Arizona Looks to Outlaw Internet Trolling

[AdamVR4]

Dumb.

There are liberals in Arizona?

Oh come on... You act like every expansion of government is due to liberals. Until the 2010 house-cleaning, there were probably more big government conservatives in office than small government/fiscal/libertarian conservatives.

[Blackmount]

Liberals r gay

[Emilie@GZP]

I'll chime in a bit as someone who was on the receiving end of this quite a few years back.

I was harassed, stalked, my parents were harassed, phone calls in the middle of the night, threatening emails, forum posts, obsessive stalkers.... the works.

I finally called the police one night after repeated phone calls to my parents unlisted private line (business), and threats of identity theft... the police told me "there's no law against what they're doing, and there's nothing you can do about it".

But if someone did all of that face to face... there's laws against it.

If they can find a way to word it properly, to protect the people who have to go through what I did, and worse, I think this is fan-fucking-tastic.

I sincerely wish there were better laws in place for internet-based offenses, as of right now, the laws are just catching onto internet-based offenses.

[green-lantern]

I'll chime in a bit as someone who was on the receiving end of this quite a few years back.

I was harassed, stalked, my parents were harassed, phone calls in the middle of the night, threatening emails, forum posts, obsessive stalkers.... the works.

I finally called the police one night after repeated phone calls to my parents unlisted private line (business), and threats of identity theft... the police told me "there's no law against what they're doing, and there's nothing you can do about it".

But if someone did all of that face to face... there's laws against it.

If they can find a way to word it properly, to protect the people who have to go through what I did, and worse, I think this is fan-fucking-tastic.

I sincerely wish there were better laws in place for internet-based offenses, as of right now, the laws are just catching onto internet-based offenses.

Sounds like a lazy cop. I know a guy that got his ass burned for harassing an X over and over via phone. I get what you're saying though, I just don't want more laws that hurt the innocent more than the criminals (TSA airport).

[j2k4]

Emilie, I understand what you're saying, but the language cannot be as loose as it is and floated with the "understanding" that it won't be abused.

A threat can generally be proven, one way or another, but if you can be taken down for "annoying" or "offending" another person...let's just say my problem almost disappears, absent those two words.

I would prefer someone sorely put-upon have recourse such as would have given you relief in your situation, but we don't need to create more of this arbitrary "hate-crimes" type over-reach.

[Mikes2nd]

Nah Emilies right, most states won't even call you back.

I troll, I don't harass...



http://eheheheheheheheheh.ytmnd.com/

[onebadmollafolla]

Pointless. And this isn't trolling in any sense of the word. The fact that they used the term "trolling" made my toes curl.

[j2k4]

Oh come on... You act like every expansion of government is due to liberals. Until the 2010 house-cleaning, there were probably more big government conservatives in office than small government/fiscal/libertarian conservatives.

Big government republicans, maybe - not conservatives.

[HilbillyHomeboy]

I still say the word intent is key. The same as proving fraud, you must prove 'intent'. It's incredibly difficult to do so, in most scenarios. The prominent cases out there, such as the homosexual college kid that killed himself, yeah that's easy to show malicious intent. That's what this is designed for, and the kiddos that think it's cute to harass and stalk random people. You're not going to get arrested because someone sees a pic and says "I'm annoyed by this; to the gallows with him!". Why? Because intent.

Jeremy

[j2k4]

I still say the word intent is key. The same as proving fraud, you must prove 'intent'. It's incredibly difficult to do so, in most scenarios. The prominent cases out there, such as the homosexual college kid that killed himself, yeah that's easy to show malicious intent. That's what this is designed for, and the kiddos that think it's cute to harass and stalk random people. You're not going to get arrested because someone sees a pic and says "I'm annoyed by this; to the gallows with him!". Why? Because intent.

Jeremy

And the first court to hear an appeal finds a "correction", then it's off to the races.

One thing the internet can do very well is make your life hell-on-earth - if you let it.

The one thing courts continually fail to do is hold a minority group of more than 5 to any sort of societal norm, because its the most current political science for getting political favors, and it all involves lawyers.

Lawyers don't have to fear anyone or anything but their own personal weaknesses.

It's a good gig for them.