Facing The Challenge Of Online Harassment

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has an interesting article on the subject of online harassment posted today that is certainly worth taking the time to read.

We oppose laws that attempt to address online harassment but do it carelessly, with little regard for the risks for legitimate speech. For example, recently the New York Court of Appeals struck down a cyberbullying law that made it a crime to "harass, annoy, threaten...or otherwise inflict significant emotional harm on another person,” because it reached “far beyond the cyberbullying of children.” After all, protected speech could very well be “annoying,” but that is hardly enough reason to outlaw it.

Click to expand...

I oppose laws that attempt to stop online harassment period. They can't not be abused and unlike real problems people can turn the damn computer off.

How would you enforce it... and where does harassment become another way for government to censor free speech?

Dekoth-E- said:

I oppose laws that attempt to stop online harassment period. They can't not be abused and unlike real problems people can turn the damn computer off.

Click to expand...

If I went to every single web site you visit and posted pictures of you masturbating, spammed the internet with them, would turning your computer off make it go away?

You might think the internet is imaginary, it's not, and people can use it to absolutely and completely destroy you. You don't need to be there for someone to be harassing you, in fact it's for more effective if you're not there. It's usually used to annihilate teen girls because they're so "mature" at 12 (pliability and obedience are 'maturity' these days) so they can be manipulated very easily. If she turns her computer off will the rest of her school forget what they saw? Will they stop spreading it? Will her future potential employers ever see it?

We'll do what we always do, we'll blame the victim. "You shouldn't have -X-" is justification for all sorts of crimes world today. Especially when someone female is the victim.

Thinking that turning your computer off ends harassment is like thinking a bullet to the temple won't kill you if you close your eyes really tight.

Harassment happens to everyone, not just teenage women. They just happen to complain about it more. And that's following the loose guidelines on what is harassment that most of these laws are.

Twisted Kidney you are an absolute idiot and you need to stop posting.

According to a lot of these laws I just harassed you. And if you happened to be a woman , the idea of anyone questioning it would be deemed blaming the victim and the reason why so many victims don't come forward. This is the problem of most of these harassment and sexual assault laws, no matter what the accused loses

What ever happened to

"Sticks and stones may break my bones
But words will never hurt me."

I would think the best solution is the solution is rather simple people need to just brush off the name calling and chatter and toughen up. Like the old saying sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. I grew up being bullied every hour of the day at school, stuffed in lockers and beaten all because I was a computer geek. Sure it hurt me mentally but in the end today I fear nobody, school was done and the world changed. I find todays parents are the real issue. They don't teach their kids how to deal with life, and teach them what its really like out there in the world. They instead shelter the kids to protect them from all the badness which makes them all weak and unable to deal with anything when they venture outside into the real world. Sorry to say but its true. The business world is full of bullies and deadlines and anger and stress...

Twisted Kidney said:

If I went to every single web site you visit and posted pictures of you masturbating, spammed the internet with them, would turning your computer off make it go away?

You might think the internet is imaginary, it's not, and people can use it to absolutely and completely destroy you. You don't need to be there for someone to be harassing you, in fact it's for more effective if you're not there. It's usually used to annihilate teen girls because they're so "mature" at 12 (pliability and obedience are 'maturity' these days) so they can be manipulated very easily. If she turns her computer off will the rest of her school forget what they saw? Will they stop spreading it? Will her future potential employers ever see it?

We'll do what we always do, we'll blame the victim. "You shouldn't have -X-" is justification for all sorts of crimes world today. Especially when someone female is the victim.

Thinking that turning your computer off ends harassment is like thinking a bullet to the temple won't kill you if you close your eyes really tight.

Click to expand...

Simple solution: keep teenage girls away from the internet.

It really is that simple. Most of the time the harassers are other teenage girls.
Most of the time, the harassment starts in school and continues online. Since it's not being addressed at the source, why enact laws to protect it in the spill over area? If young children do not have the skills to cope with life, then they should be protected until they're mature enough to do so.

ChedWick said:

What ever happened to

"Sticks and stones may break my bones
But words will never hurt me."

Click to expand...

Exactly.

Meh, I get harassed all the time on online forums.

But if you can't take it, you shouldn't be dishing it out.

The century of feelings > facts...

If you actually read the article it is addressing the recent run of people getting upset about their feelings being hurt and in turn calling it harassment. It specifically defines near the beginning what kind of harassment needs to be addressed.

The Article said:

The kind of harassment we are worried about happens when Internet users attract the attention of the wrong group or individual, and find themselves enduring extreme levels of targeted hostility, often accompanied by the exposure of their private lives. Some victims are bombarded by violent, personalized imagery and numerous disturbing comments. The addresses of their homes and workplaces may be publicized, along with threats of violence. And such online harassment can escalate to offline stalking, physical assault, and more.

Click to expand...

The issue is we have laws being proposed that would make anything said or done that makes a person uncomfortable be defined as illegal and grounds for legal action. Such laws would prohibit the most basic forms of speech and expression and make the entire internet one giant hugbox.

The legal definition of harassment is any action that causes physical or psychological harm.

harassment
(either harris-meant or huh-rass-meant) n. the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands. The purposes may vary, including racial prejudice, personal malice, an attempt to force someone to quit a job or grant sexual favors, apply illegal pressure to collect a bill, or merely gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious. Such activities may be the basis for a lawsuit if due to discrimination based on race or sex, a violation on the statutory limitations on collection agencies, involve revenge by an ex-spouse, or be shown to be a form of blackmail ("I'll stop bothering you, if you'll go to bed with me"). The victim may file a petition for a "stay away" (restraining) order, intended to prevent contact by the offensive party. A systematic pattern of harassment by an employee against another worker may subject the employer to a lawsuit for failure to protect the worker.

Click to expand...

The issue is harassment is a trigger word, and so people use it in the wrong context to gain attention.

Reading something that is contrary to your beliefs or is a typical off-the-cuff statement that gets made on the internet is not harassment. Requesting to have an open discussion on the issues is not harassment.

Ryokurin said:

Harassment happens to everyone, not just teenage women. They just happen to complain about it more. And that's following the loose guidelines on what is harassment that most of these laws are.

Twisted Kidney you are an absolute idiot and you need to stop posting.

According to a lot of these laws I just harassed you. And if you happened to be a woman , the idea of anyone questioning it would be deemed blaming the victim and the reason why so many victims don't come forward. This is the problem of most of these harassment and sexual assault laws, no matter what the accused loses

Click to expand...

So basically, you don't have any facts so hyperbole and fallacy will be your weapons of choice.

You need to learn about some of these laws, hell learning about at least one of them would help. Harassment has never been defined as "something I don't like" that's typical spineless, men's victim-hood bullshit. Oprah isn't taking guests any longer, you won't get on no matter how hard you cry and pretend the matriarchy touched you.

Then we get the "it's girls being mean to girls" bullshit on top of it. It's 20-somethings, men and women, when you actually bother to learn something about the process of online harassment the EFF is referring to it doesn't come from mean girls. It comes from anonymous forums like 4chan and the vile little creatures that stalk those threads with one hand in their pants and one on the mouse.

If I stand in front of your house yelling insults and handing out fabricated leaflets about how many children you rape and murder, I will get charged, that is a crime. If I follow you around to do it, that is a crime.

People want to get into fights on the internet, that's great, have at it. I'm not a fan of censorship in any form. I'm not a fan of using swat teams to take down mean kids on the internet. But I am a fan of a nice criminal record for someone who made it their mission to ruin somebody maliciously, and I mean really ruin them. Nothing huge, a suspended sentence and some community service is perfect. The crap published online has a long lifespan, so does a little note on a background check.

How do you even define emotional harm in court. You cannot have laws to regulate these things.

Twisted Kidney said:

If I went to every single web site you visit and posted pictures of you masturbating, spammed the internet with them, would turning your computer off make it go away?

You might think the internet is imaginary, it's not, and people can use it to absolutely and completely destroy you. You don't need to be there for someone to be harassing you, in fact it's for more effective if you're not there. It's usually used to annihilate teen girls because they're so "mature" at 12 (pliability and obedience are 'maturity' these days) so they can be manipulated very easily. If she turns her computer off will the rest of her school forget what they saw? Will they stop spreading it? Will her future potential employers ever see it?

We'll do what we always do, we'll blame the victim. "You shouldn't have -X-" is justification for all sorts of crimes world today. Especially when someone female is the victim.

Thinking that turning your computer off ends harassment is like thinking a bullet to the temple won't kill you if you close your eyes really tight.

Click to expand...

And if I posted it gave pictures of me masturbating to someone else, who's fault is that?

Go on, I'll wait.

You can't be blamed for being a victim if you didn't do anything stupid.

No do you have facts that harassment is always about taking advantage of underage girls? You are the only one blaming people. if you truly are against harassment why are you concerned about 4chan when there's other cases where feminists and SJW used the same tactics against people they don't like. Oh I get it, because some group says this person has a problem with women you have a blind eye to it right? False victimization is a problem no matter who does it, or the cause.

The problem I have with any online harassment laws is who's to say that it's not mutual but only one side gets busted for it.

Take it for someone who lost his cool with the most trolly of trolls, who happened to be a woman, some 15 years ago and me telling her if I ever met her I'd shove a Saguaro cactus up her ass, then a month or two later get called into security with a transcript of just one side of said conversation, and me basically having to write a statement to the effect that I'm not really going to try and jam a cactus that can get 60 feet tall up this person's ass just so the place I worked was not held liable, and of course me getting told that I represent them outside of when I work there.

Granted it never went any further than that, but it still pissed me off, then I of course bragged about how nothing would be done to me

Ryokurin said:

Harassment happens to everyone, not just teenage women. They just happen to complain about it more. And that's following the loose guidelines on what is harassment that most of these laws are.

Twisted Kidney you are an absolute idiot and you need to stop posting.

According to a lot of these laws I just harassed you. And if you happened to be a woman , the idea of anyone questioning it would be deemed blaming the victim and the reason why so many victims don't come forward. This is the problem of most of these harassment and sexual assault laws, no matter what the accused loses

Click to expand...

Thread over.

You guys better start getting used to a new word: Microagression. Another bullshit made up PC word that will be spewed everywhere to be conveyed by all the up-talking hormoneless eunuchs and sandy vaginas of the world. Watch.

Twisted Kidney said:

If I went to every single web site you visit and posted pictures of you masturbating, spammed the internet with them, would turning your computer off make it go away?

You might think the internet is imaginary, it's not, and people can use it to absolutely and completely destroy you. You don't need to be there for someone to be harassing you, in fact it's for more effective if you're not there. It's usually used to annihilate teen girls because they're so "mature" at 12 (pliability and obedience are 'maturity' these days) so they can be manipulated very easily. If she turns her computer off will the rest of her school forget what they saw? Will they stop spreading it? Will her future potential employers ever see it?

We'll do what we always do, we'll blame the victim. "You shouldn't have -X-" is justification for all sorts of crimes world today. Especially when someone female is the victim.

Thinking that turning your computer off ends harassment is like thinking a bullet to the temple won't kill you if you close your eyes really tight.

Click to expand...

Your life must be an utter living hell of victimhood and paranoia wherever you go, right? Always seeing injustice around the world and in your back yard, right? Wanting to avenge all the wrongs the world heaps onto hapless innocents wherever they may be, like the good social justice warrior you are, right? I bet you even secretly have a super-hero name to go along with your avenging attitude.

The internet is turning everyone into gigantic vaginae.

Twisted Kidney said:

If I went to every single web site you visit and posted pictures of you masturbating, spammed the internet with them, would turning your computer off make it go away?

Click to expand...

Why do you have pictures of yourself masturbating on the internet, why is it going viral, and how exactly are they coordinating this online masturbation mob with other webmasters?

So you would go to Amazon.com and somehow you'd find pictures of yourself masturbating? I'm not understanding.... lmao!

We don't need any laws about online harassment that aren't covered under regular harassment. Is knocking on someone's door or calling their phone harassment? Nope, unless you can show that twenty times a night some psycho ex woman is doing it, and guess what, we don't need separate door/phone/whatever laws. Its just filed under harassment.

The problem is that liberals overly empower the significance of words and thoughts, which is where the whole politically correct movement came from. But they are just words, so until it gets to the point of annoyance as is covered under existing harassment laws, no its not a big deal and liberals need to learn to grow up, put on their big girl panties, and get over the fact that people can say offensive things and they can somehow just let it go.

Coming from a culture where to be male and be called a woman are fighting words to many im afraid that dog doesn't hunt

I wonder what term female DI's use in the military to be insulting. Now how about the males. Oh yeah they just call them ladies all the time.

When the definition of what you are is an insult to be used against others to demean them there is a problem.

The reason we hear so much crying about this at all is that you cannot accept that no one has to stfu and go away just cause you said so any longer.

You get talked to now the way you've always talked to everyone else and don't much care for it. Get used to it. It's not changing back. Get a helmet or move to stuebenville so you can victim blame on larger scale amongst your peers.

By its implied purpose, the concept of free speach it to protect speach which upset someone somewhere or it wouldn't need to be protected.

All of the things worth being said will upset someone somewhere.