Well the way laws tend to work they scale to consequence.
Like think about speeding in a school zone. You get caught by a cop doing it it’s a fine. Nobody is going to jail.
But say you speed and hit someone and cause injury. You probably face big fines or a few days in jail or community service.
But then imagine you are speeding in a school zone and you hit and kill a kid. That’s not ruled a no fault accidental death as it would be if you weren’t speeding. Because you broke the smaller law you get the upgrade to manslaughter because you were found criminally at fault.
Cyberbullying applies the same logic. As long as there were no criminal harms and measurable damages it’s a little fine to remind you that that’s not cool. But the more recordable damages the cyberbullying causes the more you are on the hook. If you are a person with millions of followers chances are you have a lot of potential destructive power and it is wiser to keep your facts straight and your nose clean when it comes to calls to action to harrass someone who has comparatively very little ability to defend themselves.
I’m not sure how I feel about cyberbullying being punishable with jail time
Harrassment and defamation are real charges regardless of whether they happen online or not
I am sure. It’s caused suicides.
Same with “SWATing”, giving every asshole access to the internet has caused real physical harm to many people and should be punished severely.
Be careful. Suddenly JD Vance couch memes are illegal, cause it’s making fun of someone for something with no basis in reality.
Believe it or not, posting a meme about JD Vance on Lemmy, where he doesn’t even go most likely, is not cyberbullying.
It is also generally not considered cyberbullying to do such a thing to a public personality like a politician.
Sometimes I think the Right has a point about how sensitive we are… But, only sometimes…
Nobody does till it happens to their kids or a family member and you see what it does to someone, especially children and young people
Well the way laws tend to work they scale to consequence.
Like think about speeding in a school zone. You get caught by a cop doing it it’s a fine. Nobody is going to jail.
But say you speed and hit someone and cause injury. You probably face big fines or a few days in jail or community service.
But then imagine you are speeding in a school zone and you hit and kill a kid. That’s not ruled a no fault accidental death as it would be if you weren’t speeding. Because you broke the smaller law you get the upgrade to manslaughter because you were found criminally at fault.
Cyberbullying applies the same logic. As long as there were no criminal harms and measurable damages it’s a little fine to remind you that that’s not cool. But the more recordable damages the cyberbullying causes the more you are on the hook. If you are a person with millions of followers chances are you have a lot of potential destructive power and it is wiser to keep your facts straight and your nose clean when it comes to calls to action to harrass someone who has comparatively very little ability to defend themselves.