I mean SealyStar isn't beating someone to death in real life exactly the same as saying bad comments about them online and they commit suicide?
There is a victim in both cases so they are exactly the same thing.
We should in fact start calling Cyberbullying something like... Cyberviolence because they are so exactly the same.
Intention is the difference! The thing people need to remember though is that not all bullies specifically are trying to kill someone, and those that aren't should be seeing a lesser level of punishment, the same way that people who drive drunk don't get the same level as first degree murderers, who don't get the same level as third or second degree murderers. Intention makes a difference!
Thing is, it's a lot harder to prove intent in cases involving online harassment. There isn't any "Oh, I didn't mean to kill him when I stabbed him twenty times!" or " Of course not, I never imagined that pushing her off a bridge might kill her!", but barring an outright confession or an idiot leaving a data trail demonstrating intent it's almost impossible to prove that someone was intentionally trying to drive someone to suicide instead of merely being an asshole, especially when the interactions take place online.
And that's the thing. What these faux-progressives are pushing for is to cut away any sense of gradation in severity of offense in a wide swath of areas, the equivalent of trying to make all charges involving a human death equivalent to Murder 1.
The thing is, you can't walk away from someone beating you to death or whatever. You can walk away from people saying terrible things on the internet in a heartbeat, by blocking the offenders or simply logging off from wherever the offense is coming from. The average person understands this, and only people with pre-existing mental health problems are likely to commit suicide over mean things on Twitter or wherever. When people act like an asshole to me on the internet, I act like an asshole right back, and tell them to fuck off. If they don't let up, I simply block or ignore them. Works pretty well.
As for internet harassment that turns into real-world harassment like sending shit like syringes or dead animals in the mail or trying to get people fired for the "wrong" opinions, that's another story entirely and should be met with criminal charges. However, shitposting on twitter should never be illegal, unless it's a
credible threat or is actively and sincerely attempting to incite violence.
"ima fukken smash ur 'ead in m8" is not a credible threat. "I'm gonna kill this person at x address", however, most certainly is.
"gas the kikes, race war now" is not a real attempt at inciting violence, merely /pol/-tier shitposting. "Hey, let's kill all the white/black/Jewish people in x town" should be punished, however.
That's my view, anyway.
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Topic: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O (Read 14845039 times)