Forum - View topicNEWS: Arizona Senate Passes Electronic Harassment Bill
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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Good luck enforcing that. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5592 |
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Apollo-kun
 Posts: 1213 Location: City 7, Macross 7 |
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What they're trying to do: squelch online bullying and hate speech that has driven people to suicide. A valiant effort, no denying that; being acquainted with victims, and being a victim myself, of cyberbullying, I've seen it's damage firsthand.
What the bill does: Generalizes "hate", "offensive" and "annoying" to the point that it can be broadly misconstrued by anybody and everybody, which puts people such as Matt Stone and Trey Parker, Bill Maher, and your average blogger at risk of being legally charged. There DOES need to be a way to curb cyberbullying. This isn't it. |
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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Arizona is trying very hard to become my least favorite state. The whole spread-out, car dependent sun belt thing is already a huge turn-off to me (calling Phoenix a city insults the word!), but it's the states government that really goes for the gold. I suspect that this could be just careless legislation rather than something intended to curtail 'offensive' speech, but knowing some of the people who get elected in Arizona, I could conceive of it being meant for that by some and certainly that it somebody might try to use it to stifle speech.
Are there are any local online satirists who go for Joe Arpaio with fangs bared? I could certainly imagine him giving shutting them down with this a try. In this case, I would just hope that if the law were ever used as the CBLDF fears, that the first amendment, or even just Article II, §6 of Arizona's own constitution could be used to quickly swat it down. |
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Great Rumbler
 Posts: 334 Location: Oklahoma |
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This post really annoys me! 
Have fun in prison! |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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"Prohibits using any electronic or digital device, instead of a telephone, with the intent to [...] annoy or offend a person."
(Sorry. I know ANN is not an imageboard but this is just to horrifically appropriate to not post). |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2175 |
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They should get rid of the annoy and offend part and they'll have a bill that many would get behind. I work for a school district and cyber-bullying is really serious thing. In my day, bullying stopped outside of the school building but now these kids are having their at home life ruined as well. Something needs to be done and I think this is a step in the right direction.
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Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
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So, basically, a devout christian can sue me because they saw me chatting it up with my boyfriend* in a public forum, and our "insidious homosexuality" offended him.
*: I don't actually have a boyfriend, but let's just assume I do
What's wrong with being Car-Dependent? I'm a car lover, so I'm just wondering. |
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RyanSaotome
 Posts: 4210 Location: Towson, Maryland |
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Can you imagine the trolling that'll come from this? If anyone lists on their profiles they are from arizona and troll forums, the REAL trolls will report them to law enforcement if they disagree with them on stuff. =/
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asimpson2006
 Posts: 3151 Location: USA |
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The more I see these types of bills the more of the phrase "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" becomes more and more to the fore front.
Bullying and Harassment is a problem, but these type of bills really end up doing more harm then good IMO. There are much better ways of dealing with these problems but passing bills like this is not the way to it. |
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FeistyDreams
 Posts: 41 |
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I'm 99.9% positive this is a law meant to curtail cyber bullying, nothing more. That being said, the first time someone goes to enforce it, chances are good it will make its way to Supreme Court as a violation of 1st Amendment rights. It may or may not make it so far in the case of doing what it's supposed to - protecting against cyber bullying - but if the law itself ever gets abused, you can be sure it will.
OT -- I don't understand the hate against Phoenix... I mean, yes, a lot of AZ's laws are pretty screwy (I was born and raised in MA, so AZ is quite out there to me) but the city itself is rather nice. It's clean for a city, there IS public transit (buses that go over 90% of the valley and they're working on increasing it, as well as there being the trolley system in the middle of the city), and it's not super-crowded... I hate Boston and New York and the likes because of how built UP they are, they're very smelly cities, and I get headaches within minutes of being within them. Don't have that issue with Phoenix, despite the heat shield that keeps pollution in. ...And we have beautiful winters here. No more shoveling my car out of the snow and spending 5 hours in traffic for what should be a 20 minute commute *grumble* ... Yeah, the gorgeous winters here sold it for me XD I can deal with the fact that it's already breaking 100 here, will break 115 in a couple month's time, and won't start being under 100 again until October at best... ...Maybe the heat explains the crazy politics here. Everyone's brain is fried. /wishfulthinking |
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Sunday Silence
 Posts: 2047 |
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Goodbye ANN, it was nice knowing you in Arizona.
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Chronomeister
Posts: 8 |
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I don't see why this is such a bad thing. Ads annoy the living daylights out of me. Finally someone out there is going to take these things off my internets, TV, apps, etc. I'm assuming they included "instead of a telephone" cause they already have something for telemarketers. I'm sure this is what they meant. /sarcasm
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Melanchthon
 Posts: 550 Location: Northwest from Here |
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Arizona, let me introduce you to the First Amendment. And while we're here, let me introduce you to the Fourteenth Amendment, which says you have to follow the First Amendment.
Now, you may ask, 'Why would Arizona pass such a law, when it clearly will be overturned?' Well, it's all about scoring political points. Assuming that cyber-bullying is a problem (I don't, but others do), then it is a problem that needs to the solved, for the children (For some reason, my recommendation of Internet Drivers Licenses that make it illegal for under-16s to use the internet is always ignored). By passing this law now, the incumbents can stand up and say they're fighting for the children. The lawsuit and lawyers bills come later, after the election, and everyone will forget about the waste of taxpayer money in another four years. Which is why I think all states should follow the example of Illinois, and imprison their politicians after they have left office. |
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dewlwieldthedarpachief
 Posts: 751 Location: Canada |
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Reminds me of a few years ago when Jack Thompson was crusading against "murder simulators", as if everything was peachy before those nasty video games started corrupting our youth! 
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