{"id":20256,"date":"2014-11-25T05:45:45","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T10:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=20256"},"modified":"2014-11-24T15:04:04","modified_gmt":"2014-11-24T20:04:04","slug":"supreme-court-takes-up-facebook-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/supreme-court-takes-up-facebook-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court takes up Facebook threats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Does this message from an estranged husband to his wife after she filed a restraining order against him sound like a threat to you?<\/p>\n

\u201cFold up your PFA [protection-from-abuse order] and put it in your pocket.\u00a0 Is it thick enough to stop a bullet?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Does it matter that it was posted on his Facebook page?\u00a0 The poster is claiming that rants posted on social media should not be taken seriously and should have free speech protection.\u00a0 The poster argues that his violent fantasies about killing his wife are no different from what his hero, Eminem, raps about and so deserve protection as artistic expressions.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court has taken up the case.\u00a0 Oral arguments begin December 1.\u00a0 What do you think about this?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From Robert Barnes, Supreme Court case tests the limits of free speech on Facebook and other social media \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

About a week after Tara Elonis persuaded a judge to issue a protective order against her estranged husband, Anthony, her soon-to-be ex had this to say:<\/p>\n

\u201cFold up your PFA [protection-from-abuse order] and put it in your pocket<\/p>\n

Is it thick enough to stop a bullet?\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony Elonis didn\u2019t deliver the message in person, by phone or in a note. Instead, he posted it on his Facebook page, for all to see, in a prose style reminiscent of the violent, misogynistic lyrics of rap artists he admired.<\/p>\n

In its first examination of the limits of free speech on social media, the Supreme Court will consider next week whether, as a jury concluded, Elonis\u2019s postings constituted a \u201ctrue threat\u201d to his wife and others.<\/p>\n

The issue is whether Elonis should be prosecuted for what he says was simply blowing off steam \u2014 \u201ctherapeutic efforts to address traumatic events,\u201d as his brief to the court says \u2014 because what matters is not his intent but whether any reasonable person targeted in the rants would regard them as menacing warnings.<\/p>\n

Parties on both sides of the groundbreaking case are asking the court to consider the unique qualities of social media. In this rapidly evolving realm of communication, only the occasional emoticon may signal whether a writer is engaging in satire or black humor, exercising poetic license, or delivering the kind of grim warnings that have presaged school shootings and other acts of mass violence.<\/p>\n

Elonis, who has served prison time for his Facebook posts, and some of his supporters say the court must look beyond incendiary content to discern the writer\u2019s intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternet users may give vent to emotions on which they have no intention of acting, memorializing expressions of momentary anger or exasperation that once were communicated face-to-face among friends and dissipated harmlessly,\u201d said a brief filed on Elonis\u2019s behalf by the Student Press Law Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the writers organization PEN.<\/p>\n

Domestic violence experts, on the other hand, say social media has become a powerful tool for dispensing threats.<\/p>\n

Victims of domestic abuse, according to a brief filed by th<\/a>e National Network to End Domestic Violence, \u201chave experienced real-life terror caused by increasingly graphic and public posts to Facebook and other social media sites \u2014 terror that is exacerbated precisely because abusers now harness the power of technology, \u2018enabling them to reach their victims\u2019 everyday lives at the click of a mouse or the touch of a screen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does this message from an estranged husband to his wife after she filed a restraining order against him sound like a threat to you? \u201cFold up your PFA [protection-from-abuse order] and put it in your pocket.\u00a0 Is it thick enough to stop a bullet?\u201d Does it matter that it was posted on his Facebook page?\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,29,44],"tags":[801,871,2039,2139,3455],"class_list":["post-20256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law","category-media","category-technology","tag-facebook","tag-free-speech","tag-social-media","tag-supreme-court","tag-threatening-language"],"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court takes up Facebook threats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Does this message from an estranged husband to his wife after she filed a restraining order against him sound like a threat to you? 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