Tenn. law bans online images that "cause emotional distress"

[Alyeska]

Ars Technica

A new Tennessee law makes it a crime to "transmit or display an image" online that is likely to "frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress" to someone who sees it. Violations can get you almost a year in jail time or up to $2500 in fines.

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Yeah, that law won't last very long. But I wonder how many people will get dragged through the courts and damaged by it before that happens. The Tennessee legislator should be ashamed for passing such a law. Its a wonder that its not a crime to pull stunts like this.

[UnderAGreySky]

Roger Ebert's Response

Some of those are quite funny.

And America, your fundies never fail to amuse. Or disappoint.

[loomer]

I wonder how many churches have websites based in Tennessee...

It's a pretty bizarre and unenforceable law though, really. Though something makes me suspect it's a money grab - the fine, maybe. For someone not versed in the internet but who knows about the concept of trolls, it'd seem like a goldmine just waiting to be tapped.

[someone_else]

Yeah, porn industry will nuke this law into oblivion within seconds.

[Norade]

They're probably trying to combat cyber-harassment or whatever it's being called now than meaning to cash in on trolls and shut down porn.

Doesn't change the fact that the law is worse than ineffective and a waste of time and money.

[Norade]

You have no evidence whatsoever for that.

Except that we can look at the law and see that it would be so easy to challenge as to be meaningless. Any defense could point to a number of websites that host or link to offensive imagery and in forcing the prosecutor to draw the line it would be shown that anything can offend somebody. Thus the law is a worthless thing that ineffective at best.

Besides what you're talking about is already covered by either threats or unlawful harassment so you don't even have the shadow of a point.

[Norade]

So it essentially defines things that could have already gotten you charged anyway. It's just codifying things that should already exist as cases used as precedent. It's not as bad as I thought, but hardly needed either.

[Norade]

I thought it was going to be an easy challenge if it was for any offensive image online. This is just as hard to challenge as the crime always was, just more codified.