Do Online Death Threats Count as Free Speech?

[Disir]

Exhibit 12 in the government’s case against Anthony Elonis is a screenshot of a Facebook post he wrote in October 2010, five months after his wife, Tara, left him. His name appears in the site’s familiar blue, followed by words that made Tara fear for her life: ‘'If I only knew then what I know now . . . I would have smothered your ass with a pillow. Dumped your body in the back seat. Dropped you off in Toad Creek and made it look like a rape and murder.'’

Exhibit 13, also pulled from Facebook, is a thread that started when Tara’s sister mentioned her plans to take her niece and nephew — Elonis’s children — shopping for Halloween costumes. Tara responded and then Elonis did, too, saying their 8-year-old son ‘'should dress up as a Matricide.'’ He continued: ‘'I don’t know what his costume would entail though. Maybe your head on a stick?'’ This time, Elonis included a photo of himself, holding a cigarette to his lips.

After Tara saw these posts — and another one, from the same time, which begins: ‘'There’s one way to love ya but a thousand ways to kill ya. I’m not gonna rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts'’ — she went to court in Reading, Pa., and got a protection-from-abuse order against her husband.

On Nov. 7, three days after Tara got the ruling, Elonis linked to a video satire by the comedy troupe the Whitest Kids U’ Know. On camera, a member of the group mocks the law against threatening to kill the president. Elonis mimicked the group’s lines but subbed in his own text, to make it about Tara. ‘'I also found out that it’s incredibly illegal, extremely illegal to go on Facebook and say something like the best place to fire a mortar launcher at her house would be from the cornfield behind it because of easy access to a getaway road and you’d have a clear line of sight through the sun room,'’ he wrote. ‘'Yet even more illegal to show an illustrated diagram.'’ Elonis added a diagram with a getaway road, a cornfield and a house. ‘'Art is about pushing limits,'’ his post concluded. ‘'I’m willing to go to jail for my Constitutional rights. Are you?'’

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/magazine/do-online-death-threats-count-as-free-speech.html?_r=0

But, he didn't mean it.

 

[B. Kidd]

A death threat is a death threat is a death threat........
In Nevada, if you threaten someones life, it's a misdeameanor called 'Threat to Life'.

 

[Disir]

A death threat is a death threat is a death threat........
In Nevada, if you threaten someones life, it's a misdeameanor called 'Threat to Life'.

I agree. I see no reason to terrorize people and say.......hey-I kid.

 

[B. Kidd]

A death threat is a death threat is a death threat........
In Nevada, if you threaten someones life, it's a misdeameanor called 'Threat to Life'.

I agree. I see no reason to terrorize people and say.......hey-I kid.

If you think there is a slight chance that the person making the threat may follow thru, then at least a paper trail gets established.

 

[S.J.]

A man says to his kids "If you spill that milkshake in my new car I'll kill you". Is that a death threat?

 

[B. Kidd]

A man says to his kids "If you spill that milkshake in my new car I'll kill you". Is that a death threat?

For chrissakes......use common sense. A reasonable person knows if a death threat is serious or not.

 

[Disir]

A man says to his kids "If you spill that milkshake in my new car I'll kill you". Is that a death threat?

How new is the car?

 

[Disir]

A death threat is a death threat is a death threat........
In Nevada, if you threaten someones life, it's a misdeameanor called 'Threat to Life'.

I agree. I see no reason to terrorize people and say.......hey-I kid.

If you think there is a slight chance that the person making the threat may follow thru, then at least a paper trail gets established.

Well, this guy did three years. All of this was online.

 

[B. Kidd]

3 years....Wow!.....that state didn't treat it as a misdeameanor.

 

[Disir]

No, it was a federal offense.

A jury convicted Elonis, and he spent more than three years in prison. On December 1, the Supreme Court will hear Elonis’s First Amendment challenge to his conviction — the first time the justices have considered limits for speech on social media. For decades, the court has essentially said that ‘'true threats'’ are an exception to the rule against criminalizing speech. These threats do not have to be carried out — or even be intended to be carried out — to be considered harmful. Bans against threats may be enacted, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in 2003, to protect people ‘'from the fear of violence'’ and ‘'from the disruption that fear engenders.'’ Current legal thinking is that threats do damage on their own.

 

[S.J.]

A man says to his kids "If you spill that milkshake in my new car I'll kill you". Is that a death threat?

For chrissakes......use common sense. A reasonable person knows if a death threat is serious or not.

My point is that some people take comments too literally. Don't be so uptight.

 

[S.J.]

A man says to his kids "If you spill that milkshake in my new car I'll kill you". Is that a death threat?

How new is the car?

 

[Where_r_my_Keys]

"Do Online Death Threats Count as Free Speech?"

No.

Rights are only possible, wherein the exercise of the right, one does not infringe upon the means of another to exercise their own right(s).

 

[Where_r_my_Keys]

A man says to his kids "If you spill that milkshake in my new car I'll kill you". Is that a death threat?

Depends upon the nature of the individual expressing such.

For most people, no... but in every instance where it IS... wherein the individual expressing such literally intends to take the life of the individual they allowed to drink a milkshake in their car, is an adherent of Left-think.

 

[Disir]

A man says to his kids "If you spill that milkshake in my new car I'll kill you". Is that a death threat?

Depends upon the nature of the individual expressing such.

For most people, no... but in every instance where it IS... wherein the individual expressing such literally intends to take the life of the individual they allowed to drink a milkshake in their car, is an adherent of Left-think.

 

[auditor0007]

A man says to his kids "If you spill that milkshake in my new car I'll kill you". Is that a death threat?

Yes, you are that dumb.

 

[S.J.]

A man says to his kids "If you spill that milkshake in my new car I'll kill you". Is that a death threat?

Yes, you are that dumb.

Parents leave you home alone with their computer?

 

[Saigon]

I think its a common sense thing also.

I had a guy on Facebook threaten to "kneecap me" last week. He's in Australia. I aren't too worried he'll appear in Finland, somehow.

But there is a line wherin the threat becoe real...especially if the perpetrator has a physical address and lives nearby. what thie guy wrote was awful...though 3 years seems a bit much.

I do think threats on discussion forums should be met with a ban.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Exhibit 12 in the government’s case against Anthony Elonis is a screenshot of a Facebook post he wrote in October 2010, five months after his wife, Tara, left him. His name appears in the site’s familiar blue, followed by words that made Tara fear for her life: ‘'If I only knew then what I know now . . . I would have smothered your ass with a pillow. Dumped your body in the back seat. Dropped you off in Toad Creek and made it look like a rape and murder.'’

Exhibit 13, also pulled from Facebook, is a thread that started when Tara’s sister mentioned her plans to take her niece and nephew — Elonis’s children — shopping for Halloween costumes. Tara responded and then Elonis did, too, saying their 8-year-old son ‘'should dress up as a Matricide.'’ He continued: ‘'I don’t know what his costume would entail though. Maybe your head on a stick?'’ This time, Elonis included a photo of himself, holding a cigarette to his lips.

After Tara saw these posts — and another one, from the same time, which begins: ‘'There’s one way to love ya but a thousand ways to kill ya. I’m not gonna rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts'’ — she went to court in Reading, Pa., and got a protection-from-abuse order against her husband.

On Nov. 7, three days after Tara got the ruling, Elonis linked to a video satire by the comedy troupe the Whitest Kids U’ Know. On camera, a member of the group mocks the law against threatening to kill the president. Elonis mimicked the group’s lines but subbed in his own text, to make it about Tara. ‘'I also found out that it’s incredibly illegal, extremely illegal to go on Facebook and say something like the best place to fire a mortar launcher at her house would be from the cornfield behind it because of easy access to a getaway road and you’d have a clear line of sight through the sun room,'’ he wrote. ‘'Yet even more illegal to show an illustrated diagram.'’ Elonis added a diagram with a getaway road, a cornfield and a house. ‘'Art is about pushing limits,'’ his post concluded. ‘'I’m willing to go to jail for my Constitutional rights. Are you?'’

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/magazine/do-online-death-threats-count-as-free-speech.html?_r=0

But, he didn't mean it.

It's not free speech. Can be considered a terroristic threat if the juridiction has that on the books. Internet laws are still lagging far behind other mediums like radio, tv, and print, but they're catching up.

 

[Roadrunner]

A death threat is a death threat is a death threat........
In Nevada, if you threaten someones life, it's a misdeameanor called 'Threat to Life'.

I agree. I see no reason to terrorize people and say.......hey-I kid.

I agree too, unless the post is obviously facetious, like say, "I'd gut you like a trout".
Humor should never be punished.