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[martinuzz]

The Swiss court has ruled that 'liking' something on Facebook can be a punishable offense.
A 45 year old Swiss man read a Facebook post about animal rights activist Erwin Kessler.
Kessler is known for comparing the religious ritual butchering of animals by jews to nazi crimes.
The Facebook message read by the man depicts Kessler as a antisemite, racist and fascist.
The man from Zürich posted one comment, and 'liked' the comments of 6 other viewers.

The Swiss court now rules that he should have not done so. They say that 'liking' in this case equals 'spreading libel', which is a punishable offense, and convicted the man to a provisional fine of 4000 swiss francs (about 3600 euros).

So while it might seem innocent, a Facebook thumbs up, it can get you in legal trouble in Switzerland.

http://www.volkskrant.nl/media/smadelijk-commentaar-liken-op-facebook-dat-kost-u-dan-3-600-euro~a4498237/

[ChairmanPoo]

I can one up that

In Spain a trans woman making jokes about dead fascist Carrero Blanco faces a prison sentence. Even worse, a guy replied on twitter with 'lol' to her joke.... and they want to bring him to trial too

[Sergarr]

I guess Russia is not alone, then. Good to know that 'likes' are now internationally recognized for what they are - a weapon in the hands of terrorists.

[Strife26]

It's like shouting troll in a crowed blogosphere, unacceptably dangerous.

[nenjin]

It's like shouting troll in a crowed blogosphere, unacceptably dangerous.

kek.

I stopped "liking" things on Facebook a year or two after it started, and didn't start doing it anywhere else. It's such an obvious marketing tool, and so many things are tied to it, I stopped doing it. The only time I'm willing to like something is on a small forum, usually game related.

So good job me for smelling the stupid coming a decade away. It's kind of a dick movie for Youtubers and Streamers I like, but eh. Too much meta data and, now, apparently too much legality.

[Yoink]

Somewhat off-topic, but I can't find any information on this Erwin Kessler guy in English.
Anywhere I can read up about him without learning German or just shoving his Wikipedia page into a translator?   

[Frumple]

It's kinda' weird, but I think I actually halfway like taking things towards this general direction. Something about recognizing non-traditional means of communication just sits right, for whatever reason. Acknowledgement that actions actually have meanings, I guess. Something like that. Can totally see all the royally screwed up directions it could go, but... still.

Half grok the court's decision, basically. It makes a certain degree of sense that something like liking can act as spreading libel or whathaveyou, if doing so is increasing visibility of such things or whatev'. Guess if I had to make a offline comparison, it'd be something like getting into trouble for chilling inside a group of KKK members going about burning churches or whathaveyou. You probably won't get a by even if you're not in full getup or helping with the arson, or committing any other act save just associating with 'em.

Could swear there's actually some sort of criminal or civil offense for that, now that I think about it. Something related to aiding or abetting... along those lines.

... actually, now that I check the definition, something like liking a libelous facebook post might actually count as fairly straightforward abetting, particularly if you're aware the post is defamatory/false. The crime itself involves presenting and disseminating false et al information, so if you're knowingly raising the visibility of such and spreading said information, well... well. Don't know if I ever noticed that before. Do know there's some protections regarding that sort of thing in the US for journalists -- they can't really get in trouble if they spread false or libelous info, at least if they weren't aware of the problem at the time, or something roughly in the shape of that -- but I don't know how far or in what manner that extends to other members of the public.

[smjjames]

I could see how that can become very confusing since a 1,000 people would like 1 thing for 1,000 different reasons.

I'm a bit confused myself here, seems like the act of 'liking' shouldn't be criminal, but it's something with the context and intent behind it... I believe...

Edit: How the heck do you make the "please accept cookies" box go away in google translate window? clicking yes does nothing..... edit2: *copies the entire text because frustrated because the google translate webpage is borking up the link somehow*

edit3: I think I'm even more confused, it sounds like Switzerland is criminalizing even clicking the 'like' button? Seems like there is a whole lot more context missing here.

[SalmonGod]

I actually halfway like taking things towards this general direction.

Frumple likes this

[Frumple]

... would you believe I don't think I've ever actually pressed a like button in my life? There may be a handful scattered around to meet giveaway conditions or something of similar silliness that I've forgotten about, but I'd swear it's at the most still below double digits.

Entirely possible it's just my memory fucking up again, though. It seems to enjoy doing that these days, bleh.

[SalmonGod]

Entirely possible it's just my memory fucking up again, though. It seems to enjoy doing that these days, bleh.

Frumple's Memory likes this

[alway]

Yep; if anyone hasn't noticed by now, a 'like' via facebook is just a passive-aggressive version of the 'share' button so far as the algorithm is concerned. So if spreading something is against the law, it makes sense it would be prosecuted just like sharing or reposting content in other ways. Yet another example of dark patterns coming to bite people.

[Frumple]

Entirely possible it's just my memory fucking up again, though. It seems to enjoy doing that these days, bleh.

Frumple's Memory likes this

Frumple's Memory has stolen your houses and burned down your women
Don't ask why, it doesn't remember

... seriously though, it's pretty hard to read that color in darkling. Let us call truce and cook someone else's sheep.

[SalmonGod]

Entirely possible it's just my memory fucking up again, though. It seems to enjoy doing that these days, bleh.

Frumple's Memory likes this

Frumple's Memory has stolen your houses and burned down your women
Don't ask why, it doesn't remember

... seriously though, it's pretty hard to read that color in darkling. Let us call truce and cook someone else's sheep.

I use darkling too, and yeah, it is

But it was the only thing I could think of to make it look like the Facebook like message without much effort.

Yep; if anyone hasn't noticed by now, a 'like' via facebook is just a passive-aggressive version of the 'share' button so far as the algorithm is concerned. So if spreading something is against the law, it makes sense it would be prosecuted just like sharing or reposting content in other ways. Yet another example of dark patterns coming to bite people.

It can be a passive positive thing, too.  Showing acknowledgement/appreciation/support for someone, when otherwise there would just be nothing.  Sometimes there just isn't much to say, but something is deserved.  Digital equivalent of a smile, nod, fistbump, etc.

[Egan_BW]

So it's illegal to take an action that makes a computer algorithm more likely to spread libelous content. Just watching a youtube video makes it more likely that the video will be shown by algorithm to other people, so now it's illegal to watch libelous videos.