British government prosecutors have set out newguidelines to make it harder to bring legal cases against people who sendoffensive messages on Twitter and Facebook.
The guidelines, published Wednesday, come amid increasingcriminal prosecutions against people who post online messages deemed indecentor menacing, and criticism that such cases are a threat to free speech. Civilrights campaigners have complained that British authorities have been too harshwith people who carelessly make insensitive comments online.
"These interim guidelines are intended to strike theright balance between freedom of expression and the need to uphold the criminallaw," said Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions.
One of the most notorious of such cases was that of PaulChambers, who was arrested by anti-terrorist police in 2010 a week after hejoked on Twitter that he would "blow the airport sky high." He sentthe tweet after he was angered that England's Robin Hood airport was closed andhis flight was going to be delayed. Chambers was convicted and fined, but thisyear the High Court overturned his conviction.
Starmer acknowledged that prosecuting Chambers was a wrong"judgment call."
Hundreds of others — many young people — have been caughtout, including a teenager who tweeted Olympic diver Tom Daley to tell him hehad let his father down. The teenager was arrested but released with aharassment warning.
The new guidelines seek to draw a line between crediblethreats of violence, harassment or stalking — which will be prosecuted — and"the expression of unpopular or unfashionable opinion about serious ortrivial matters, or banter or humor, even if distasteful to some and painful tothose subjected to it," Starmer added.
Prosecutors should only act on such communications if theyare "grossly offensive," and no prosecution should be brought unlessit can be shown to be necessary and proportionate, the guidance said.
The guidance is intended to help public prosecutors decidewhether to charge someone or not, as well as give advice to police. Theguidelines come into immediate effect and are subject to change after aconsultation.
Figures obtained by The Associated Press through a freedomof information request have showed a rising tally of prosecutions in Britainfor electronic communications — phone calls, emails and social media posts —deemed offensive, obscene or menacing from 1,263 in 2009 to 1,843 in 2011.
The number of such convictions grew from 873 in 2009 to1,286 last year.