Congress Not Yet Willing To Outlaw Being A Jerk Online
from the that-whole-free-speech-thing dept
In the wake of the whole Megan Meier/Lori Drew thing, politicians started shoving each other aside to introduce "anti-cyber bullying legislation" that would outlaw being a jerk. The whole thing was pretty ridiculous. People are going to be jerks. You can't outlaw it. Beyond just the First Amendment issue, the simple fact is some people will act like jerks some of the time. It happens. It doesn't mean that it's good, but that also doesn't mean that you can just outlaw it. Of course, seeing as this is the type of legislation that politicians like to claim is "to protect the children" and gets them in the press, there's always a chance that laws like this get some momentum. Thankfully, it looks like our Congressional Reps. at least recognize what a dumb idea this is. While Rep. Linda Sanchez insists that such a law is needed, it appears that other politicians are not very interested, pointing out the First Amendment issues, as well as the unintended consequences of making such a vague concept a criminal offense.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
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Filed Under: bullying, cyberbullying, regulations
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If this ever passed
After all the smoke cleared, who would be left?
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Re: If this ever passed
A rather extensive dialogue between Mike and Rose M. Welch and no one else....
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Re:
YOU EVIL WENCH!
*the topic made me do it.
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For people who want to stop trolls and name calling idiots on the internet, they have a funny way of doing the same thing through a different medium.
"Haha you can't call me names anymore I changed the law and it says you can't nyah-nyah-nyah-na-nyah"
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Re:
Sure they do. The majority of their constituents are too stupid to comprehend anything beyond the knee-jerk.
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Will it be a late lunch or early dinner?
Mmmmm.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=327228455& ;mt=1
So good. Mmmmm.
You know, Nation, I love burritos. And burritos love the iPhone. So by the transitive quality, if you don't have an iPhone, you don't love burritos.
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Re: Will it be a late lunch or early dinner?
Fair enough, but will an iPhone also, by the transitive quality, turn my backside into an engaged firehose the way a burrito does?
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Re: Re: Will it be a late lunch or early dinner?
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TMI, even from behind the mask.....LOL.
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Where else do you not have to cache everything you say in Politically Correct terms? Where else can you call a moron a moron and reduce his ego to the whimpering puddle of puke it should be?
The internet is a haven from allusion, subtlety, inuendo and implication. A place where anyone can speak their mind without having to run it through the "PC" filter first.
Now, kindly get the hell off my internet, you ignorant dweebs. ;)
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The real world, for those of us with balls and an income that is not dependent on the morons in question. :)
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Thank god!
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A Jerk-Free Internet
I can hardly wait...
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It's "couch everything you say", dammit.
This is just the sort of sloppy mistake that causes me "substantial emotional distress".
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dealing with "cyberbullies"
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cyberbullies
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Re: cyberbullies
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Re: cyberbullies
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