Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 September 4

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September 4

Should cyberbullying, online shaming/harassment, internet vigilantism be legal? What about doxing, threat to commit harms, or death threat?

This is a freedom of speech issue. Hypothetically, if I shoot a lion dead somewhere in Africa and then the Internet finds out about it and a ton of people on social media decide to channel their outrage by hurling insults, abuses, and death threats at me. Should such acts of bullying and harassment be illegal in the manner that the criminals are arrested and social media sites ban their accounts? If a person commit suicide to escape online abuse or criticism, is it his/her fault for even bothering to read those offensive messages in the first place instead of looking away? Should threats to commit harm such as death threat be given special treatment since it at least tries to make the victim feel unsafe? Does the target/victim being over 18 years old or old enough matter? Keep in mind that this is not about being offensive but more about harassing a specific person. Also, my question is not about moral/ethics but whether not not and how much regulation on online shaming and threats is needed for a peaceful society where "vigilante" and other self righteous online mob upholding their "justice" gets prosecuted for breaking the laws. 128.164.241.93 (talk) 19:29, 4 September 2016 (UTC)

This is not an appropriate topic for this forum. If you wish, we can direct you to information about the laws in your jurisdiction, but as explained at the top of this page, this is definitely NOT the place to discuss questions of "should" on any topic.--Jayron32 19:34, 4 September 2016 (UTC)

It may also depend on the policies of a particular website. For example, Wikipedia has strict rules against those kinds of things. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:51, 4 September 2016 (UTC)

Note that many social media sites do not require stuff is illegal for it to be unwelcome and accounts subject to bans. Nil Einne (talk) 20:24, 4 September 2016 (U

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