{"id":60336,"date":"2021-11-08T06:31:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T11:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=60336"},"modified":"2021-11-08T06:31:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T11:31:27","slug":"uk-considering-legislation-that-would-imprison-internet-trolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=60336","title":{"rendered":"UK Considering Legislation That Would Imprison Internet Trolls"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UK Considering Legislation That Would Imprison Internet Trolls<\/a><\/h3>\n
This blatant attempt at the censorship of online speech is deeply concerning.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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If you ever need a reminder of how important freedom of speech is, all you need to do is look across the pond. The United Kingdom, which doesn\u2019t have a First Amendment, has slowly seen citizens\u2019 free speech rights eroded\u2014and now may soon start imprisoning people for being trolls on the internet.<\/p>\n

At question is pending legislation called the \u201cOnline Safety Bill,\u201d which ostensibly punishes social media companies that allow harassment. Yet it may be expanded to include new criminal penalties for individuals who engage in mean speech online.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrolls could face two years in prison for sending messages or posting content that causes psychological harm under legislation targeting online hate,\u201d the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0of London\u00a0reports<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cThe Department for Culture, Media & Sport has accepted recommendations from the Law Commission for crimes to be based on \u2018likely psychological harm.\u2019 The proposed law change will shift the focus on to the ‘harmful effect’ of a message rather than if it contains \u2018indecent\u2019 or \u2018grossly offensive\u2019 content, which is the present basis for assessing its criminality.\u201d<\/p>\n