Every week almost, we’re warning our readers that what you post online can get you into some really serious trouble offline.
In 2015, it’s not really old news. Social media caught us off guard. That’s for sure. Suddenly we’re thrown into a position where we have this incredible platform to shout to the world and be heard.
But with this platform inevitably comes responsibility. Outside of our computers, free speech isn’t a catch-all defence, and it isn’t on the Internet, either. And it’s been that way for some time now.
Over the last couple of weeks, this reality failed to dawn on our latest two social media “geniuses”, who were both arrested for posting the same threatening message on social network Facebook.
First we had Ebony Dickens of East Point in Georgia. Ebony posted the below message onto Facebook –
“All Black ppl should rise up and shoot at every white cop in the nation starting NOW,” said the post made on Monday. “I condone black on white killings. Hell they condone crimes against us.
“I thought about shooting every white cop I see in the head until I’m either caught by the police or killed by them. Ha!!!! I think I can pull it off. Might kill at least 15 tomorrow, I’m plotting now.”
We’ve seen time and time again that even if you post empty threats, they can often still get you into plenty of trouble. Especially if you’re threatening to go on a cop-killing shooting spree. The fact that Dickens posted the threat via an alias account under the name Tiffany Milan, the police – with the help from the FBI and Homeland Security – still managed to track her down and she was duly arrested for a charge of disseminating information related to terrorist acts.
Then comes Michael Leshawn McCullum from Iowa, who actually copied and pasted Dickens’s post and also published it onto Facebook, also under an alias. He managed to get himself arrested only days after the arrest of Dickens.
Okay, so it is unlikely that neither of the bungling pair were serious about – or even probably capable of – carrying out their threats of a cop killing spree, but online – or offline – this doesn’t matter. You don’t get to threaten the safety of others.
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It’s also worth noting that expressing context or perspective when online is much harder than in the real world, and even if a post is meant to be sarcastic, humorous or otherwise taken with a pinch of salt, this doesn’t always convey when in black and white.
So that’s two more arrests from people who don’t understand that your digital words carry real world repercussions. Dickens had later claimed in her threatening message that her post was protected by the 1st Amendment, that protects freedom of speech. But one does not need a law degree to know that in a court of law, this rarely extends to death threats or threats of violence.
Even if you’re using an alias online, this is unlikely to protect you if you’re making these sorts of posts. There is no safety or immunity behind a keyboard, just the illusion of one. And it’s about time we really got a handle on that.
