Words hurt. But should hurting with words be illegal?
A 17-year-old boy in Britain has been arrested for “malicious communication” after tweeting some seriously vicious stuff at British Olympian Tom Daley. After Daley’s 4th place finish, the unnamed teenager tweeted “You let your dad down i hope you know that.”
Daley’s father died of brain cancer last year.
Daley retweeted the tweet, responding, “After giving it my all … you get idiots sending me this …”
What would possibly possess someone to send such a cruel message to a complete stranger? How can you be that disregarding of the feelings of others? Also, if you’re enough of a fan of someone to care this much if they lose, why would you want to hurt them? And why be hurt? Daley is an Olympic swimmer and the other dude is just a jerk with a Twitter, a splinter in Daley’s aerodynamic foot.
This kid is a huge jerk. Jerks exist. Dealing with jerks is a part of life. But should they be able to get away with it? Should the government be allowed to put you in jail just for being a huge jerk?
At some point in the development of our society, we decided that physical assault was more valid, more “wrong” than emotional assault. But is that right?
Emotional attacks can cause depression and anxiety. Knowing that someone hates you and feeling the vitriol of another person cannot be good for your health; mental or physical. But emotional attacks like verbal bullying, and insults to public figures are very hard to prosecute. The whole addition of social media makes things a lot more complicated.
Sure, if someone stabs you, you will get cut, and you will bleed, and maybe you’ll die. If someone says something mean to you, you can choose to ignore it. But should you have to? What if you’re the target of constant verbal cruelty? Or what if someone, like in Daley’s case, takes a jab at you regarding something that will hurt you most? Verbal cruelty and physical cruelty come from the same basic desire: the desire to hurt others. Hurting others is always wrong, and should be punishable. People that want to hurt others are bad people.
But where do we draw the line? Is it illegal to give someone a bad grade on a test? To break up with someone? To reject someone? To not offer someone a job? It all comes down to intent. If your intent is to hurt, then you’re bad.
I don’t know anything about British free speech laws, all I know is my basic perception of morality. I think the kid who sent this tweet is a huge jerk, but I don’t think he did anything that should be punished by the government. That is not the government’s place.
I also don’t know if the Brits allow cruel and unusual punishment, but if I were a British judge I’d sentence this guy to “repeating this tweet to Daley’s face, while Daley has the entire British Olympic team behind him!” Now that’s justice!
What do you think? Should this vile tweeter have to face the law? Let us know in the comments!
UPDATE: Turns out there was more than just basic insults involved, the rogue tweeter also made threats and racial slurs against Daley and the innocent people who came to Daley’s defense. How does that change things morally? Legally, I think the addition of threats and slurs DOES in fact make this an issue that the government should be involved in. Share your thoughts in the comments!
Image via The Huffington Post.
You can’t send people to prison for being a tool, otherwise I’d be there already. Let the parents deal with their kid and leave the government out of it.
This little kid (Remember That) what are his parents thinking allowing him access to a computer or the internet at all. I think that he should have to face to face apologize both to the Olympic Swim team and Tom Daley. And I repeat what are his parents thinking.
It’s a bit much to arrest someone for “malicious communication.” Under that criteria, no 13 year old girl would successfully make it to 18 without being arrested.
Please remember that you are now bashing a kid. Although he should not have said those things, this post is equally wrong to publicly call him a jerk and suggest that he receive cruel and unusual punishment. That is stooping to his level; that is bullying.
I really do feel like the laws need to catch up with technology… Its a thin line between free speach, and when it becomes an act of abuse itself… Wether the abuse is physical or verbal should really not matter, if you intend to brutally harm someone, there should be some kind of punishment… Too many people think that you can say literally whatever you want and get away with it.. .Like those little a**holes that were verbally abusing an elderly bus attendant in NY… There needs to be SOME way to hold people accountable I feel like.
I agree with making him face Daley. He might think twice about being a douche on twitter next time.
http://www.findlaw.co.uk/law/government/constitutional_law/fundamental_rights/500150.html
This link should answer you’re questions about UK Freedom of Speech. I was very intrigued after reading this article. In terms of moral standpoint, I am right with you. Intent in the key to what is right and wrong.
That’s some gold medal douchebag, but the law doesn’t exist to defend cry babies.
but it does exist to defend people against threats of physical harm and racial abuse.
Maybe the arrest is part of a bigger effort…
Have you considered how many suicides and traumas bullying causes?
Bullying and emotional abuse are crimes and, i believe, it was great opportunity to publicly send a message to kids around the world.
If you bully or cyber bully, and you’re exposed for it, there are consequences.
Maybe adults, can ignore it.
But kids can’t cause they’re trying to find themselves… and I guess that they could be motivated to report bullying if a “role model” reports without fear of being judged by it.
At least, that’s how I would see things… It’s all advertising to me.
There is such a disconnect with what constitutes free speech and what is hate speech. A man was found not guilty of harassment by sending rude and threatening tweets to a Nun. A person get’s nothing by insulting politicians with personal slander. I believe that as long as the same applies to all, than that is the best approach you are going to get. Any individual, or company, or bureaucracy that does not apply the same rule to all should be punished. The Internet is full of rudeness, but it is like terrorists. If you let the terrorists change the way you are, act, or feel, then you have given them a victory. It is sad that people can be so rude and inconsiderate, but we also allow people to desecrate, protest, and shout derogatory statements at a patriot’s funeral. People support this by peacefully blocking the antagonists from getting close to the funeral of a fallen hero. They can express themselves in any way they want but must also extend that to the opposite view. Much of the internet makes people feel more stupid than normal, and they say rude and hateful things. Publish their opinion and allow the rest of the Internet to comment back in kind. Freedom isn’t always easy. I do not enjoy or even like the people that make such rude and hurtful statements, but that is the price of freedom. I feel the censorship by governments is more abusive.
I think it’s fair enough – acting with malicious intent to deliberately hurt another person through physical OR MENTAL abuse is wrong.
I think such acts fall under the legal heading of ‘inciting hatred’ which is against the law. Now that someone’s online presence can have so much effect on people’s lives the law will have to adjust accordingly. Everyone has a right to go about their lives without being tormented by another person.
i just cant believe how mean can some people be.
Either post the village idiot’s face in his town for the public or have him say it to his face in front of the Olympic team. Let them “talk” to him for a few minutes after he says it. Either way this guy should learn stupid can be painful.
The kid actually harassed him constantly for over 24hrs. Check out his Twitter feed, it’s horrific. Wasn’t just Daley that he harassed either.
I think that he deserved to be taken in by the police- he shouldn’t go around saying cruel things to people who he doesn’t directly know/ anybody at all. Furthermore I reckon that with the police getting involved he may have come back down to earth and realised that he was completely out of order.. and perhaps learnt how to be with people in the future.
It’s disgusting how cruel some people can be over the internet. If this guy has sent malicious tweets to Daley before, I’ll suppose it’s the right punishment.
I don’t think he should be arrested for being a complete scumbag, no. But he did apparently make rape and murder threats to Daley’s followers, and even if he was joking, I’m OK with the police giving him a grilling on those grounds.
Some of his other comments that helped get him arrested
“I’m not getting banned though you black c**t@
“What’s better than having a paralympic gold medal? Having legs”
“I’m gonna drop kick your pregnant mum then she’s gonna lose her baby how do you feel”
Basically, he’s a scumbag who deserves everything he gets
tis true, the posts I saw were pretty viscous trolling, but for some reason these aren’t getting mentioned in any of the news articles about it… apart from in the comments sections!
*vicious
Hey David, I agree that those tweets make a HUGE difference in the morality of the thing, but they weren’t mentioned in my original source (I wrote this article yesterday.) I am researching now and I see that you are right. The slurs and threats totally elevate his wrongdoing.
I’m not surprised that you didn’t see his other slurs, the way its been reported by the British Press has focussed mainly on the sole tweet that he sent to Tom Daley. I agree largely with the sentiment of your article too, there is an increasing sensitivity (I can’t really think of the correct wording), that is maybe impinging on common sense. Some people are dicks, but that’s not illegal. Just dick-ish.
Will you be editing your post to reflect this information? Because while there is certainly a discussion to be had about how free speech affects our social media interactions, this case clearly is about hate speech and death threats. And to base an argument on incomplete and inaccurate reporting lessens the credibility of a potential valid point. It also draws into question the reporting and editing quality for this website.
I think one thing you forgot to mention was the fact that this guy continuously sent harassing tweets to Daley and threatened to drown him in a pool. Those are grounds for punishment.
I think the line was crossed when the kid started to send death threats and racist abuse to people who had condemned him.