How Much Control is Too Much?
Many of us here in the US may have heard about the riots that took place recently over in the UK. Well, what you may have not heard was that two young men, ages 20 and 22, were actually sentenced to 4 years of jail time in connection. Here is the kicker; they didn’t start the riots that took place. Their arrests and subsequent convictions were for attempting to cause further rioting!
That’s right, what these two young men did was they created a Facebook event and a page both of which encouraged further rioting. The thing is neither one led to any mischief!
This raises a serious question:
how far should the government go in policing social media outlets like Facebook or Twitter? What is to say that these two young men were serious about what they did? Was it possibly a prank for which they are now being treated to such a harsh punishment? In the UK, the government has gone as far as arresting one fellow for planning a WATER GUN fight on Facebook!
Obviously this is a step too far. Hopefully the US government realizes that the 1st amendment would not allow such heavy handedness when it comes to what a person may or may not say. Should credible links to possible terrorism be investigated? Most definitely. The point at which the line could be crossed however is far from clear.
Suffice to say, it will take the entire social media community to keep an eye out to ensure that this line stays firmly in place. We must make sure that someone planning something as simple as a water gun fight does not wasted the time or resources of our penal system by being arrested because of the government’s overactive concern.