[lg policy] Fwd: [WOL] An inconvenient tweet: it's against the law in England

[Baron, Dennis E]

Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

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Begin forwarded message:

From: Dennis Baron <no-reply-blog at illinois.edu<mailto:no-reply-blog at illinois.edu>>
Subject: [WOL] An inconvenient tweet: it's against the law in England
Date: June 5, 2013 10:36:10 PM CDT
To: <debaron at illinois.edu<mailto:debaron at illinois.edu>>

The Web of Language


The Web of Language
Posted by Dennis Baron<mailto:debaron at illinois.edu>

An inconvenient tweet: it's against the law in England


At least six people have been arrested in England<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/tweets-after-soldiers-death-lands-some-in-jail/2013/06/01/7e91362e-c9d8-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4000a_story.html> for tweets about the recent terrorist killing of a British soldier, and they’re only the latest tweeters to be punished because some tweets, in England, are against the law. In 2012, 653 Brits faced criminal charges because they crossed the line in one way or another while using social media.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees free speech. Espionage, obscenity, and fighting words are not protected, along with certain kinds of commercial speech. You can’t conspire with the enemy, shout fire in a crowded theater, lie about a product you are selling, or broadcast obscenity or profanity over the airwaves during hours when children might be in the audience. Other than that, anyone can say just about anything online or off, and the law will look the other way.

But England has no free-speech guarantees. The English Communications Act<http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/section/127> makes it illegal for the 6.6 million active tweeters in the U.K, to tweet anything grossly offensive, obscene, or menacing. But it’s also against British law to send any electronic communication “for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another.” In England, it is illegal to send an inconvenient tweet.


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