Oh, those deadly blogs

Law prof Eugene Volokh blogs about a U.S. House of Representatives bill proposed by Rep. Linda T. Sanchez and 14 others that could make it a federal felony to use your blog, social media like MySpace and Facebook, or any other web media "To Cause Substantial Emotional Distress Through "Severe, Repeated, and Hostile" Speech."

Here's the relevant text:

Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both....

["Communication"] means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user's choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received; ...

["Electronic means"] means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages.

Jacob Sullum at Reason thinks the proposed law is stupid, too.

It was bad enough that a grandstanding U.S. attorney successfully prosecuted Lori Drew, a Missouri woman who participated in a cruel MySpace prank that apparently precipitated the 2006 suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier, under an anti-hacking law that clearly was not intended for this sort of situation. Now Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and 14 of her colleagues want to make such prosecutions easier through a breathtakingly broad bill that would criminalize a wide range of speech protected by the First Amendment. The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act would make it a felony punishable by up to two years in prison to transmit an electronic communication ("including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages") "with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person...to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior."

Congress Critters are an amazingly stupid lot ...

This idiocy is tailor made for all the wing-nuts out there who are the most prolific purveyors of "Severe, Repeated, and Hostile" Speech to blow a gasket when any other point of view is expressed and accuse the person expressing the 'other' opinion of 'severe, repeated and hostile' speech toward them and their ideals and demand the other person be prosecuted all the while maintaining their 'innocence' as they continue to spew hate and vitriol.

If this proposed 'law' would be applied to those who actually are engaging in Severe, Repeated and Hostile" Speech instead of the way it would be perverted as the sentence before described, it would be a step in the correct direction ... however it wouldn't be and the Haters will continue to spew and others would be silenced - just what the Haters want.