cf rape threats on Twitter

I'm all for freedom of expression but it's not absolute, never has been and never will be.

No-one, for example, is likely to advocate for the right of a paedophile freely to express their carnal desires.

Threatening to rape someone is rightly an offence, through Twitter or by other means, and needs to be taken seriously and dealt with.

Exhortations to bomb buildings are also rightly an offence - arguably an incitement to a terrorist act - and should be dealt with similarly.

For the avoidance of doubt these are all extreme examples. I think Cameron's attempt to censor the internet by blocking porn is laughably ill-advised: it won't work anyway, but that's not the point, he shouldn't be trying to do it. Oppressive regimes do this kind of thing (and it doesn't normally work for them, either).

But by any standards that tattoo crosses the line.

Posted By: Old Man, Jul 31, 15:41:07