These days, with social media platforms available to everyone, we’ve heard plenty cases of cyberstalking and cyberbullying.  They’re no laughing matter, as these actions could lead the person on the receiving end to commit suicide.  But the thing is, threats made on the intertubes aren’t enough for the court to put these people behind bars.

In 2007, William Cassidy was involved in a religious group led by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo or Alyce Zeoli, an enthroned tulku, or reincarnate master, who was enthroned in 1988 as a reincarnate llama, but eventually went their separate ways.  In 2010, Cassidy started harassing Zeoli on Twitter and Blogspot.

Tweets ranged from the vulgar (“that ho bitch so fat if she falls & breaks her leg gravy will spill out”) to the threatening (“want it to all be over soon sweetie?”).  The federal government deemed that Cassidy violated a 2006 anti-stalking law that prohibits the use of an “interactive computer service” to cause “substantial emotional distress,” as Zeoli did not leave her house for nearly a year and half except going to her therapist, fearing for her safety.

But Cassidy argued that the prosecution violated the First Ammendment.  Cassidy’s case backed by Hanni Fakhoury, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed a brief in support of the defendant’s motion to dismiss the case but not because they support Cassidy’s actions, but because they don’t want the authorities to haul anyone to jail for using Twitter.

“Law enforcement may have disagreed with the tone and content of Mr. Cassidy’s speech,” said Fakhoury, “but the police hauling a Twitter user to jail for offending a public figure was the greater harm.”

Judge Roger W. Titus agreed with the defendant and gave his analysis on the case:

“Because this case involves First Amendment issues, terms that were in use by citizens when the Bill of Rights was drafted may help in understanding the legal context of Blogs and Twitter. Suppose that a Colonist erects a bulletin board in the front yard of his home to post announcements that might be of interest to others and other Colonists do the same. A Blog is like a bulletin board, except that it is erected in cyberspace rather than in one’s front yard. If one Colonist wants to see what is on another’s bulletin board, he would need to walk over to his neighbor’s yard and look at what is posted, or hire someone else to do so. Now, one can inspect a neighbor’s Blog by simply turning on a computer.”

“Twitter allows the bulletin board system to function so that what is posted on Colonist No. 1’s bulletin board is automatically posted on Colonist No. 2’s bulletin board for Colonist No. 2 to see. The automatic postings from one Colonist to another can be turned on or off by the owners of the bulletin boards, but there is no mandatory aspect of postings on one Colonist’s bulletin board showing up on the other’s. It is entirely up to the two Colonists whether their bulletin boards will be interconnected in such a manner.”

Titus also stated that Zeoli is a public figure and comments made about her probably ranged from praises to criticisms.  She always had the choice not to look at those comments or even block them all together.

image: Weekly Volcano