Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

Particularly when people out of the blue play the (whatever) card as a way to end a discussion which isn't going their way. I also think the new rules should go on to make specific provision for those making frivolous claims or empty threats of 'I'll tell my high flying legal team on you', because that sort of behaviour is bullying and trolling too.


Cheers


Dave

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

:tu:

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

Well put and very good points.

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

I can't think of anybody that would do the things being suggested; it's more likely down to those who indulge in this type of behaviour feeling agrieved that they are being disempowered.

This won't affect the vast majority of people who treat minority groups with respect, dignity, understanding, compassion and empathy.

Those who seek to harass, upset and belittle others are the only ones who need to be worried. Hopefully they will see the sense in the cessation of their attitude & behaviour as it simply isn't worth gaining a criminal record, imprisonment, loss of reputation, dismissal from work etc (many employers have diversity policies in place).

Re: Disability discrimination.

The most bizarre thing about the sort of people that indulge in this practice is that they fail to realise that statistics show that most people will become disabled at some point in their lives, be it through attack, disease, accident or old age. It is, therefore, extremely likely that if these people don't become disabled themselves, someone close to them will do.

When it finally dawns on them that they and their loved ones aren't invincible, watch their attitude change in a flash.

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

Newsflash: Frankie Boyle to get 25 years for down syndrome joke

While I don't think harsh words should contribute to someone getting jail time, this will pickup a lot of riff raff/toff raff and inbetween but I see some fairly innocent people getting caught up in police treatment too.

One example above. Being devils advocate, say someone makes a comment on this forum suggesting they think people born in some areas of Africa are more aggressive by nature and it's in their DNA. Forget snog, marry or avoid. More like ban, prison, riot. No debate, just someone saying they are hurt by the comment, lots of name calling and ban hammers to avoid police action.

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

I think your being very optimistic bordering on naive tbh Richard this will get misused and abused likely by the very people it's supposed to protect and i foresee a lot of wasted time and resources trying to enforce this.

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

Well, I personally don't find Downs Syndrome funny and thought that his 'joke' at the expense of a child suffering from it to be going too far just to get a cheap laugh.

I agree that sometimes people may cause offence unintentionally with no malicious intent, in which case I would expect this to be pointed out to them. In return a retraction and apology will negate the need for more formal action, which I'm sure most right thinking people will do without a second thought.

If it makes people think twice before posting something on the internet, all well and good.

Worth pointing out that this is happening at about the same time as the right to have past internet contributions deleted. Everybody makes mistakes, which is fine as long as they are put right and lessons are learned.

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

I think it might just be a way of stifling debate if we aren't careful..Maybe Rotherham is a lesson to us about being afraid to say and do what is right because of the possible perception of causing offence by the powers that be.

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

Usually Frankie isn't taking the piss out of the down syndrome person but comparing someone else to them. It's these little differences that will be overlooked when the upset brigade start shouting requesting apologies and police action.

My personal opinion is unless more police are employed to pander to the getting upset over words brigade, let the police deal with real crime. Their numbers are decimated as it is. I would had to see a killer or rapist go free just because the police spent time chasing up a complaint by butthurt Bert who was called a name on the internet.

If we pander to everyone's feelings, eventually we may actually end up in the dystopian future Equilibrium showed us, where everyone takes a daily jab to suppress emotions, so no one gets mad or upset and no police time spent on hate crimes :p: That slippery slope...

VPN wisely, including when signing up to sites and the email addresses used for them, and you can happily say what you want without having to censor yourself over fear (although board operators may think they are clever nerfing yoru account in various ways *waves*). Sad that things have headed this way. I personally loved the wild wild west way of the internet before 'normal people found out about it and started using things like facebook and forced modding down to the level of the person who gets the most upset and offended over everything.

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

There are just too many thinned skinned people around these days to make this anything more then a moaners charter, when i started out on the internet i knew abuse would happen sooner or later and over the years I've had some pretty disturbing abuse but i never even contemplated calling it a crime. Between this and the "erase your history" thing it's just dumbing the whole internet down because of a very few who may actually be victims but the majority using it because they are having a bad day.

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

You dont seem to find anything funny, so no surprise there.

Do you really think most people are going to apologise because some mardy ass decided to take the hump over something posted.

Are you for real ? its so far off good, its out of sight. You would have loved the 1984 world.

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

Just to add people will not be thinking twice about what they post as they can have any negative postings or whatever removed now so total failure on that score as well.

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

Nonsense, I have a wonderful sense of humour. I saw him make that 'joke' about her child with Downs Syndrome and didn't find it funny.

Most decent people don't go out to upset people and are horrified to learn about it when they have inadvertently done so. They will only be too happy to apologise, but aren't compelled to do so. However, by not sorting out the issue in an informal manner, they would run the risk of prosecution and all that that entails.

---------- Post added at 13:49 ---------- Previous post was at 13:46 ----------

Yes, it's interesting that these two things are coming out at roughly the same time. I guess people will be advised to take screenshots as evidence.

---------- Post added at 13:52 ---------- Previous post was at 13:49 ----------

I don't think that anybody wants to see healthy debate stifled in any way, but I'm sure there is a middle ground where people are free to express themselves without the use of offence, insulting behaviour etc

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2017/08/35.png

Knowing how easy it is to manipulate screenshots, it amazes me how much weight they can carry. The image below is exactly how I took the screenshot, so no actual photo-shopping or editing of the image needed. Just an inline edit with the browser before the capture.

There are websites that will mirror a web page or screenshot it on request, so maybe a better option but you still have to trust the integrity and security of the site/service. It's not as if sites have ever been hacked and had content changed before....

Re: Police to get tough on internet trolls.
 

Some interesting information here as to what approach the CPS will take regarding those who make assumptions about the credibility of disabled people, what they will do if the police think that it was not a hate crime (because the crime wasn't committed due to a hatred of disabled people, but because they are perceived as easy targets by some people) and how online attacks will be dealt with:

http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/201...-wins-support/

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with one of my niece's who works in Human Resources for a local authority in Yorkshire; she says that they are having to take this sort of behaviour more seriously given that it will become regarded as criminal behaviour. I'm surprised that they didn't before given that staff, contractors etc are required to adhere to their diversity policies!