Police too heavy-handed with Twitter and online trolls
The UK has been described as too heavy-handed in the way that it punishes abusive messages on social networking sites such as Twitter.
The UK has been described as too heavy-handed in the way that it punishes abusive messages on social networking sites such as Twitter.
Internet expert Bernie Hogan, from the Oxford Internet Institute, said he feels that although the UK was leading the way in targeting online abuse, it was far stricter in its application of the law on social media sites than other countries, such as the US.
This was supported by censorship group Campaign Against Censorship, which felt that the nature of Twitter, where you can only use 140 characters to type messages, meant that statements can be easily misread.
Fellow campaigners for freedom of expression on the internet, Index, said that prosecuting tweets was silly and were easy prosecutions.
The comments follow a spate of abusive tweets towards famous figures in recent months.
Olympic bronze medal winning diver Tom Daley was subjected to a tweet that referenced his father, who died last year.
The comment led to the arrest of a teenager in Weymouth on suspicion of malicious communications.
The Swansea University student Liam Stacey was sentenced to 56 days in prison for an allegedly racist tweet about former Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba after the player collapsed during a game earlier this year.
And Paul Chambers had a verdict against him overturned last month. He had originally been fined £1,000 for posting a message jokingly threatening to blow up Robin Hood Airport after finding it closed due to snow.
However, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said it does not believe that the polices response was too heavy-handed.
In a statement, it said: People have a right to publish their views but when these views become indecent, threatening or offensive then the individuals they affect also have the right to report them and the police will assist with any prosecution.
Earlier this month, ACPO dismissed any need for additional legislation covering social media and abusive messages posted on social networking websites.
Stuart Hyde, ACPO lead on e-crime, said: I think we have got quite a lot of legislation, dating back to the Malicious Communications Acts of 1998 and 2003. There is a lot there that helps us and gives us the power to do stuff. This is a new technology, a new way of communicating. It has grown exponentially. There hasnt been separate legislation, so we are using legislation that wasnt particularly created for this, but it works reasonably well most of the time.
He added that it was important to look at the tweets in context, saying that if it is a whole range of tweets then the actions of the individual concerned must be looked at and action taken if the law is broken.
However, he said that the organisations and companies that use social networking sites for commercial purposes must also provide safeguards and security for its users.