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posted by n1 on Tuesday June 24 2014, @07:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the whole-world-is-a-schoolyard dept.

The BBC reports:

Complaints originating from social media make up "at least half" of calls passed on to front-line officers, a senior officer has told the BBC.

Chief Constable Alex Marshall, head of the College of Policing, said the number of crimes arising from social media represented "a real problem".

About 6000 officers are being trained to deal with online offences, which are a new problem for officers tasked with policing low-level crime. According to Marshall, the police and public are still trying to understand when online insults became criminal.

Related Stories

Historic Facebook "Fraping" Case Sees Irish Man Fined US$2,735 15 comments

From http://rt.com/news/169660-facebook-criminal-damage-page/:-

An Irish man has avoided serving jail time after pleading guilty to posting an offensive status update on his ex-girlfriend's Facebook page. The landmark case represents the first criminal prosecution for damages done to a social media account.

The 30-year-old man, hailing from the town of Donegal, was charged under the Criminal Damage Act 1991, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a €10,000 fine.

The Defendant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was acquitted by a jury last month of raping and falsely imprisoning the same woman in her home on the same date her Facebook page was defaced.

He received a 2,000 Euro (US$2,735) fine. Potentially, a large number of people would be guilty of Fraping. Overall, the prosecution of criminal damage/computer misuse/fraudulent advertising/false utterances may be very expensive. In addition to this, there is the lawful and unlawful manipulation of social media accounts by police and courts:-

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by rogueippacket on Tuesday June 24 2014, @07:59PM

    by rogueippacket (2793) on Tuesday June 24 2014, @07:59PM (#59561)

    "It should be a case of let's be sensible, let's not be friends with that person on Facebook, perhaps contact Facebook first or don't use Facebook. It's common-sense stuff."

    Well, there's your problem. If you figure out how to instil common sense in the public, you'll solve a lot more than online bullying...

    • (Score: 1) by crAckZ on Tuesday June 24 2014, @08:20PM

      by crAckZ (3501) on Tuesday June 24 2014, @08:20PM (#59571) Journal

      What do you mean "not be friends" on facebook? If I don't have friends and groups where will I get my validation from? It is kind of funny knowing there really are internet police now. So if I make a fake Facebook profile would the internet police find that as fraud or intent to deceive?
      I see no way out of the mess the internet has become.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Tork on Tuesday June 24 2014, @08:33PM

        by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 24 2014, @08:33PM (#59574)
        "If I don't have friends and groups where will I get my validation from?"

        Tech blogs where complaining about social media sites earns you 'friends'?
        --
        🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
        • (Score: 1) by crAckZ on Wednesday June 25 2014, @01:21AM

          by crAckZ (3501) on Wednesday June 25 2014, @01:21AM (#59644) Journal

          No it didn't. I just checked my profile. I will just go back to Google+ and wait for the next article about the NSA to try and win friends.

      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday June 24 2014, @09:29PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 24 2014, @09:29PM (#59584)

        "What do you mean "not be friends" on facebook?"

        I wonder how much of it is what used to be called customer support, via twitter, fb, etc.

        That's always been an absolute hell of a job, just now there's a written 3rd party record when an angry customer threatens to blow up the office, whereas in the old days it was just "eh". And given that its a written 3rd party record and at at least 1 in a million actually carry out the act, you cover your behind by reporting every threat to the cops so when that 1 in a million happens, corporate can't be blamed for ignoring the threats. So the cops get absolutely deluged with noise.

        The article also intentionally seemed to mention and then gloss over the commerce aspect. I've never met such a density of flakes as on craigslist, and ebay is only slightly better, so if you assume neither the venue nor the payment processor care or will follow up, I suppose you have to go to the cops with every "customer support" problem. I can see why a legacy media property would focus on social media as the primary source of the problem as a competitor, even if the cops actually report its mostly commerce related.

        I guess if you set up a physical store or bar without any security or customer support, and all kinds of criminal activity happen there, the cops will shut it down and get the license pulled, but if you do that online, the cops just get swamped with work. Why waste profit on customer support and security if the cops will do it for free?

        We're probably only a couple years from domain names getting pulled/blocked not by the copyright cops but plain old cops tired of BS. Can't run an orderly establishment or orderly website, bye bye, no access here anymore.

        • (Score: 1) by clone141166 on Tuesday June 24 2014, @11:39PM

          by clone141166 (59) on Tuesday June 24 2014, @11:39PM (#59618)

          If this results in the police shutting down facebook, I guess I could overlook the free speech violations in that case. :P

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 25 2014, @02:24AM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 25 2014, @02:24AM (#59664) Journal

      Let's be sensible? I have a problem with any laws that make insults criminal. There can be little if any "freedom of speech" if you have to guard your every word for a possible insult. Worse, in the UK, even when you can PROVE that your statement is literally true - you can still be sued for stating the obvious. "Tom's an ass biter." Oh-oh - subpoena'd to court. Yes, your Honor, I actually have photos of Tom biting an ass. What's that? You don't CARE that Tom is an ass biter? You only care that I said he is an ass biter?

      Doesn't make any sense. At all.

  • (Score: 2) by jasassin on Tuesday June 24 2014, @11:16PM

    by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Tuesday June 24 2014, @11:16PM (#59609) Homepage Journal

    What more could two guys from Jersey possibly want?
    Well, to have these fucks stop talking shit about us...
    on the lnternet for starters.
    What have l been telling you?
    There's not much you can do to stop that.
    Well, short of showing up at all their houses...
    and beating the shit out of them, l guess.
    You know, with all the money we're making, man...
    we could buy a lot of plane tickets.
    How many people want to kick some ass
    Yeah?
    Do you post as "Magnolia Fan" on Moviepoopshoot.com?
    Yeah.
    Did you write... "Fuck Jay and Silent Bob.
    "Fuck them and their stupid asses"?
    Yeah. A while ago. So?
    How many people want to kick some ass
    l do, l do And how many people are sick ofholding it back
    l want...
    On Moviepoopshoot.com...
    did you say Jay and Silent Bob are--
    quote--"fucking clown shoes, and if they were real...
    "l'd kick the shit out of them for being so stupid"?
    -Yeah. -Really?
    How many people are sick ofholding it back
    l am, l am
    How many people want to kick some ass
    How many people want to kick some ass
    How many people want to kick some ass
    What you gonna do
    When you're sick ofholding it back
    That's right. That's it.
    Uh-huh.

    --
    jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
  • (Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Wednesday June 25 2014, @01:36AM

    by Appalbarry (66) on Wednesday June 25 2014, @01:36AM (#59647) Journal

    Sigh. Does anyone take cop statistics seriously?

    "We arrested a dealer with a half a kilo of marijuana with a street value of FIVE GAZILLION DOLLARS!"

    "Speeding is a factor in ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY percent of all traffic fatalities!"

    "And texting while driving is responsible for another HUNDRED AND TWENTY percent!"

  • (Score: 1) by darkfeline on Wednesday June 25 2014, @03:33AM

    by darkfeline (1030) on Wednesday June 25 2014, @03:33AM (#59673) Homepage

    >the police and public are still trying to understand when online insults became criminal

    When did insulting someone online become a crime? Heck, when did insulting someone face-to-face become a crime? What happened to freedom of speech? (Don't answer that last one, I don't want to know. LET ME LIVE IN MY FANTASY WORLD OF DENIAL!)

    --
    Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday June 25 2014, @05:35AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 25 2014, @05:35AM (#59695) Journal

      >the police and public are still trying to understand when online insults became criminal
      When did insulting someone online become a crime? Heck, when did insulting someone face-to-face become a crime?

      Speaking of UK:
      * Protection from Harassment Act 1997
      * Communications Act 2003
      * Malicious Communication Act of 1998
      * Anti-social behaviour order [wikipedia.org]

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 25 2014, @09:42AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 25 2014, @09:42AM (#59760)

        Rowan Atkinsons speech about the topic.
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gciegyiLYtY [youtube.com]

        He really hits the points.

        • (Score: 2) by Open4D on Wednesday June 25 2014, @04:09PM

          by Open4D (371) on Wednesday June 25 2014, @04:09PM (#59934) Journal

          FWIW, that Rowan Atkinson speech was for the Reform Section 5 [reformsection5.org.uk] campaign, which fortunately was successful in dealing with Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.

          Unfortunately, there are all those laws that c0lo mentioned still stifling free speech.