November 13th, 2012
A panel discussion in London yesterday did not offer much hope that prosecutors and politicians will defend free speech online. Paul Bernal reports
Tags: Tags: Communications Act 2003, CPS, DPP, Facebook, Keir Starmer, Malicious Communications, Twitter,
September 20th, 2012
The Director of Public Prosecutions has announced a consultation to establish clear guidelines on prosecutions involving social media . In a statement on The Crown Prosecution Service website announcing that footballer Daniel Thomas — investigated for allegedly homophobic tweets about Olympic divers Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield — will not be prosecuted, Keir Starmer QC said:“To ensure that CPS decision-making in these difficult cases is clear and consistent, I intend to issue guidelines on social media cases for prosecutors. These will assist them in deciding whether criminal charges should be brought in the cases that arise for their consideration. In the first instance, the CPS will draft interim guidelines. There will then be a wide public consultation before final guidelines are published. As part of that process, I intend to hold a series of roundtable meetings with campaigners, media lawyers, academics, social media experts and law enforcement bodies to ensure that the guidelines are as fully informed as possible.”Starmer and the CPS faced severe criticism for the handling of Paul Chambers’s “Twitter joke trial“. Chambers, who was found guilty of sending a “menacing communication” after he joked about blowing up Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster, had his conviction overturned in July of this year. It emerged today that a man has been arrested under the Communications Act 2003 for allegedly setting up a Facebook page praising Dale Cregan, the Manchester man accused of killing two police officers.
August 24th, 2012
Search engines and social networking sites are at the heart of Web 2.0. To unreasonably threaten them with liability for user content misses the point, says Marta Cooper (more…)
Tags: Tags: censorship, Facebook, Google, Intermediary Liability, internet freedom, Twitter,
August 23rd, 2012
Prominent Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was today acquitted of insulting the Sunni citizens of the island of Muharraq on Twitter. Rajab was sentenced to three months in prison on 9 July for his remarks on the site. However, the activist remains in jail after being sentenced to three years in prison last week for his involvement in “illegal protests”. Rajab, who is also head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), has played in active role in condemning the government’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests and activists since the start of unrest during February last year. Rajab was presented with the Index on Censorship Advocacy Award earlier this year.Tags: Tags: Bahrain, Bahrain Center for Human Rights, free expression, Nabeel Rajab, Twitter,
August 1st, 2012
Dorset police announced yesterday that a 17-year-old who was arrested in the Weymouth area on suspicion of malicious communication has been issued with a harassment warning in connection to tweets sent to Olympic diver Tom Daley. The teenager has been bailed to return to the police station at a later date while the force investigates other communications on his Twitter account.Tags: Tags: Media, social media, Tom Daley, Twitter, UK,
July 27th, 2012
Index on Censorship welcomes today’s decision in the high court to overturn the conviction of Paul Chambers in what has become known as the Twitter Joke Trial.
“Today’s judgment is an advance in the justice system’s handling of free speech on the web,” said Kirsty Hughes, Chief Executive of Index on Censorship. “As more and more of us use social media, it is important that the law understands how people communicate online. This ruling is a step in the right direction.”
Chambers was convicted in 2010 for sending a “menacing communication” after joking on Twitter that he would blow Doncaster’s Robin Hood Airport “sky high” if it closed due to weather conditions. He had been due to fly from the airport to Belfast to meet his now-fiancée Sarah Tonner.
Tags: Tags: free speech, law, paul chambers, social media, Twitter, Twitter joke trial, UK,
July 13th, 2012
Russian parliamentarians have passed legislation that will establish a central register of banned websites. The new laws are ostensibly designed for child protection, but Andrei Soldatov says the real aim is to take control over the country’s burgeoning social networks
(more…)
Tags: Tags: Andrei Soldatov, censorship, Facebook, free speech, internet, livejournal, Russia, social networks, Twitter, Vladimir Putin,
June 19th, 2012
While the internet and social media facilitate democratic instant global discourse, they are also tools of control, says Kirsty Hughes
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