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Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

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Re: Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

#111
post #27
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope this is trolling.

I'm not trolling, I've personally suffered psychological harm from online abuse. There are many places on the internet that I'd like to go but can't because people are too abusive and nobody does anything about it. What am I supposed to do if people don't even want to talk about this or acknowledge that it's a real problem that we can solve?

> nobody does anything about it

Insist that there is a fault with the results of education?!

> that we can solve?

How?

Re: Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

#112

A society where: - you are held responsible for other people's feelings, and for their feelings as a result of your words and actions, and: - anything that causes anyone to feel bad, is looked down upon by the collective Is tyranny by the emotionally stunted. The fundamental problem with it, is it makes society more enmeshed (a pathological relationship dynamic). People start caring more about going with the grain, t…

> you are held responsible for other people's feelings, and for their feelings as a result of your words and actions, and

It also makes it impossible to distinguish between those whose feelings are truly hurt and those who pretend their feelings got hurt. On social media there is an appealing incentive for this later group to be more vocal and to inflict more harm as there is more audience. It's also a form of trolling: "Wonder if I can pretend to be offended and ban/cancel/pile on so and so. I'd get soooo many likes/retweets/upvotes etc!". We'd like to believe only a tiny fraction of people would engage in the later, but with online visibility and with no way to distinguish the two, the later group I think will start to get larger and larger over time.

This is also a benchmark of totalitarian nightmare. Can I denounce my neighbor and tell the ruling party they made anti-governmental remarks and have their family deported to a labor camp, if I don't like the choice of flowers in their garden? If the answer is "yes" then I may be living a totalitarian nightmare.

Re: Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

#113
post #80
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Throw one out. What’s an objective definition of trolling and abusive language that you could write into law? Separate definitions or together. Just give it a shot.

Language that is meant to intimidate? It seems pretty clear to me that the purpose of that is to stifle discussion.

So if somebody intends to intimidate but fails they should go to jail?

Re: Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

#114
Stopping one from expressing their true feelings in a way is a form of torture. I want to live in a world where I can get to experience the true behavior of people (whether bad or good). Then of course have the possibility to remove them from my life. But I still want to be able to filter them myself!

Re: Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

#115

A society where: - you are held responsible for other people's feelings, and for their feelings as a result of your words and actions, and: - anything that causes anyone to feel bad, is looked down upon by the collective Is tyranny by the emotionally stunted. The fundamental problem with it, is it makes society more enmeshed (a pathological relationship dynamic). People start caring more about going with the grain, t…

I can tell you're not a fan of Reddit

Re: Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

#116

And this is why I'm never going to move to Europe. My jokes would be considered "obscene" or "indecent" or something and I'd be thrown in prison. At least here in the States, for now, the government is letting the private companies perform the censorship, and not imprisoning people for tasteless humor.

Who is getting thrown in to prison for jokes? Assange was thrown into jail for basic journalism, but that was at America's behest.

[deleted]

Re: Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

#117
From TFA:

> A “knowingly false communication” offence will be created that will criminalise those who send or post a message they know to be false with the intention to cause “emotional, psychological, or physical harm to the likely audience”. Government sources gave the example of antivaxers spreading false information that they know to be untrue.

One sinister side: how does one prove something is «know[n] to be untrue»? Whose side has the burden of proof?

Re: Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are responsible for making yourself happy, for asserting yourself, for setting any boundaries you choose. People on Twitter can just block, or mute, or turn off their DMs for people they don't follow. This solution does not account for the following ways a troll can harass you: * sockpuppets pinging you, * sockpuppets impersonating you, * sockpuppets mass reporting you, thereby suspending your accounts * findin…

It might seem callous, and it might be (and I know some people have poor mental health at times and social media onslaughts won't help) but my solution is to not let things affect me. If Viktor Frankl could do it in death camps, I think it's something everyone can rely on. You can also become the heel, become the "villain", and use that abuse to gain influence rather than lose it; most social media abuse is unjustifi…

Honestly I like to hope there is a middle ground between "insulting a public figure is grounds for jailtime" and "sending constant rape and bomb threats to non-public figures and all of their family for years on end is a perfectly legal thing to do that people should just get used to, I mean, if someone could endure literal genocide someone else should endure constant threats to their and their social circle's safety".

Re: Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

#119
post #87

The UK is quickly becoming an authoritarian country. RIP freedom and democracy.

The UK is a monarchy. Everyone has always simply been subjects of the King/Queen. Their 'freedom and democracy' has always been a façade, used by the monarchs to convince them they have some rights.

The monarch has had practically zero power for a decade and before that only had slightly more.

Re: Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

#120

A society where: - you are held responsible for other people's feelings, and for their feelings as a result of your words and actions, and: - anything that causes anyone to feel bad, is looked down upon by the collective Is tyranny by the emotionally stunted. The fundamental problem with it, is it makes society more enmeshed (a pathological relationship dynamic). People start caring more about going with the grain, t…

We are reacting to a tweet that has very little content, notably how high is the bar for psychological harm. It is undoubtedly higher than making someone feel bad, but the question is: is it high enough?

Consider your words, "you are responsible for your own thoughts, feelings, and actions". For the most part, that is true. On the other hand, we also consider some segments of society as vulnerable. In some of those cases they do not have full control of their thoughts, feelings, or actions. Sometimes it is due to a lack of understanding or experience (e.g. children and youth), sometimes it is due to psychological disorders. The question becomes, who is actually responsible in cases where trolls unintentionally or intentionally exploit that disorder?

The other thing must be considered is the magnitude of the infraction. A competent person may be able to handle a random death threat. The person would have to be considerably more resilient to endure an effectively anonymous person stalking them and threatening them. I would question the ability of anyone to handle that sort of behaviour for an extended period of time unless they have the means to prove the threat is not credible or to protect themselves. There is a reason why some people of means go around with bodyguards, and it isn't solely about their physical protection.

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