Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

We have a term for the type of speech that spurs stochastic terrorism already. It's blood libel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel

If you spread lies about a group that demonizes them you put members of that group at risk.

For instance, if I started a viral rumor that white male computer programmers all keep sex slaves under their houses and enough people believed it a lot of the people on this website would suddenly be living much more difficult and dangerous lives as lots of strangers would assume that they were evil monsters who needed to be put down for the sake of children without even getting to know them. The murder rate against white male computer programmers might even rise noticeably as they became a target for random violence by people who wanted to do a "good deed" on their way out of this life.




So are you saying that if someone tweets something ridiculous like "Did you know that Jews drink the blood of murdered Christian infants? #zionists", they should be arrested and charged for this?

That seems to me a highly disproportionate infringement of this person's freedom of expression, as well as being completely pointless. If you're going to have the police arrest people for posting conspiracist idiocy on the internet, they'd have no time left to investigate real crimes that meaningfully affect people.


> they should be arrested and charged for this?

If it reaches a point of causing public disorder or harming the general welfare of a democratic society, then why not arrest?


The question should always remain "why arrest" and I submit anyone who is unsure why that is should, themselves, suffer arrest and imprisonment for no less than 3 months to help answer their question.


Sometimes law enforcement has to choose to not enforce a law, so “why not arrest” is just as important of a question as “why arrest” when choosing to enforce a law.


Are you ok with BDS and all other Palestinian human-rights advocacy being nuked off the face of the internet for "anti-Semitism" within moments of handing the anti-"stochastic terrorism" powers to the government ? What about any video of IDF doing anything wrong? Even the recent articles about the killed Palestinian journalist could be used for Nefarious Purposes




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: