8 ms·

No, people are being arrested for making malicious communications. They would have suffered the same punishment if they had used email, letter, graffiti on a bi

No, people are being arrested for making malicious communications. They would have suffered the same punishment if they had used email, letter, graffiti on a billboard. You cannot go around threatening to harm people without repercussions.

Argonaut998 7mo ago
Nope. People are certainly being arrested for speech (e.g. opinions) that would be protected by the first amendment in the US. Guising it under a scary sounding law doesn’t change the nature of it.
- junon 7mo ago
  Examples please.
  - enavantguin 7mo ago
    [dead]
  - Argonaut998 7mo ago
    [1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/14/transgender-tweet-police-acted-unlawfully https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/14/transgender-... [2] https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Scottow-v-CPS-judgment-161220.pdf https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Scottow-... ”Margaret Dodd of one offence of improper use of a public communications network, contrary to section 127(2)(c) of the Communications Act 2003. This provides that a person commits an offence if “for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another [she] … persistently makes use of a public electronic network”.” [3] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/23/uk-police-leaders-non-crime-hate-incidents-scrapped https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/23/uk-police-le... Regarding Graham Linehan who is by far the best example.
    - junon 7mo ago
      [1] is illegal Not sure what [2] is about. [3] doesn't appear relevant either.
      - Argonaut998 7mo ago
        “Is illegal” Well yes, that’s my point. :) 2. Is a woman being arrested and charged with causing “anxiety” for a series of tweets. 3. Is the same; wrongthink guised as “threats” etc If you just want to defend the censorship as is your right then just say so instead doing the usual: “It’s not happening” “Ok. It’s happening and that’s a good thing” Rigmarole and wasting my time.
- arrrg 7mo ago
  The people in Europe have a different view of freedom of speech and that’s fine. Not everything that’s a slightly different perspective on freedom of speech and what that entails and includes is tyranny.
  - Argonaut998 7mo ago
    I’m European and I do not. France and the UK especially come from the same liberal intellectual root as the USA. What we see today is a bastardisation of these principles in Europe. Only the US was smart enough to canonise it into law.
    - mcv 7mo ago
      Yet the US has far worse attacks on free speech. And plenty of European countries also canonised it into law.
    - arrrg 7mo ago
      Democracy also includes sometimes things not happening the way you want to … happens to me all the time, too. Obviously free (and not merely democratic societies) need strong protections of minorities and broad freedoms, but I don’t see free speech implementations in Europe broadly infringing on that.
  - enavantguin 7mo ago
    [dead]
  - suddenlybananas 7mo ago
    So there is censorship, you just think that it is good. That's fine! But you should own the position and justify it on its own terms instead of pretending that it doesn't count as censorship.
    - throwaway24778 7mo ago
      Sure but filtering what you say is also a form of censorship. Swinging the term around like it's some form of morality is silly; anyone who isn't for a form of censorship is just a moron and an asshole. Or even worse: a liberal.
- ben_w 7mo ago
  People are certainly being arrested *in the USA* for speech (e.g. opinions) that are theoretically protected by the first amendment. Unfortunately, last I tried to look this up, I found that there simply do not exist useful and easy to find stats for "malicious communications" in the UK such that stalkers and people making death threats can be separated from mere political correctness. And even with actual death threats, there's stuff like this, where I don't myself have a single sustained state of my own mind about how I would respond to such a tweet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_joke_trial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_joke_trial
  - Argonaut998 7mo ago
    It’s bad now and not perfect for sure, but I doubt these instances would be upheld by the higher courts.
    - ben_w 7mo ago
      Kinda irrelevant, given that the go-to examples I see on Hacker News of this happening in the EU and UK are either actual death/violence threats etc. (which are also not protected speech in the USA) or also not upheld in higher European courts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exceptions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exce...
      - dmm 7mo ago
        Incitement is only illegal when "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action".
        ben_w 7mo ago
        And? I didn't say anything about "incitement", I said "actual death/violence threats", because I meant people making actual threats of violence up to and including death, are the actual things tweeted in the most commonly seen examples given on Hacker News (besides the aforementioned "also not upheld" that the commenter I was replying to tried to use to justify when Americans get arrested for tweets).
Gareth321 7mo ago
"Malicious communications" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. This veteran was arrested for retweeting this meme (https://abuwjaawap.cloudimg.io/v7/_lgbtqnation-assets_/assets/2022/09/craig-ladyman-nazi-flag.png?&auto=format&auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=crop&gravity=face&w=790&h=530 https://abuwjaawap.cloudimg.io/v7/_lgbtqnation-assets_/asset...). https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11066477/Veteran-arrested-causing-anxiety-retweeting-meme-swastika-Pride-flags.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11066477/Veteran-ar... He was offered to undergo "re-education." You might not like this meme. You might find it offensive. But should he be arrested by several officers for it? Of course not. This is just one example of many people being being arrested and imprisoned for offending people. It is against the law to offend people in the UK.
- talideon 7mo ago
  Oh yes, the bastion of truth that is the Daily Mail. Sorry, my eyes just rolled out if my head.
  - Gareth321 7mo ago
    The story is widely reported: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irishman-arrested-for-causing-anxiety-with-swastika-pride-flag-post/41887199.html https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irishman-arrested-for-... https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/irishman-arrested-uk-causing-anxiety-27639423 https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/irishman-arrested... https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/03/memes-police-matter/ https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/03/memes-police-matter... https://www.hrla.org.au/uk_man_arrested_for_social_media_meme https://www.hrla.org.au/uk_man_arrested_for_social_media_mem... Is this normally how you evade things which make you uncomfortable? Attacking the source?
  - foxglacier 7mo ago
    Just Google it. It's been reported on various news sites. eg: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irishman-arrested-for-causing-anxiety-with-swastika-pride-flag-post/41887199.html https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irishman-arrested-for-... Maybe it's not on The Guardian or the BBC but it obviously doesn't fit their bias so you may have to accept other sources.

Argonaut998 7mo ago

Nope. People are certainly being arrested for speech (e.g. opinions) that would be protected by the first amendment in the US. Guising it under a scary sounding law doesn’t change the nature of it.

junon 7mo ago
Examples please.
- enavantguin 7mo ago
  [dead]
- Argonaut998 7mo ago
  [1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/14/transgender-tweet-police-acted-unlawfully https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/14/transgender-... [2] https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Scottow-v-CPS-judgment-161220.pdf https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Scottow-... ”Margaret Dodd of one offence of improper use of a public communications network, contrary to section 127(2)(c) of the Communications Act 2003. This provides that a person commits an offence if “for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another [she] … persistently makes use of a public electronic network”.” [3] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/23/uk-police-leaders-non-crime-hate-incidents-scrapped https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/23/uk-police-le... Regarding Graham Linehan who is by far the best example.
  - junon 7mo ago
    [1] is illegal Not sure what [2] is about. [3] doesn't appear relevant either.
    - Argonaut998 7mo ago
      “Is illegal” Well yes, that’s my point. :) 2. Is a woman being arrested and charged with causing “anxiety” for a series of tweets. 3. Is the same; wrongthink guised as “threats” etc If you just want to defend the censorship as is your right then just say so instead doing the usual: “It’s not happening” “Ok. It’s happening and that’s a good thing” Rigmarole and wasting my time.
arrrg 7mo ago
The people in Europe have a different view of freedom of speech and that’s fine. Not everything that’s a slightly different perspective on freedom of speech and what that entails and includes is tyranny.
- Argonaut998 7mo ago
  I’m European and I do not. France and the UK especially come from the same liberal intellectual root as the USA. What we see today is a bastardisation of these principles in Europe. Only the US was smart enough to canonise it into law.
  - mcv 7mo ago
    Yet the US has far worse attacks on free speech. And plenty of European countries also canonised it into law.
  - arrrg 7mo ago
    Democracy also includes sometimes things not happening the way you want to … happens to me all the time, too. Obviously free (and not merely democratic societies) need strong protections of minorities and broad freedoms, but I don’t see free speech implementations in Europe broadly infringing on that.
- enavantguin 7mo ago
  [dead]
- suddenlybananas 7mo ago
  So there is censorship, you just think that it is good. That's fine! But you should own the position and justify it on its own terms instead of pretending that it doesn't count as censorship.
  - throwaway24778 7mo ago
    Sure but filtering what you say is also a form of censorship. Swinging the term around like it's some form of morality is silly; anyone who isn't for a form of censorship is just a moron and an asshole. Or even worse: a liberal.
ben_w 7mo ago
People are certainly being arrested *in the USA* for speech (e.g. opinions) that are theoretically protected by the first amendment. Unfortunately, last I tried to look this up, I found that there simply do not exist useful and easy to find stats for "malicious communications" in the UK such that stalkers and people making death threats can be separated from mere political correctness. And even with actual death threats, there's stuff like this, where I don't myself have a single sustained state of my own mind about how I would respond to such a tweet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_joke_trial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_joke_trial
- Argonaut998 7mo ago
  It’s bad now and not perfect for sure, but I doubt these instances would be upheld by the higher courts.
  - ben_w 7mo ago
    Kinda irrelevant, given that the go-to examples I see on Hacker News of this happening in the EU and UK are either actual death/violence threats etc. (which are also not protected speech in the USA) or also not upheld in higher European courts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exceptions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exce...
    - dmm 7mo ago
      Incitement is only illegal when "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action".
      - ben_w 7mo ago
        And? I didn't say anything about "incitement", I said "actual death/violence threats", because I meant people making actual threats of violence up to and including death, are the actual things tweeted in the most commonly seen examples given on Hacker News (besides the aforementioned "also not upheld" that the commenter I was replying to tried to use to justify when Americans get arrested for tweets).

Gareth321 7mo ago

"Malicious communications" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. This veteran was arrested for retweeting this meme (https://abuwjaawap.cloudimg.io/v7/_lgbtqnation-assets_/assets/2022/09/craig-ladyman-nazi-flag.png?&auto=format&auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=crop&gravity=face&w=790&h=530 https://abuwjaawap.cloudimg.io/v7/_lgbtqnation-assets_/asset...). https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11066477/Veteran-arrested-causing-anxiety-retweeting-meme-swastika-Pride-flags.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11066477/Veteran-ar... He was offered to undergo "re-education." You might not like this meme. You might find it offensive. But should he be arrested by several officers for it? Of course not. This is just one example of many people being being arrested and imprisoned for offending people. It is against the law to offend people in the UK.

talideon 7mo ago
Oh yes, the bastion of truth that is the Daily Mail. Sorry, my eyes just rolled out if my head.
- Gareth321 7mo ago
  The story is widely reported: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irishman-arrested-for-causing-anxiety-with-swastika-pride-flag-post/41887199.html https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irishman-arrested-for-... https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/irishman-arrested-uk-causing-anxiety-27639423 https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/irishman-arrested... https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/03/memes-police-matter/ https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/03/memes-police-matter... https://www.hrla.org.au/uk_man_arrested_for_social_media_meme https://www.hrla.org.au/uk_man_arrested_for_social_media_mem... Is this normally how you evade things which make you uncomfortable? Attacking the source?
- foxglacier 7mo ago
  Just Google it. It's been reported on various news sites. eg: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irishman-arrested-for-causing-anxiety-with-swastika-pride-flag-post/41887199.html https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irishman-arrested-for-... Maybe it's not on The Guardian or the BBC but it obviously doesn't fit their bias so you may have to accept other sources.