Twitter : Being Offensive

HEADRAT

HEADRAT

HEADRAT

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
21,546
Location
Cambridge, UK
Hi,

So I was just reading:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19092545

at the bottom it states:-

Earlier this week Tom Daley reported a Twitter user for sending him offensive messages after he failed to secure an Olympic medal in the 10m synchronised dive.

The user was arrested and given a warning.


Can you be arrested for saying something offensive, seems a bit odd to me.

So if I say something offensive I can be arrested and be given a Police warning!

Now obviously saying horrible things about someones Dad is pretty indefensible but surely it's not arrestable!

HEADRAT
 
If you stand in the middle of the street swearing at people you can be arrested and cautioned, similar thing.
 
Seems like a lot of people are getting in lots of trouble these days for stuff like this, I would say for petty comments, is it really worth the paperwork? however for more serious stuff like racism and death threads, yeah you are asking for trouble really.

"You are a big poo poo head!!"

Not really worth a caution or warning.
 
IIRC it started with an offensive message which Tom Daley then retweeted to all his followers. The tool who sent the original message then tweeted Tom Daley again, this time with a weak death threat and it was for that which he was arrested.
 
I'm sure if you shouted obscenities at someone in the street and a policeman saw you, he or she would be able to arrest or caution you. People forget that the internet is still a public arena.
 
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tom_e said:
If you stand in the middle of the street swearing at people you can be arrested and cautioned, similar thing.
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Yeah I can understand if you wear swearing, I think that falls under a "public order" offense, but what if you just say something unpleasant without resorting to swearing!

Mat said:
*dialling*

;)
Click to expand...

Whoop, whoop, whoop (sounda of da Police)
 
HEADRAT said:
Yeah I can understand if you wear swearing, I think that falls under a "public order" offense, but what if you just say something unpleasant without resorting to swearing!
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Depends how threatening or abuse the person it's aimed at finds it as I'm sure the actual charge is using threatening and/or abusive behaviour.
 
HEADRAT said:
Can you be arrested for saying something offensive, seems a bit odd to me.
Click to expand...

Only if you say it to someone famous and it gets on the news, then the police care otherwise they'd treat it no differently to one person complaining another called them a bad name, i.e. laugh the complainer out of the station.

I guarantee that if you told a random, non-famous person on Twitter that his dead father wouldn't be proud of them absolutely nothing would happen.

But we can't have people picking on the people's prince Tom Daley can we?
 
Its because its in print is the problem apparently. An MP compared it to going down to the pub and handing out pages of offensive literature about someone.

Think the problem is they need to be seen doing *something* with the mass publicity of it all. Whether its the right thing or not isnt really the case.

Personally I think its a bit OTT. Yes its a horrible thing to write but where do you draw the line on people being nasty to others on the internet?
 
estebanrey said:
Only if you say it to someone famous and it gets on the news, then the police care otherwise they'd treat it no differently to one person complaining another called them a bad name, i.e. laugh the complainer out of the station.

I guarantee that if you told a random, non-famous person on Twitter that his dead father wouldn't be proud of them absolutely nothing would happen.

But we can't have people picking on the people's prince Tom Daley can we?
Click to expand...
This.
 
HEADRAT said:
Now obviously saying horrible things about someones Dad is pretty indefensible but surely it's not arrestable!

HEADRAT
Click to expand...

If you swear at a police officer or disturb the peace they can arrest you.

If i walked up to someone in the street and threatened to hunt them down this evening and knife them, i'd be shocked if the police didn't come round asking questions.

Why should the internet be any different?

Now you get the people who moan this chav has been arrested for abusing Tom but people on this forum abuse others and never get arrested, well that one’s all to do with publicity and public opinion.
 
Firestar_3x said:
If you swear at a police officer or disturb the peace they can arrest you.

If i walked up to someone in the street and threatened to hunt them down this evening and knife them, i'd be shocked if the police didn't come round asking questions.

Why should the internet be any different?
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Niether of those examples are comparable to what happened though.

I can not defend the words or the message the guy used, but I'll defend his right to say it without being arrested.

What ever happened to blocking people on Twitter, that's all Tom had to do.

mrbell1984 said:
No reason to be abusive to anyone.
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There's no need to burp loudly in a restaurant either but I wouldn't make it an arrest-able offence.
 
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