Japan's National Diet Passes a Law Strengthening Penalties for Online Harassment

[Shadowferal]

For Gen Z it is not at all a hyperbole to say that removing themselves from social media is equivalent to removing themselves from society. Their peers communicate almost entirely through these means and to avoid them is to exclude yourself from socialization. That is not a reasonable trade off.

Nothing you've typed out is in any way healthy.
And use of a positive word as "reasonable" when you've described something that sounds a lot more like addiction should be avoided.

[The Stormbringer]

Weird that they're strengthening penalties for online harassment, when IRL harassment (stalking, etcetera) is so often ignored.

[Cinnamilk]

Weird that they're strengthening penalties for online harassment, when IRL harassment (stalking, etcetera) is so often ignored.

Stalking laws and chikan related prevention has expanded.

Part of the chikan stuff is it usually doesn't go reported, so there have been awareness campaigns to let people know it's okay to cause a scene instead of silently suffer and let the guy slip back into the crowd.

[The Stormbringer]

Stalking laws and chikan related prevention has expanded.

Part of the chikan stuff is it usually doesn't go reported, so there have been awareness campaigns to let people know it's okay to cause a scene instead of silently suffer and let the guy slip back into the crowd.

Cool! Glad to hear it.

[Specialka]

Japan Passes Bill to Make Online Insults Punishable by Jail Time - Kyodo News(EN)

Similar article with a little more detail(JP)

Any thoughts/opinions regarding this, either specific to Japan or on a more worldwide scale?

The first thing that came to me was an immense culture shock that not only a penalty for this sort of thing but that people want to also strengthen it. I get the sentiment but my American govt overreach spidey sense is tingling.

I feel that time would better be spent destigmatizing mental health care and providing resources so that CBT is covered by the national insurance instead of only prescription based methods.

I might be looking at this the wrong way but to me the potential rights violations seem scarier than fostering the things in the culture that could make people less afraid to get help and get tougher, even if it is an uphill battle.

I have zero intention (or spine) of insulting other people in Japanese, but I have noticed I'm a lot more snarky online in English because I can generally expect and temper the things I say to not utterly destroy a person to the point of offing themselves.

Depends the level of the insult as per your article is still unclear.

If you go to jail because you said "moron" to someone, not cool I guess, but if you said something like "kill yourself" or "go get cancer", yeah I am totally fine with that.

[Cinnamilk]

Depends the level of the insult as per your article is still unclear.

If you go to jail because you said "moron" to someone, not cool I guess, but if you said something like "kill yourself" or "go get cancer", yeah I am totally fine with that.

Maybe it's just me, but I've never really seen isolated insults as anything that really stings that much, it always needs the weight of the full message.

Granted if some guy is sending hundreds of messages over weeks the hate is well understood.

[Specialka]

Maybe it's just me, but I've never really seen isolated insults as anything that really stings that much, it always needs the weight of the full message.

Granted if some guy is sending hundreds of messages over weeks the hate is well understood.

In France, there was the Mila case. A 16 year old teen insulted Islam. In return, she got death threats and such. Some of those people were convicted quite recently to jail time and fines.

[Cinnamilk]

In France, there was the Mila case. A 16 year old teen insulted Islam. In return, she got death threats and such. Some of those people were convicted quite recently to jail time and fines.

On one hand, it sounds like she was pissing on the bees' nest. I think angry comments would be a pretty normal reaction, including a nondescript, non-detailed "fuck off and die" sort of thing.

Where it crosses the line for me is repeated harassment outside the comments of the video, or spamming multiple comments with the same sort of death threat vibe.

[Lynarii]

Nothing you've typed out is in any way healthy.
And use of a positive word as "reasonable" when you've described something that sounds a lot more like addiction should be avoided.

What is healthy about the harassment that you're defending? You're clutching your pearls over any possible responsibility for the actions of the poor innocent attackers, yet hand-waving away any concern for the victims.

[Shadowferal]

What is healthy about the harassment that you're defending? You're clutching your pearls over any possible responsibility for the actions of the poor innocent attackers, yet hand-waving away any concern for the victims.

If a person is giving away his/her own personal information online then that person is stupid. Even worse when such stupidity negatively impacts others.
If a stranger runs up Joey's credit card after Joey posted his cc#, security code, and exp date in an open forum, sure a crime was committed against Joey. But lets not overlook the details.

[Lynarii]

If a person is giving away his/her own personal information online then that person is stupid. Even worse when such stupidity negatively impacts others.
If a stranger runs up Joey's credit card after Joey posted his cc#, security code, and exp date in an open forum, sure a crime was committed against Joey. But lets not overlook the details.

That's our fundamental difference in opinion I believe. I do NOT feel negatively impacted at all by not being allowed to harass someone to suicide seeing as though I have no desire whatsoever to do that to another person. For the people that do, I can see why they're upset, I just don't CARE that they are.

[Yunru]

Man people on social media are just snowflakes. Any law that prevents freedom of speech, even its a insult is a bad thing.

Main reason is that politicans and rich people can abuse this type of law to jail anyone they dislike. Other issue is, how are you gona prove that this person typed a insult on keyboard/phone as things can get stolen and hackers/thiefs can use this information to get money out of people.

Then there is a issue with site securitys and password leaks.

One thing that needs to improve is auto-bans for people who type insults like that. However social media doesnt want to spend money on this to moderate that (and use the cheap volenter labor). Passing a law that makes companys liable for their content seems a much better idea.

What stops people from simply making a social media bot spam accaunts and spam kill yourself to every japanese person? Nothing.

[Sunseeker]

That's what moderators are for.

And who moderates society? Oh, right, the government! With laws, and people to enforce them!

Man people on social media are just snowflakes. Any law that prevents freedom of speech, even its a insult is a bad thing.

Main reason is that politicans and rich people can abuse this type of law to jail anyone they dislike. Other issue is, how are you gona prove that this person typed a insult on keyboard/phone as things can get stolen and hackers/thiefs can use this information to get money out of people.

Then there is a issue with site securitys and password leaks.

One thing that needs to improve is auto-bans for people who type insults like that. However social media doesnt want to spend money on this to moderate that (and use the cheap volenter labor). Passing a law that makes companys liable for their content seems a much better idea.

What stops people from simply making a social media bot spam accaunts and spam kill yourself to every japanese person? Nothing.

We need laws to protect free speech, but social media sites should auto-ban people who type naughty things and we need laws to hold social media liable for the shit people say?

What the actual fuck?

Goddamn this thread is garbage.

[Muzjhath]

Nothing you've typed out is in any way healthy.
And use of a positive word as "reasonable" when you've described something that sounds a lot more like addiction should be avoided.

So, would you have cancelled your phone-line and not had a phone 40 years ago to your home?
That is the level you're talking about for a lot of people. Instead of that one phone with the twisty cord it's on different apps.

[Shadowferal]

So, would you have cancelled your phone-line and not had a phone 40 years ago to your home? That is the level you're talking about for a lot of people. Instead of that one phone with the twisty cord it's on different apps.

Can you call me? Try.

[Muzjhath]

Can you call me? Try.

While this particular harrassment might have been done by strangers. A lot of it isn't, it's done by peer groups. Who would know it.
Hence my question.

[Cinnamilk]

What, you don't like the healthy dose of gross victim blaming after being told someone committed suicide... oh, hold on, right, yeah. Never mind, I'm with you now.

Sadly, its typical MMO-C.

I mean, I'm not doing Yunru's takes, but I do think there is some sort of balance between outside regulation to prevent this sort of stuff and also making sure free speech isn't unreasonably restricted.

I just don't know where that is and I thought it would be a good idea to see where people sit.

Clearly from the more American audience, being the first amendment and all makes people see it as pretty sacred thing.
There's a measure of how enforceable it would be to go after every single utterance of something that could be called harassment from an audience that maybe leaves 1 comment per viewer, vs targeting people that harass a single person hundreds of times over.

I think that interesting discussion can happen on this topic, but to be fair it is MMO-C and nuance isn't exactly something people have in abundance.

[Gestopft]

Nothing you've typed out is in any way healthy.

Not being healthy doesn't mean that poster's point isn't true.

And I think "make digital spaces safer for people" is much less of a heavy lift than "de-digitalize an entire generation"

[Diaphin]

If a person is giving away his/her own personal information online then that person is stupid. Even worse when such stupidity negatively impacts others.
If a stranger runs up Joey's credit card after Joey posted his cc#, security code, and exp date in an open forum, sure a crime was committed against Joey. But lets not overlook the details.

Are you sure that you're conservative bias isn't just making you incapable of differentiating normal human concepts of right, wrong and morality? Over the last few years we have seen after all conservatives defending for and protesting in favor of the public execution of racial minorities by police officials, we saw conservatives trying to overthrow american democracy in an fascist assault during jan 6 and there is widespread advocacy for the sexual abuse of minors and pedophilia from conservative and anti-sjw voices offline and online. At this point when I know that somebody is conservative, I warn other people and especially parents around them of the possibility that they be sexual criminals.

[Ghost of Cow]

We need laws to protect free speech, but social media sites should auto-ban people who type naughty things and we need laws to hold social media liable for the shit people say?

What the actual fuck?

Goddamn this thread is garbage.

You know those two things aren't mutually exclusive at all, right?

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I mean, I'm not doing Yunru's takes, but I do think there is some sort of balance between outside regulation to prevent this sort of stuff and also making sure free speech isn't unreasonably restricted.

What at worries me about this sort of thing is that I already see people turning into quivering piles of goo online because of something relatively tame they saw in text. I'm not sure I'd support laws that say they have the power to get people locked up over that.

Now "Harassment" as it's traditionally defined - something that's targeted and ongoing/repeated - that's another story. But I'd hate to see plain old Twitter mob outrage start carrying legal weight.