From The Guardian: How to abuse people on Twitter and get away with it http://ow.ly/ge482
The Guardian
10:55 AM - 19 Dec 12 · Details
How to abuse people on Twitter and get away with it
The attorney general has published guidelines to legally acceptable behaviour on social media. Here's our take on how to insult with impunity
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Offensive tweeters of the world, rejoice. The Crown Prosecution Service has issued a 14-page guide to social media prosecutions, and the people of Twitter are free, once again, to offend. As of today, a joke bomb threat will no longer land a user in a two-year legal battle. Drunken tweeters hurling misspelt insults need no longer fear a date with a judge.
Credible violent threats, campaigns of harassment and tweets that breach court orders will still be prosecuted. But being a bit of a dick is squarely back on the table. Here's our guide to being offensive while staying safely on the right side of the law.
Make your threats incredible
Credible threats will still be prosecuted, so go big or go to jail. Avoid plausible phrases such as "I'm physically going to punch you." Instead, try the much less credible: "I'm going to hit you so hard we both get knighthoods." How would that possibly happen? It wouldn't. Granting you total legal immunity.
Harass indiscriminately
Targeted harassment will still land you in court, so if you feel the urge just remember to spray your fire. Don't pick out a victim with a mention. Stick to the vague: "Hey! No one in particular! You're a [INSERT TERM OF VULGAR ABUSE]."
Use your kids
The guidelines state that under-18s will rarely face charges for offensive tweets, so if you do need to hurl some targeted vitriol, try enlisting a minor to be your messenger. Convince a six-year-old to insult your target and the law will be powerless to help them. Just be prepared for them to retaliate by teaching a baby how to do the same to you.
Be nothing more than offensive
For a user to face prosecution, their message must be "more than offensive, shocking or disturbing". So keep it simple, and avoid being topical, interesting or witty as well. Make your motto: that's just offensive.
Alternatively, be cryptic
Prosecutable messages must be "obviously" beyond what is rightly considered tolerable in a diverse society. So disguise your insult in a difficult riddle and you should be fine.
If you've overdone it, back-pedal
Tweeters who swiftly delete their message and apologise are unlikely to find themselves in court, so if you have accidentally tweeted something that's credibly violent, targe
