fall under the 'freedom of speech' umbrella.

Source

Do you think physical threats should be seen as online terrorism and should be illegal?

 

[Sinon]

RE: Web Trolls To Face Two-Year Jail Terms

...and yet when I was attacked in my school with a wooden bat, my attacker was forced to write an apology letter.

Making threats is one thing. Carrying them out is another. And at this point, it's starting to seem like you get off lighter if you do something physical, as opposed to words on a screen, and I don't like that.

 

[seasidemike]

RE: Web Trolls To Face Two-Year Jail Terms

I think that it is about time, people become keyboard worriers when they can hide behind user names and do things they would never do.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

RE: Web Trolls To Face Two-Year Jail Terms

Internet trolls who target people with abusive material online will face up to two years in jail

Abuse is abuse. Just because it happens online, that doesn't make it an inferior form of abuse. It can still cause the same amount of psychological trauma to the victim and the abuser should be punished.

 

[Jazzy]

RE: Web Trolls To Face Two-Year Jail Terms

Good luck finding and catching these trolls.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

RE: Web Trolls To Face Two-Year Jail Terms

Good luck finding and catching these trolls.

Can't they figure out where they are by an IP address?

 

[Jazzy]

RE: Web Trolls To Face Two-Year Jail Terms

Good luck finding and catching these trolls.

Can't they figure out where they are by an IP address?

Not if they're using proxy servers or moving around to different free wifi places.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

RE: Web Trolls To Face Two-Year Jail Terms

Good luck finding and catching these trolls.

Can't they figure out where they are by an IP address?

Not if they're using proxy servers or moving around to different free wifi places.

Thats true, I'm sure the FBI has better investigative tools than the average person though.

 

[Sinon]

Good luck finding and catching these trolls.

Can't they figure out where they are by an IP address?

Not really. I checked my own IP address on various IP checker websites. Two said my IP address is in London. One says Hull. One says Torquay (which is close, but not quite). One says Cardiff (which, for reference is in Wales, a different COUNTRY).

The exact same IP address is shown on each site, and yet none manage to actually provide my location. I'm not using any proxy servers or any IP spoofing programs.

Talk about unreliable.

 

[Jazzy]

Because I'm using a dial up service, it's showing I'm in Chicago right now. Not even close to where I truly live.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I'll bet big brother knows where you're really at and everything you do + they have logs of everything you've ever looked at on your computer. /End paranoia

 

[+paradox]

I'll bet big brother knows where you're really at and everything you do + they have logs of everything you've ever looked at on your computer. /End paranoia

not 100%, but yeah, that's about right...