Keyboard warriors - will the jail sentences deter others?

I think they’re nuts. I think to prosecute them smacks of countries I wouldn’t want to live in, China, Russia etc. Not a good look. Better to block their accounts .

I think there are some lies which get punished and some which are excused as a 'mistake'. Its all about power and control.

It's a no-brainer for me.
What that particular woman posted was hate filled inflammatory rhetoric.

The woman, who lives in a million pound house and runs a profitable business, deserves it. I think the likes of Elon Musk should be dealt with too. He encouraged inaccurate, hateful talk on his platform.

"Don't protect the mosques, blow the mosque up with the adults in it".

I'm not sure that that actually classifies as a 'lie', ^Galaxy*.

Is it the sort of 'freedom of speech' which you want to allow?

If someone had said it on Gnet I think they would have been jumped on; the 'group' would have expressed disapproval. It could be said that the judge's sentence is a formal expression of group disapproval.

OTOH, are 'groups' always right?

I think it is appropriate to treat expressions of hate severely.

Grandmabatty

The woman, who lives in a million pound house and runs a profitable business, deserves it. I think the likes of Elon Musk should be dealt with too. He encouraged inaccurate, hateful talk on his platform.

Is that the woman in the story?

It's a difficult one. Can we let the level of hate and incitement continue totally unchecked on social media?

Given the consequences that we've seen.

The lady posted,

"Don't protect the mosques, blow the mosque up with the adults in it".

So much of it around and it's clearly against the law and disgusting.

Whether prosecution in small numbers will stop it, I doubt. The big fish with big followings are the ones with more influence.

Blocking accounts leads to issues of "who decides?"

People on here are now talking about inaccurate information being prosecuted. In my experience those who try to police speech are generally very scary people and usually have some fairly sizeable skeletons in their cupboard. Alister Campbell is currently lecturing on accurate information and campaigning to get people arrested bless him. It would be hilarious if it wasnt so serious.
If people are prosecuted, it has to apply across the board. So for example Nick hope not hate should also be prosecuted if we are talking about inaccurate info that may cause unrest. The trouble is it also almost always backfires, there are some fairly awful wes Streeting tweets being circulated at the moment. But I think they will proceed with further legislation. It wont help in any way but I imagine that will happen.

I genuinely don’t know. If what Maizie writes has really been said, then that’s a despicable thing to write/say. However Voltaire said

I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it

Or words to that effect. As I said, it’s a despicable thing to say, but what concerns me is that the right to free speech is slowly being eroded. But then again, was that being used as an incitement to riot? That’s truly not acceptable.
On the other hand, if the powers that be can see what people are writing, they can be monitored. Otherwise everything goes underground.
A tricky situation without any doubt.

There is already legislation in place to deal with what the woman said. It's the suggestions of further legislation that worries ne.

Good post Galaxy at 10.37

Yes, I'd imagine it would deter people.

I have mixed feelings. It’s an area where (I suspect) many or even most people are not aware of the law. I’m not - beyond that existing laws of libel, harassment incitement etc apply and the media are just channels for committing those crimes. Fair enough really. People stalking and trolling others must know that they are doing wrong, but how many of us know the finer points of the legal definitions etc?

I’m not sure that people always think when posting to a group who feel like friends. It can seem that it’s a private conversation. Also, people have very different communication styles. A classic example is ‘I would kill my husband if he did that’, which is very rarely meant literally and almost never meant as advice.

People can get carried away in the moment, too. I’ve seen things (on here and elsewhere) posted in anger that I don’t think people would say face to face. Often the posts get deleted the next morning when the poster sobers up and has second thoughts. A long prison sentence can seem disproportionate.

On the other hand, desperate times call for desperate measures. nanna8, it’s not long since you believed the UK was on the brink of civil war! Do things get more desperate than that? People were living in fear of their lives and racists seemed to be emboldened by the riots to say and do more and more extreme things. Given that the riots were organised, aided and abetted by social media maybe it was sensible to crack down on social media use to crack down on them?

Galaxy

I think there are some lies which get punished and some which are excused as a 'mistake'. Its all about power and control.

Oh yes.

I think 'desperate times' are the times when you hold a steady course and dont react out of fear. You will generally make things worse.

MissAdventure

Yes, I'd imagine it would deter people.

That’s what interests me most MissAdventure. I can’t recall there ever having been a large number of prosecutions for what people have said on social media before in the UK. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the sentences or the legislation, it’s whether because it’s been such high profile in the news it will be a shot across the bows to those who post hate online?

Yes, it will definitely make some people think twice before posting their vile comments. They deserve the strict sentencing, they may not take part in the violent attacks but they are inciting others to do so.

There are three GN members who will not be returning due to them posting their views

These views were not racist, we’re not inciting violence, they were against the flow of the thread

I think we need to be cautious as to how the Freedom of Speech act is being interpreted.

I do think that in the case of the female, what she posted was vile, did it warrant a custodial sentence, I am not sure.

Who’s going to do the policing and decide what is hate speech is what concerns me.
The subject matter of her post is clearly wrong, as it is also when crowds shout “death to the infidels” where will the decision making lie.

Pressed post by accident.
Where and with whom will the decision-making lie? Who will have the right to decide whether we have free speech or not?

I don't think free speech should excuse incitement of hate.

Talking about the wider world, not gransnet, obviously, but people can do terrible things with a particular mindset, and others of similar

I didn’t know about that, except the person who has been discussed on a thread recently, GrannyGravy, and I have never seen anything posted on Gransnet which approached the nature of the posts people are being jailed for, maybe we should keep Gransnet out of this discussion, I hadn’t thought about it applying here?

I don’t think Britain is anywhere near civil war. Probably the vast majority of us on here heard and saw nothing when all these riots were taking place. There was a half hearted demonstration in Portsmouth, which is the nearest city to where I live, but I live in Hampshire, not in a city, and whilst it’s not a sleepy backwater, there’s not a lot going on. Certainly no riots, and very little else. I suspect many of us live in similar situations. These awful riots, and they were awful, were restricted to big cities, where for whatever reasons, there is always more crime, more poverty, more unrest. And it was hot and the nights were light. People sat at home on social media, sharing information that would have been shared by mouth years ago. I don’t know, I’m uncomfortable about too much policing of speech.