England is getting tougher on Internet trolls it seems, the BBC is out along with a host of other publications, that the most serious offenders could now see their sentence quadrupled from 6 months in jail to 24 months in jail. I remember last year reading an article about a British boxer, The Guardian covered it,
When Curtis Woodhouse lost his English light-welterweight title on points to Shane Singleton on Friday night , he was branded a “disgrace” on the social networking site by ‘Jimmyob88′, who has reportedly been abusing Woodhouse on Twitter for months.
The boxer was so enraged with the tweets that he offered his followers a £1,000 reward if they could help him locate the culprit. Woodhouse’s growing number of Twitter followers chipped in and managed to track down his troll.
Woodhouse set off to find his troll, tweeting a photograph of the street on which Jimmyob88 lived. “Right Jimbob, I’m here,” he wrote, adding: “Someone tell me what number he lives at or do I have to knock on every door #itsshowtime.”
Realising the error of his ways, Jimmyob88 replied: “I am sorry it’s getting a bit out of hand. I am in the wrong. I accept that.” A triumphant Woodhouse went home, joking that he could have saved himself some petrol money by blocking his cowardly abuser.
From the BBC article:
Internet trolls could face up to two years in jail under new laws, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has said.
He told the Mail on Sunday quadrupling the current maximum six-month term showed his determination to “take a stand against a baying cyber-mob”.
Mr Grayling was speaking days after TV presenter Chloe Madeley suffered online abuse, which Mr Grayling described as “crude and degrading”.
She has welcomed the proposed laws but said social media should be regulated.
Social media ‘venom’
Under the measures, magistrates could pass serious cases on to crown courts.
The law change is to be made as an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill going through Parliament, and due to be debated in the House of Lords in the coming week. The Bill applies to England and Wales only.
The new measures would also give police more time to collect enough evidence to enable successful prosecutions to be brought.
Mr Grayling told the newspaper: “These internet trolls are cowards who are poisoning our national life.
“No-one would permit such venom in person, so there should be no place for it on social media. That is why we are determined to quadruple the current six-month sentence.”
Read the full story on BBC.com
