The issue of Monday of the newspaper The New York Times brought a company opinion text on the limits of freedom of expression on Facebook. This is because an American was sentenced to four years in prison for postings considered by the Justice as " threats" to other people, even though none of the " threats" has actually materialized.
In 2010, the citizen Anthony Elonis was abandoned by his wife, who took the couple's two children with her. Since then, he has started to publish on his Facebook profile posts as " I’m not gonna rest until your body is a month, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts" or “There’s one way to love ya but a thousand ways to kill ya”.
The newspaper also reports that in this period Anthony published " fantasies about attacking or killing co-workers, primary school students and even an FBI agent who sought him out to talk about his Facebook" activities.
At court, the Court considered that Anthony's posts were threats" to ex-wife and other people.
In his defense, Anthony claimed that the texts were a form of therapeutic outburst to deal with the pain and sadness of separation and also drafts of fictional lyrics of music, since he is aspiring to rapper. One of his posts considered to be a threat & quot; was a parody of a comical episode of the television program " The Whitest Kids U’ Know".
The central question is, do the words published in his profile in itself demonstrate Anthony's intention to actually kill his ex-wife, co-workers, or the FBI agent?
The newspaper considers that it does not, remembers that the First Amendment protects all kinds of speech – cruel, offensive, outrageous etc. – and that the government should have to prove that the texts were a threat before condemning anyone to prison.
Read the full text (in English) Here.
