Teenager Arrested In England For Criticizing Olympic Athlete On Twitter

An anonymous reader writes "A teenager from Dorset, England was arrested for sending a Twitter message to Olympic athlete Tom Daley saying: 'You let your dad down i hope you know that.' Police arrested the 17-year-old boy as part of an investigation into 'malicious tweets' after Daley and his teammate missed out on a medal. Daley's father died from cancer last year. While it is rarely used and the police have not indicated whether they are pressing charges, the Communications Act 2003 s.127 covers the sending of improper messages. Section 127(1)(a) relates to a message that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character. Sean Duffy was convicted and sentenced earlier this year for similar comments. I look forward to tens of thousands of arrests across England over the next few days as all public remarks which may cause offense, regardless of their target, are investigated by the law." According to the Guardian, another (since deleted) tweet threatened Daley with drowning, but the law doesn't require threats of violence for an arrest to be made.

Re:Wow...

[h4rr4r]

Those are threats of violence made in public. Such things are already going to get someone arrested. No need for a new law.

HORRIBLE MIND CONTROL IN GREAT BRITAIN*

[circletimessquare]

*According to the Guardian, another (since deleted) tweet threatened Daley with drowning.

So, the Slashdot story summary is a completely fabricated pile of shit, with a little explanation on the bottom, after the preceding propaganda already riled up the prejudices and produced a cascade of comments from the usual Salshdot poster who can't even bother to read the story summary, nevermind the story, before commenting in completely contrived, manipulated outrage.

Congratulations Slashdot, you are playing the same game as Fox News: half-truths intended to incite anger, without relevance as to actual truth.

Guy threatened someone with violence, guy arrested. Common sense, end of story. Everything else is bullshit.

Re:He Did Appear to Make a Threat Actually

[Essequemodeia]

Fucking hell. I don't know whether I'm proud or ashamed that in America it's not illegal to be an asshole.

Re:In days of yore, this was solved differently

[Anonymous Coward]

not only would the important conversations be overwhelmed by the dullards and trolls of the majority

It's not even possible to define what is "important." I don't have any problem with letting people who can't ignore others be overwhelmed.

Re:Wow...

[pellik]

You've got to shift your viewpoint a little if you want to understand what's going on around you. The idea that free speech is the most holy ideal is rubbish. Naturally people generally don't want the government to have the power to suppress political speech and the like, but at some point you have to decide things like if it's reasonable to have some right to privacy (like in your own home), and how far these other rights extend when in conflict with each other. This kid chose to reach out into a public place to harass and intimidate someone. If you allow people to be chased out of public light by intimidation and harassment then you wind up with less freedom, as your personal freedoms to pursue things like sports are hindered by those who would hide behind free speech.