Comment by dirasieb
4 days ago
>>Police make 30 arrests a day for offensive online messages
>The police are making more than 30 arrests a day over offensive posts on social media and other platforms.
>Thousands of people are being detained and questioned for sending messages that cause “annoyance”, “inconvenience” or “anxiety” to others via the internet, telephone or mail.
>Custody data obtained by The Times shows that officers are making about 12,000 arrests a year under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
Ignore the cherry picking and sensationalism around this. There are a few cases which are thrown out which were overreach.
But nearly all of them are direct threats to people, stalking, repetitive abuse, support for terrorism and admissions of actual criminal activity.
If you wrote these things on a wall outside your house you'd be arrested. If you said them down the pub you'd get the shit kicked out of you in 30 seconds. Do you expect these to be ignored under "free speech"? No because they wouldn't be even in the US.
This increased because people feel safe saying these things on social media because there are other people saying them in their social bubble.
> It's not a hoax, it's a straight up lie
> There are a few cases which are thrown out which were overreach <-- You are here
> Well overreach and sentencing is happening, but it's not common enough to care
> Yeah sentencing to prison is common now, but as long as you stay within the confines of the law you won't be affected
where's your source? am i supposed to just take your word for it?
3 day old account asking me to cite sources - find your own that isn't the Times! Start a research project if you care this much!
1 reply →
But apparently they're only arresting 'fascists', so it's fine...
it's not censorship if i disagree with the people being silenced.
"What is illegal offline should be illegal online: Council agrees position on the Digital Services Act"
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2021...
I believe you are referring to UK examples, which are not representative for Europe or covered under the DSA.
The overall message still applies; harassment and death threats are no less legal and no more legal because they happen online.
the UK is located in europe, this US plan is about pushing for more free speech in europe
whether or not 30 arrests per day for social media posts is exclusive to the UK it is relevant to the OP link
>harassment and death threats
we both know that this is not what's being discussed here