The Most Disturbing Part of This Story About the Suppression of Expression...

...is well…  can you see it?  Here’s a typical report from the Daily Mail:

A 22-year-old man has been charged on suspicion of making malicious comments on Facebook following the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby.

Benjamin Flatters, from Lincoln, was arrested last night after complaints were made to Lincolnshire Police about comments made on Facebook, which were allegedly of a racist or anti-religious nature.

He was charged with an offence of malicious communications this afternoon in relation to the comments, a Lincolnshire Police spokesman said.

A second man was visited by officers and warned about his activity on social media, the spokesman added....

The charge comes after two men were earlier released on bail following their arrest for making alleged offensive comments on Twitter about the murder.

Complaints were made to Avon and Somerset Police about remarks that appeared on the social networking website, which were allegedly of a racist or anti-religious nature.

This comes on the heels of the brutal murder of British soldier Lee Rigby by islamofascists in England.  This is particularly famous due to this video that emerged of one of the attackers trying to justify his brutality on camera.  You can watch that video, here.

Anyway, what is particularly galling about the arrest of those twitterers and facebookers isn’t just the suppression of speech, which is bad enough.  It’s the fact that the police are doing almost nothing to justify it.  We don’t even know the names of most of these people.  We certainly don’t know what any of them said.

I mean even in America actual incitement is unlawful.  I should know, my freedom of speech was suppressed over a year ago by a convicted terrorist named Brett Kimberlin, falsely asserting that I had incited violence against him.  It’s a long story and you can read dig into it, here but let’s just say I didn’t even come close to meeting the legal standard and indeed did not want or hope that he would face anything but legal consequences for his criminal conduct.  He is the criminal, not me.

In America, the controlling legal standard for incitement is enunciated in the landmark case of Brandenburg v. Ohio:

the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.

So in the case of these British tweeters, for all we know, this really might have been incitement under that standard and thus properly punishable under even America’s relatively broad First Amendment protections.  That doesn’t solve every objection to this prosecution.  In America, the rule against incitement still has to be viewpoint neutral.  That is, you have to punish all incitement and not just “racial or religious incitement.”

But in fact, Britain seems to punish things that by no stretch of the imagination is incitement.  For instance, last year a soccer player called Muamba was suffering from heart failure and as often is the case, someone said something stupid about it:

A Swansea University student was sentenced to 56 days in prison after posting a message on Twitter as doctors fought to save Muamba's life.

Liam Stacey, 21, wrote on the social networking site: ''LOL (laugh out loud). F*** Muamba. He's dead!!!''

Stacey, who admitted racially aggravated public disorder, was suspended from university for the remainder of the year and served half his 56-day sentence.

He described his tweet as a "stupid, massive, massive mistake and I've paid a big price for it".

Muamba suffered a heart attack during an FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur on March 17 last year.

So it was tasteless and by his own admission it was also a racist comment.  But by no stretch of the imagination would anyone say that this was true incitement.  It was at best ambiguous about advocating his death and what does he expect?  That one of the doctors would see his tweet and agree?  And yet this for some reason merited jail time in the eyes of Britain’s courts.  Did they give a rapist early release so they could imprison this dangerous, dangerous criminal?  Inquiring minds and whatnot.

So we can’t feel confident that this is even true incitement.  It might be nothing more than “saying something bad about a certain group.”

The dumbest thing about this, is that what does Britain think it will do?  Keep all these horrible thoughts off Twitter?  The fact is there is a whole country full of 300 million (mostly) English speaking individuals who are free to say this kind of stuff all the time.  An American is free to deny the holocaust, or advocate a fresh one and the British do virtually nothing to keep these ideas out.  Even if you accept the premise that these ideas will make people lose control and get violent—a very dubious assertion—the fact is they can’t keep these ideas out.  So all they will end up doing is needlessly filling up their prison cells.

As I said on Twitter this evening, not even China can control their internet... and they really try.  This half-hearted effort to control what people say in Britain is beyond pointless.

In the meantime, since they are not being told what awful things are being said, this creates a chilling effect on British speech.  They are not sure where the line is, so they watch their mouths hoping not to come anywhere near the line, and thus these arrests suppress far more speech than what the police can lawfully ban.  And that seems to be the idea.  Consider this passage from the end of the article that has been repeated in many others, a police spokesnazi:

'People should stop and think about what they say on social media before making statements as the consequences could be serious.'

Right watch what you say, or they might come for you.  How fascist of them.

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My wife and I have lost our jobs due to the harassment of convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin, including an attempt to get us killed and to frame me for a crime carrying a sentence of up to ten years.  I know that claim sounds fantastic, but if you read starting here, you will see absolute proof of these claims using documentary and video evidence.  If you would like to help in the fight to hold Mr. Kimberlin accountable, please hit the Blogger’s Defense Team button on the right.  And thank you.

Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.  And you can purchase my book (or borrow it for free if you have Amazon Prime), Archangel: A Novel of Alternate, Recent History here.  And you can read a little more about my novel, here.

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Disclaimer:

I have accused some people, particularly Brett Kimberlin, of reprehensible conduct.  In some cases, the conduct is even criminal.  In all cases, the only justice I want is through the appropriate legal process—such as the criminal justice system.  I do not want to see vigilante violence against any person or any threat of such violence.  This kind of conduct is not only morally wrong, but it is counter-productive.

In the particular case of Brett Kimberlin, I do not want you to even contact him.  Do not call him.  Do not write him a letter.  Do not write him an email.  Do not text-message him.  Do not engage in any kind of directed communication.  I say this in part because under Maryland law, that can quickly become harassment and I don’t want that to happen to him.

And for that matter, don’t go on his property.  Don’t sneak around and try to photograph him.  Frankly try not to even be within his field of vision.  Your behavior could quickly cross the line into harassment in that way too (not to mention trespass and other concerns).

And do not contact his organizations, either.  And most of all, leave his family alone.

The only exception to all that is that if you are reporting on this, there is of course nothing wrong with contacting him for things like his official response to any stories you might report.  And even then if he tells you to stop contacting him, obey that request.  That this is a key element in making out a harassment claim under Maryland law—that a person asks you to stop and you refuse.

And let me say something else.  In my heart of hearts, I don’t believe that any person supporting me has done any of the above.  But if any of you have, stop it, and if you haven’t don’t start.