Social Media and the Criminal Law

The emergence of social media has opened newchannels of mass communication and expression. It ispossible to reach an unlimited audience with the clickof a mouse or the use of a smartphone. However, dueto the anonymity that social media affords, it hasopened new avenues for perpetrators to threaten,intimidate and incite. Social Media and the CriminalLaw makes a cross-jurisdictional assessment as towhether the existing law is adequate for dealing withcriminal conduct committed on social media sites in amanner that is compatible with human rightslegislation and case law. After defining the social medialandscape, it describes and analyses how social mediaexpression is translated into criminal litigation. Sincethere is no “social media law”, the book especiallyassesses how in selected Common and Civil lawjurisdictions laws traditionally governing particulartypes of expressive activity have converged in relationto criminal activity such as threats, hate speech,harassment, bullying, defamation, indecent images ofchildren and terrorism.This book’s main focus is social media expression thatplans and incites crimes, civil unrest and violent publicprotest and how this expression receives constitutionalor human rights protection. Do human rightsinstruments protect people’s messages, tweets, andFacebook posts that encourage an audience to protest?Can social media activity expose the average person tocriminal liability when these protests turn violent? In an age where existing law can be seamlessly applied tonew technologies and means of interaction, this book’scomparative law approach to criminal activity on socialmedia provides a much-needed analysis.